Why do meiosis and mitosis occur?

4. Anaphase I: The pair of chromosomes are then pulled apart by the meiotic spindle, which pulls one chromosome to one pole of the cell and the other chromosome to the opposite pole. In meiosis I the sister chromatids stay together. This is different to what happens in mitosis and meiosis II. 5. Telophase I and cytokinesis:. read more

Mitosis takes the genetic information of a parent cell and replicates it in the form of two identical daughter cells. This process occurs in four stages. During Prophase, chromosomes condense in the form of a tight coil as the nuclear membrane breaks down. read more

Crossing over occurs in meiosis to create diversity in the genetic material so the offspring is neither identical to father or mother. in mitosis it does not occur because the parent cell is making an identical copy of itself, so the DNA does not need to vary. read more

Meiosis occurs in diploid cells. The chromosomes duplicate once, and through two successive divisions, four haploid cells are produced, each with half the chromosome number of the parental cell. Meiosis occurs only in sexually reproducing organisms. read more