Meiosis

The term meiosis was coined by J. B. Farmer in 1905. Unlike mitosis, meiosis occurs only in specialised reproductive cells — called meiocytes — during the formation of gametes (or spores). Through this division, the chromosome number of the resulting cells is reduced to exactly half of what it was in the parent cell, which is why meiosis is also known as reductional division. A single diploid meiocyte, dividing by meiosis, ultimately produces four haploid daughter cells. This is achieved not in one division but in two successive divisions: the first meiotic division (also called the heterotypic divis …