When producing our germ cells—egg and sperm—a special feature is required in the cell division process: Since male and female germ cells fuse during fertilization, the chromosome set of our genetic material, which is normally present in duplicate, must first be halved. Otherwise, the chromosomes would double with each fertilization, resulting in serious consequences for the embryo. This particular form of cell division in germ cells is called maturation division or meiosis and takes place in two steps, meiosis I and meiosis II, in which the chromosome set is halved according to a specific pattern.
Click here for original story, Study elucidates molecular mechanism that controls a critical step in the meiotic division of egg cells
Source: Phys.org