Mitosis and Meiosis at first seem much alike for that they both are forms of cellular reproduction. Moreover, they go through similar stages such as interphase, prophrase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, and cytokenisis. However, despite their similarities, these two processes are much different and have their own specific importance in cell reproduction. Mitosis evolved because it is a process that occurs in somatic cells and allows the division of a cell into two genetically identical daughter cells that are called diploids (2n) and have the total amount of chromosomes. In mitosis, the only difference between an animal cell and a plant cell will be during the cytokenisis stage. In an animal, cells are separated by a cleavage furrow, while they are separated by a cell plate in plant cells. Mitosis evolved within animals and plants to assure growth, cells repair, and the replacement of dead and damaged cells. Also, in plants, mitosis is important because haploids spores produced by meiosis grow into organisms that produce gametes by mitosis. Meiosis produces gametes in the sex cells of organisms, testes and ovaries in animals, and stamen and pistil in plants, and thus allows sexual reproduction. Cells produced by meiosis are called haploid for that they only have half the total amount of chromosomes (n). They will later combine with another haploid to form a diploid zygote (n + n = 2n). The big difference with mitotic cells is that cells produced by meiosis are not genetically identical. Cell differentiation is the process by which a daughter cell becomes different from its parent in appearance, function, or both. This is the reason why, for instance, a human offspring does not exactly look like his parents.
Meiosis is a really important process. The fact that it creates haploid cells permits to maintain the same exact number of chromosomes from generation to generation. If mitosis were the only cell reproduction process, diploid cells would fusion with.
