Mitosis and meiosis are two different forms of reproduction in eukaryotic cells. These two processes are similar in some aspects and different in others. Both result in the creation of new cells, but by different methods. Mitosis is a type of asexual reproduction, while meiosis is a type of sexual reproduction. Both of these processes are vital for the survival of cells and organisms. Mitosis is defined as a process of nuclear division in eukaryotic cells in which two daughter cells genetically identical to the parent cell are formed. It preserves the number of chromosomes by giving an equal amount of replicated chromosomes to each of the daughter nuclei. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The general purpose of mitosis is asexual reproduction, growth and cellular regeneration in somatic cells or cells of the body. Mitosis is broken down into five stages: prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. In prophase, the tightly coiled chromatin condenses into chromosomes, the mitotic spindle begins to form, and the nucleolus disappears, with the nucleus remaining intact. Next, prometaphase will occur, during which fragments of the nuclear envelope and spindle microtubules attach to the kinetochores of the chromosomes. In metaphase, the mitotic spindle completes its formation and the chromosomes, attached to the microtubules at the kinetochores, will align at the metaphase plate. Anaphase consists of the separation of the chromatids of each chromosome and the movement of daughter chromosomes towards opposite poles of the cell. The mitotic phase ends with telophase, where two daughter nuclei are formed. Cytokinesis generally overlaps with late telophase. Mitosis ends with the birth of two diploid daughter cells genetically identical to their parent cell. The genetic material of the daughter cells remains constant, so there is no genetic variation during mitosis. On the other hand, meiosis is defined as a modified type of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms. This involves two rounds of cell division but only one round of DNA replication. The cells end up having half the number of chromosomes as the original cell. The purpose of meiosis is to ensure genetic diversity through sexual reproduction and to ensure that organisms that reproduce through sexual reproduction contain the correct number of chromosomes. Chromosomal reduction takes place in eukaryotic cells, such as plants, animals and fungi, and leads to the production of sex cells, or gametes. Without the reduction in chromosome number, the fusion of two gametes during fertilization would result in offspring with twice the necessary number of chromosomes. Meiosis consists of two subdivisions - meiosis I and meiosis II - in contrast to the single stage of mitosis. Meiosis I focuses on the reduction of chromosomes, changing from a diploid cell to a haploid cell, while meiosis II focuses on the separation of sister chromatids. . Meiosis I begins with prophase I, which itself contains five stages: leptotene, zygotene, pachytene, diplotene and diakinesis. This phase includes condensation of chromatin into chromosomes, breakdown of the nuclear envelope, synapsis of chromosomes in each homologous pair, and crossover between these synapsed chromosomes. Crossing produces recombinant chromosomes, which contain combined genes inherited from each parent. Metaphase I continues with random alignment of tetrads.