Meiosis And Miosis: The Three Types Of Cell Division

We know that all living things need to make cells to survive. Old cells die and need to be replaced. In order for living things to continue to grow, cells are constantly being made. OpenStax states that the process of new cells being made is called cell division (2013). There are three types of cell division and those are binary fission, mitosis, and meiosis. Binary fission is a quick and simple process involving replication, elongation, separation, and daughter cells. Meiosis and mitosis are more complicated processes of cell division. Mitosis is part of the process used when a cell replicates itself, in its exact form. The cell duplicates perfectly, with the same DNA. During this phase, the chromosomes align, separate, and are moved to the opposite ends of the cell, forming two identical cells (OpenStax, 2013). Within this phase, there are five sub-phases called prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. An example of mitosis would be the regrowth of human skin. All cells undergo a stage where they prepare to duplicate and that is known as the interphase stage. When mitosis is needed, the first phase after interphase is the prophase. During the prophase, the chromosomes of the cell condense. The nuclear (membrane and nucleolus) makeup begins to break down and fibers can be seen coming from the centrosomes. …show more content…
Meiosis is used when the whole organism’s time comes to reproduce. This type of cell division has two divisions, known as Meiosis I and Meiosis II. During Meiosis I, the spindle fibers attach to the kinetochore at the centromeres (OpenStax, 2013). In meiosis, the cell membrane dissolves and the chromosomes separate, which produces four daughter cells. Within this separation, the chromosomes transfer genetic material to each other. This is called crossing over and makes all four daughter cells unique. Meiosis II is when the four daughter cells are formed. OpenStax writes that “meiosis II resembles