Meiosis

• Meiosis creates four haploid daughter cells and allows introduction of variation by independent segregation and crossing over of homologous chromosomes which both happen in the first division.
• Independent segregation is when chromosomes align at each side of the equator. You could have all paternal on one side with all maternal on the other or a combination of both.
• Crossing over of homologous chromosomes means chromatids become twisted around each other when they line up at opposite sides of the equator. This puts tension on chromatids and causes pairs to break so the broken parts then recombine with the other chromatid.