What is the process of cell division that creates sex cells called?

The process of cell division that creates sex cells is known as meiosis. This specialized form of cell division reduces the chromosome number by half, resulting in four genetically diverse cells, each with half the number of chromosomes of the original cell. In humans and many other organisms, meiosis is crucial for the production of gametes—sperm in males and eggs in females—which are essential for sexual reproduction.

Meiosis involves two rounds of division (meiosis I and meiosis II) and includes stages like crossing over, where portions of DNA are exchanged between homologous chromosomes. This genetic recombination adds to the diversity of offspring produced during sexual reproduction, as each gamete carries a unique set of genetic information.

In contrast, mitosis is the process of cell division that produces two identical daughter cells for growth and repair, while fertilization refers to the fusion of sperm and egg cells to form a zygote. Binary fission is a method of asexual reproduction primarily seen in prokaryotic organisms, where one cell divides into two identical cells.