Mitosis vs Meiosis

Let's compare two types of cell division, mitosis and meiosis. While mitosis occurs all over the body in somatic cells, meiosis only occurs in the reproductive cells of the gonads in order to form gametes. The original cell in both mitosis and meiosis is diploid. Mitosis consists of one cell division, while meiosis consists of two stages of cell division called meiosis 1 and meiosis 2. Mitosis results in two diploid daughter cells. In contrast, meiosis results in four daughter cells that are haploid gametes. The two daughter cells resulting from mitosis are genetic duplicates of each other and the original cell. But each haploid gamete resulting from meiosis is genetically different from every gamete ever formed.