Written by Merel Dagher (PEACE Advisor)
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The correct answer is a. Both of these processes involve cell division; however mitosis is purely asexual, whereas meiosis is sexual reproduction. During mitosis, a parent cell makes two identical sister cells; the ploidy (or sets of chromosomes) does not change in this process. During meiosis, the ploidy is halved due to two separate divisions – first, separating the homologous chromosomes, then separating the sister chromatids. Meiosis allows for recombination, and thereby creates genetic diversity, because of the homologous chromosomes lining up from either parent cell.