The easiest thing to muddle about cell division is the number of divisions: mitosis divides once and yields 2 daughter cells identical to the parent, while meiosis divides twice in a row and yields 4 haploid gametes. The DNA content tells that story best: replication takes 2C to 4C, meiosis I brings it back to 2C, and only meiosis II drops it to 1C. Prophase I holds something mitosis never has: homologous chromosomes pair up and swap segments in crossing over.
The easiest thing to muddle about cell division is the number of divisions: mitosis divides once and yields 2 daughter cells identical to the parent, while meiosis divides twice in a row and yields 4 haploid gametes. The DNA content tells that story best: replication takes 2C to 4C, meiosis I brings it back to 2C, and only meiosis II drops it to 1C. Prophase I holds something mitosis never has: homologous chromosomes pair up and swap segments in crossing over.
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