meiosis
/mʌɪˈəʊsɪs
/noun (plural meioses /mʌɪˈəʊsiːz/) [mass noun]
1 Biology A type of cell division that results in four daughter cells each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell, as in the production of gametes and plant spores: the sporophytes of green algae form spores only by meiosis [count noun]: no recombinants were observed in over 100 meioses...Compare with mitosis.
- In most meioses, every chromosome pair, no matter how small, sustains at least one crossover - a so-called obligate crossover or obligate chiasma.
- They were able to work with 12 meioses (a three-generational family with four grandparents, two parents, and four children) and seven marker loci.
- My personal hope is that students will have some intuitive understanding of meiosis as the physical basis of genetics.
2 another term for litotes.Meiosis, often achieved through a trope of one word, may range from bitter scorn to light derision.
Derivatives
meiotic
/ adjective ...- Males can, therefore, arise spontaneously, as a result of the rare meiotic loss of an X chromosome.
- Subsequently, one of the two mating-type alleles was lost during mitotic or meiotic divisions.
- Several models have been proposed to explain the mechanism responsible for meiotic recombination.
meiotically
- Systematic disruption of meiotically induced genes and analysis of the resulting sporulation phenotypes has uncovered many genes involved in various aspects of sporulation.
- Following selection, haploids produce gametes mitotically and diploids produce gametes meiotically that then enter the random mating pool.
- Triploids are often phenotypically normal plants but are meiotically unstable and therefore transient.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in sense 2): modern Latin, from Greek meiōsis, from meioun 'lessen', from meiōn 'less'. sense 1 dates from the early 20th century.