So it turns out that meiosis is actually broken down into 2 rounds of cell division. And the first round of cell division is meiosis 1, and the second round of cell division is meiosis 2. And so in the first round of cell division, meiosis 1, it's important to know that it's also sometimes referred to as reductional division. And this is because meiosis 1 will reduce the ploidy of the cells, reducing a diploid cell into 2 haploid cells. And it does this by separating homologous chromosomes from each other. And so you can see once again that in meiosis 1, a diploid or n2 germ cell is going to divide into 2 haploid daughter cells. And so the ploidy has been reduced because we've gone from a diploid cell into 2 haploid cells.

Now, the second round of cell division in meiosis is meiosis 2, which is sometimes referred to as equational division. And that's because meiosis 2 maintains equal ploidy, taking 2 haploid cells and forming 4 haploid cells. So you start with haploid cells and you end with haploid cells. And so that maintains equal ploidy, and that's why it's called equational, equa for equal. And so meiosis 2 maintains equiploidy by separating sister chromatids instead of separating homologous chromosomes. So that's a big difference between meiosis 1 and meiosis 2. And again, because meiosis 2 is equational division, it's going to maintain equal ploidy. So you're going to start with the 2 haploid cells from meiosis 1, and those 2 haploid cells from meiosis 1 are each going to divide to produce a total of 4 genetically diverse still haploid gametes. And so you started with haploid cells and you still end with haploid cells, and that's why it maintains equal ploidy.

And so if we take a look at our image down below, it's another representation of meiosis. And so notice that before meiosis even begins, of course interphase is going to take place with the germ cell which basically takes unreplicated chromosomes and forms replicated chromosomes as we see here. And so this represents the germ cell, the diploid germ cell, that is going to begin meiosis. And again, meiosis is really broken up into 2 rounds of cell division. The first round of cell division is meiosis 1. And so in meiosis 1, it's also referred to as reductional division because it takes a diploid germ cell that is n2 and it divides the diploid germ cell into 2 cells, daughter cells that are haploid or n. And then the second round of cell division is called meiosis 2. And so meiosis 2 is also sometimes referred to as equational division because you start with haploid cells and you also end with cells that are still haploid. And so it turns out that each of these cells is going to undergo meiosis 2, and a cell division to create a total of 4 haploid gametes. And, of course, the gametes are going to be the sex cells, either sperm in males or eggs in females. And so, each of these phases, of these stages of meiosis, meiosis 1 and meiosis 2, consists of multiple phases. And we're going to break down meiosis 1 and meiosis 2 in their own separate videos as we move forward in our course. But for now this here concludes our introduction to meiosis and how meiosis is really broken down into 2 rounds of cell division in meiosis 1 and meiosis 2.

And so we'll be able to get some practice as we move forward in our course, and I'll see you all in our next video.