eli5: what is the difference between meiosis and mitosis?

Question

eli5: what is the difference between meiosis and mitosis?

In: 0

Answer 1

You have 2 variations of every gene in each of your cells. So for each gene you inherited one variant from your mother and the other variant from your father (with dome exceptions).

Mitosis produces cells identical to each other, each with 2 copies of every gene. Meiosis produces cells with all of the genes but only 1 variant of each. Mitosis is how we grow and replace old cells, meiosis is how we produce gametes (sperm and eggs) for sexual reproduction. Because the products of meiosis only have 1 version of all your genes they can combine with someone else’s gametes to produce a cell with 2 variants of all the genes, one variant from each parent.