Significance of Mitosis

Because mitosis is an equational division, its most fundamental effect is that the chromosome number of a cell is kept exactly constant from one generation of cells to the next. It ensures that the nuclear and cytoplasmic contents are shared equally between the two daughter cells, both in quantity and in quality — including the hereditary material (DNA), which is distributed equally as well. This is what allows mitosis to underpin the growth and development of an organism, since new cells produced this way are true copies of the cells that made them. …