Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 7/27/2007

Question
what is the difference between mittosis and mioses?

Answer
Dear Qaiser,

Mitosis is the type of cell division that occurs when a cell makes identical copies of itself.  A single, large cell divides to produce two genetically identical cells.  This is the type of cell division organisms use for body growth and to repair damage.

Meiosis, also called reduction division, occurs only for reproduction.  During meiosis, a single large cell (a germ cell) divides *twice* to produce four new cells that have exactly half the genetic information of the original cell.  Further processing will result (in most cases) in these new cells becoming either eggs or sperm (at least in animals and plants, but not in all other organisms).

You can see a complete overview of the two cell division processes here:

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004535/mitosis_vs_meiosis.html

and a nice diagram here:

http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/images/darwin04.gif

Hope that helps.

Dana