The main differences between mitosis and meiosis:

• Mitosis has only one round of cell division, while meiosis has two.
• Mitosis only occurs in somatic cells, while meiosis occurs in sex cells.
• Mitosis produces daughter cells that are identical to the parent cell, while meiosis produces haploid/monoploid cells that only have half of the normal number of chromosomes.

The similarities between mitosis and meiosis:

• Both meiosis and mitosis are types of cell division.
• Both meiosis and mitosis produce daughter cells.
• Both meiosis and mitosis have the “PMAT” stages (which stand for Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase and Telophase).

Whilst the process of meiosis bears a number of similarities with the ‘life-cycle’ cell division process of mitosis, it differs in two important respects:

• the chromosomes in meiosis undergo a recombination which shuffles the genes producing a different genetic combination in each gamete, compared with the co-existence of each of the two separate pairs of each chromosome (one received from each parent) in each cell which results from mitosis.
• the outcome of meiosis is four (genetically unique) haploid cells, compared with the two (genetically identical) diploid cells produced from mitosis.

Meiosis uses many of the same mechanisms as mitosis, a type of cell division used by eukaryotes like plants and animals to split one cell into two identical daughter cells.

Because meiosis is a “one-way” process, it cannot be said to engage in a cell cycle as mitosis does. However, the preparatory steps that lead up to meiosis are identical in pattern and name to the interphase of the mitotic cell cycle.

There are four novel steps needed in meiosis that are not present in mitosis. These are:

1. pairing of homologous chromosomes;
2. extensive recombination between homologs;
3. suppression of sister chromatid separation in the first meiotic division;
4. avoiding chromosome replication during the second meiotic division.

Meiosis is distinct from mitosis in that a central feature of meiosis is the alignment of homologous chromosomes followed by recombination between them. The two chromosomes which pair are referred to as non-sister chromosomes, since they did not arise simply from the replication of a parental chromosome. Recombination between non-sister chromosomes at meiosis is known to be a recombinational repair process that can repair double-strand breaks and other types of double-strand damage. In contrast, recombination between sister chromosomes cannot repair double-strand damages arising prior to the replication which produced them. Thus on this view, the adaptive advantage of meiosis is that it facilitates recombinational repair of DNA damages that are otherwise difficult to repair, and that occur as a result of stress, particularly oxidative stress. If left unrepaired, these damages would likely be lethal to gametes and inhibit production of viable progeny.

Mitosis vs Meiosis Venn Diagram

Compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis essay sample