How much do we have to know about meiosis? :s
Not too much.
Meiosis is a random form of cell division to produces gametes (sex cells: sperm/ova) and hence leads to the inheritance of genes. Meiosis halves the number of original chromosomes
-During meiosis, each chromosome makes a complete copy of itself. The duplicate chromosomes are attached to the originals by the centromeres
-Homologous chromosome pairs line up at the equator of the cell. Crossing over occurs, where sections of chromosome break off and rejoin onto the homologous chromosome
-In the first division of meiosis, homologous chromosome pairs separate into 2 new cells, so that each of the 2 new cells has half of the genetic information of the original, but a duplicate copy of each chromosome.
-In the second division of meiosis, duplicated chromosomes separate to single strands, resulting in 4 sex cells that are haploid
-Genes are located on chromosomes. Therefore they are duplicated, then randomly assorted during meiosis as homologous chromosomes are randomly assorted into haploid gametes
-Each gamete has only one copy of the homologous pair and thus many different combinations are possible
I think that's probably about it...