Meiosis & Mitosis...help!

[peanut273]

ok...

I'm a 20 year old Forensic student finding it really hard to grasp the concept of the both of these. I get them confused.

Does anyone know a way I can know the differences between them without getting them muddled up??

[wildwood]

Mitosis is the process where a cell replicates itself.
Meiosis is a bit more involved and involves sex:-) I am putting my head on the line here as I am not sure, but think that this is the process where the chromosomes are pulled apart and joined with another (haploid cells) so that Mum's and Dad's contribution is present in each cell and determines the sex of the organism. This only occurs once and forms the initial gamete which develops into an embryo.

Looking forward to getting a dunce cap or pass from the prof.

[gen2]

Almost spot on wildwood Please allow me to clarify that for peanut.

Mitosis
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Cell division of normal body cells.
Initial state = paired chromosomes (Diploid)
Final state = paired chromosomes (Diploid)
Mitosis therefore makes exact copies of the original cell and takes place throughout an organism.

Meiosos
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Cell division of a normal cell into sex cells (gametes)
Initial state = paired chromosomes (Diploid)
Final state = unpaired chromosomes (Haploid)
But it is not as simple as separating the existing pairs of chromosomes because out of each pair, one came from the male parent and the other from the female. If these were passed on 'en bloc', then natural variation would be greatly reduced.
What happens is that before the pairs of chromosomes separate, short lengths of each pair are exchanged so that each chromosome ends up carrying some genes from the father and some from the mother.
Meiosis only takes place in specialised organs within an organism's body.