<P> Cell division is more complex in eukaryotes than in other organisms . Prokaryotic cells such as bacterial cells reproduce by binary fission, a process that includes DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and cytokinesis . Eukaryotic cell division either involves mitosis or a more complex process called meiosis . Mitosis and meiosis are sometimes called the two "nuclear division" processes . Binary fission is similar to eukaryote cell reproduction that involves mitosis . Both lead to the production of two daughter cells with the same number of chromosomes as the parental cell . Meiosis is used for a special cell reproduction process of diploid organisms . It produces four special daughter cells (gametes) which have half the normal cellular amount of DNA . A male and a female gamete can then combine to produce a zygote, a cell which again has the normal amount of chromosomes . </P> <P> The rest of this article is a comparison of the main features of the three types of cell reproduction that either involve binary fission, mitosis, or meiosis . The diagram below depicts the similarities and differences of these three types of cell reproduction . </P> <P> The DNA content of a cell is duplicated at the start of the cell reproduction process . Prior to DNA replication, the DNA content of a cell can be represented as the amount Z (the cell has Z chromosomes). After the DNA replication process, the amount of DNA in the cell is 2Z (multiplication: 2 x Z = 2Z). During Binary fission and mitosis the duplicated DNA content of the reproducing parental cell is separated into two equal halves that are destined to end up in the two daughter cells . The final part of the cell reproduction process is cell division, when daughter cells physically split apart from a parental cell . During meiosis, there are two cell division steps that together produce the four daughter cells . </P> <P> After the completion of binary fission or cell reproduction involving mitosis, each daughter cell has the same amount of DNA (Z) as what the parental cell had before it replicated its DNA . These two types of cell reproduction produced two daughter cells that have the same number of chromosomes as the parental cell . Chromosomes duplicate prior to cell division when forming new skin cells for reproduction . After meiotic cell reproduction the four daughter cells have half the number of chromosomes that the parental cell originally had . This is the haploid amount of DNA, often symbolized as N. Meiosis is used by diploid organisms to produce haploid gametes . In a diploid organism such as the human organism, most cells of the body have the diploid amount of DNA, 2N . Using this notation for counting chromosomes we say that human somatic cells have 46 chromosomes (2N = 46) while human sperm and eggs have 23 chromosomes (N = 23). Humans have 23 distinct types of chromosomes, the 22 autosomes and the special category of sex chromosomes . There are two distinct sex chromosomes, the X chromosome and the Y chromosome . A diploid human cell has 23 chromosomes from that person's father and 23 from the mother . That is, your body has two copies of human chromosome number 2, one from each of your parents . </P>

Relate the number of cells an organism has to the way it reproduces