Mitosis and Meiosis

[E] Mitosis and Meiosis #

Thursday, January 30, 2020 12:57 PM

Mitosis #

Cell division of somatic (body) cells Results in identical pair of cells

Meiosis #

Cell division of gametes (sex cells) Results in 4 daughter cells w/ only half of the genetic information

• Allows for evolution — parents’ genetic info is combined
• (law of) Independent Assortment, recombination, mutation ⇒ variation
  • alleles/traits segregate independently, allowing for new combinations of traits. With the exception of linkage, traits are completely separate

(Meiosis is the biological substrate for the twin-study heritability statistics used in 2-3 genetics.)