Types Of Cells Produced By Meiosis
Meiosis is a process whereby cells divide for reproduction and there are various types of cells produced by meiosis around us. Cells produced via meiosis are known as gametes while others call them spores. There are certain types of cells produced by meiosis in animals and plants, too. The process begins with one, what is known as, diploid cell with copies of chromosomes from the mother and the father, both.
Human beings are known to consist of 46 chromosomes, unless they may be suffering from disease, and 23 of these come from the father while the other 23 come from the mother. When speaking of the types of cells produced by meiosis one would say that the process produces haploid cells-cells where half of the traits come from one parent and the other half comes from the second parent. These consist of half the chromosomes as the diploid cells. Basically speaking meiosis occurs in organisms and creatures that need to sexually interact or copulate in order to reproduce. This is also why these cells are known as sex cells- the cells are produced as a result of the process of copulation and are associated with the process too.
What happens is that the sperm cell enters the female’s body via copulation and fertilizes the egg which is also referred to as the ova. The sperm cell comes from the father while the ova, naturally, comes from the mother. As a result a diploid cell is created which consists of chromosome from both parents and because of this the fetus consists of physical (and other) traits from both parents. If you compare the types of cells produced by meiosis with the types of cells produced by mitosis you will find that the difference is that in the former case, the process leads to the production of 4 haploid cells which forms half the DNA but in the latter case two diploid cells are produced as a consequence of the process. In mitosis the cells split themselves and consist of the same number of chromosomes as the parent cells do. So they tend to be identical to the parents in every way. Think of mitosis in terms of cloning- both, the clone and the parent, has identical features and neither differs from the other. They
look the same, grow the same and consist of the same traits, capabilities, diseases and such like.
Plants copulate as well and it is because of meiosis in plants that flowers come to exists. So, as you can see, different types of cells produced by meiosis exist in the animal and the plant world. The process in both cases involves copulation and the creation of haploid cells which combine to become diploid cells that consist of chromosomes from both parents.
In some types of cells produced by meiosis in human beings an extra chromosome may come to be which would mean that the child would, most definitely, suffer from Down’s Syndrome as a result of the existence of this chromosome (47 instead of 46 chromosomes).
