February 9, 2002 Comparing and Contrasting: There are two types of cellular reproduction, mitosis and meiosis. They have different purposes and processes which they go through, but are the same because they both involve replication of genetic informaiton and the division of a cell.Mitosis is the reproduction and division of any somatic cell to form an identical copy. Its most common purposes are growth and the replacing of dead or damaged cells. Meiosis on the other hand, is the division of a parent sex cell to form gametes for reproduction. In mitosis, a somatic or diploid cell which contains the maximum amount of genetic material, reproduces its genetic material, and then it splits to form two cells, with exactly the same genetic material s the parent cell and each other. In meiosis, a parent sex cell which is diploid, reproduces its genetic material, splits into two new diploid cells, which split again to form 4 haploid or cells which contain only half the amount of the original genetic material. But, these 4 gametes or sex cells do not all have the same genetic material. See, before the original parent sex cell splits its genetic material, crossing over happens. Crossing over is the moving of some genetic material from one loci of a chromosome to another, of a homologous pair. This is what allows genetic variation among the haploids at the end. These are the differences and similarities of mitosis and meiosis. They both divide cells, but in their own unique way, with their own unique purpose....
