06-15-01-deactivated20170624 asked:

Could you explain the key differences of mitosis and meiosis?

the-environmentalologist answered:

So the most major key difference is the products. Meiosis creates haploid (half the genetic material as normal cell) while mitosis creates diploid cells. Meiosis is used to create specialized haploid sex cells, while mitosis create copies of the somatic (everything but a sex cell) cells. 

The next big difference is the stages, Meiosis occurs twice. It splits the cell twice in order to split up the DNA to create a haploid genome. Otherwise the stages occur just like in mitosis. 

Here is the stages of mitosis. 

But if you look at this one for meiosis, you seen the DNA separates twice, but only copies once. Youll also notice that male sperm cells, and female egg cells are created slightly differently. In female egg cell only one of the ending 4 cells will become an egg. One cell is arbitrarily selected to be the one to receive a vast majority of the cytoplasm while the others become polar bodies, which are just disposed of later. 

Hope that helps!