Answer:
okay :)
Explanation:
There are 2 types of cells in our bodies. There are your somatic cells, which basically is any cell that isn't from the ovaries or the testis. And there are the sex cells, ova and sperms.
<h3>
MITOSIS </h3>
Let's take an example for our somatic cells as skin cells. Your skin cells are shed throughout the day and they need to divide to get replaced. This is the job of mitosis (try to remember it by the 't' in somatic and that in mitosis). The daughter cells produced (we call them daughter cells for no reason), are going to be genetically identical to their parent cells. What do I mean by genetically identical? They'll have the same DNA.
Before mitosis can happen, your cells prepare by replicating their DNA. Then through a series of steps, I'll get two identical daughter cells.
Now how many chromosomes will the daughter cells have? 46. Just like their parents. We call those kind of cells in our body, with 46 chromosomes, as diploid cells.
<h3>MEIOSIS</h3>
This happens in the sex cells, to make ova and sperms.
Let's think about it this way, why is it that siblings are never identical even though they're from the same parents? It's because the father will keep producing genetically different sperms and the mother genetically different ova.
What do I mean by genetically different? It means that their DNA gets shuffled to keep forming new combinations. This causes variation among organisms.
Now the trick here is that the cell is going to give me four daughter cells instead of two. How?!
Okay. So let's say I have a parent cell that has replicated it's DNA in preparation for meiosis, so instead of having 46 chromosomes it has now 92.
It divides the 92 among 2 cells such that each daughter cell has 46 chromosomes. This is exactly what happens in mitosis. But what makes meiosis different is that the daughter cells with the 46 chromosomes will divide, again, each giving me 2 more daughter cells, each with 23 chromosomes.
So I end up with 4 daughter cells with 23 chromosomes each. Those kind of cells are called haploid cells. The only haploid cells in our body are our sex cells.
Now, why do my sex cells have to be haploid? Because if a sperm with 23 chromosomes fertilises and ovum with 23 chromosomes, I'll get a zygote with 46 chromosomes. 46 chromosomes is what makes humans humans.
