Lexico Unisciel english version

Cell division which, with the fertilization, play an essential role in the sexual reproduction, because it creates the gametes. It only take place within the germ cells : it produces haploid gametes from diploid cells. Meiosis consists in two successive divisions of a diploid cell. During the first of these divisions, there is an exchange between the chromatides of the homologous chromosomes : these are the crossing-over. It results in new associations between the alleles of the genes carried by the chromosomes that were involved in these exchanges.