How does mitosis and meiosis work in very simple terms? Whats the difference between them?
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Humans and a lot of other organisms are diploid, which means we have 2 copies of each chromosome and each gene on that chromosome.
Mitosis is the most common form of cell division, and it results in each of those chromosomes being duplicated, so each of the 2 cells created still has 2 copies of each chromosome. This is how we produce every cell except for our gametes, our sex cells.
In meiosis the chromosomes are not duplicated, and each of those games only gets a single copy. This way when they merge together as a zygote they have the proper amount of copies to produce a normal functioning organism.
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