What are the stages of Meiosis?
Because meiosis is a “one-way” process, it cannot be said to engage in a cell cycle as mitosis does. However, the preparatory steps that lead up to meiosis are identical in pattern and name to the interphase of the mitotic cell cycle. Interphase is divided into three phases: -Growth 1 (G1) phase: Characterized by increase in cell size due to accelerated manufacture of organelles, proteins, and other cellular matter. -Synthesis (S) phase: The genetic material is replicated: each of its chromosomes duplicates. The cell is still diploid, however, because it still contains the same number of centromeres. -Growth 2 (G2) phase: The cell continues to grow. Interphase is immediately followed by meiosis I and meiosis II. Meiosis I consists of segregating the homologous chromosomes from each other, then dividing the tetraploid cell into two diploid cells each containing one of the segregates. Meiosis II consists of decoupling each chromosome’s sister strands (chromatids), segregating the DNA int
