Mitosis And Meiosis - Extremely Dumbed Down

I still really do not get Mitosis and Meisos! (At GCSE Level) could someone please explain the process in the 'dumbest' way possible.

E.g when the chromosomes replicate themselves for division, do all 23 pairs replicate, meaning there are 46 pairs just before splitting?

when the cell is pulled apart, does it end up with two cells with 23 single chromosomes in each cell!

I really don't get this, could someone break this down for me and explain without any fancy language.

Thank you very much

Reply 1

pure_joy

Well, yes the replication means there are 96 chromosomes- because each of the normal 46 chromosomes gets double: from a pair of > < you get a pair of >< ><

when the cell is pulled apart, does it end up with two cells with 23 single chromosomes in each cell!

- that's only true for meiosis- in mitosis each cell ends up exactly the same as the first one, having 46 chromosomes

so mitosis is:

> < then replication - >< >< then the division:
two cells with > < each
I don't know what you need to know at gcse level, but probably learning a bit on how the chromosomes are pulled apart during the division will help you understand it

Reply 2

JamieLewis17

Thats helped me quite a bit actually. The CGP book shows a single chromosome as >< so that was throwing me. Thank you

Reply 3

tetedupet

I never really understood it all either, I just learned it mark-scheme style and hoped it never came up in the exam lol... I suppose I should get around to learning it properly.