Difference Between

Haploid vs Diploid
 

Cell cycle involves events that occur from one cell division to the next cell division. This mainly involves in cell growth and cell division. Prokaryotic cell cycle involves 3 stages. Cell growth is the first step, where the cell doubles in its size. Nuclear division is the next step where the nuclear material divides in to two by simple division. The final step is cell division, in which, the cytoplasm divides and forms two daughter cells. The eukaryotic cell cycle has 5 phases. G1, S, G2, M and C. The first three phases G1, S, and G2 are called interphases. The cell growth and synthesis of cellular materials take place during interphase. M involves nuclear division and C involves cell division. After the cell division, daughter cells are produced. Those cells can be haploid or diploid in eukaryotes.

What are Diploid Cells?

A diploid cell contains two sets of chromosomes of which one is maternal, and the other is paternal. Diploid cells are produced by mitosis. During mitosis the parent nucleus divides into two daughter nuclei. Each daughter nucleus will contain the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus. After the division of the nucleus, the entire cell divides. Since this process needs to take place without any error, all the chromosomes replicate during the interphase. After replication, the two chromosomes are known as chromatids. They separate during mitosis. Diploid cells play a very important role in the genetic stability of diploid organisms. The diploid cells produced by mitosis are genetically identical to the parent cell. In addition, they carry the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell. This way the genetic stability of populations of cells that are derived from the parent cells is ensured. The growth of the body takes place due to continuous increase in the number of diploid cells. This is the basis of growth in all multicellular organisms. Cells are continuously dying, and they need to be replaced. This can be done only by diploid cells. Some animals regenerate their body parts. This is also possible only if diploid cells are produced.

What are Haploid Cells?

A haploid cell contains only one set of chromosomes. Haploid cells are produced by meiosis. During meiosis, the chromosome number is halved from the diploid number to the haploid number. Similar to mitosis, in meiosis also, DNA replication takes place in the parent cell during the interphase. After this, two cycles of nuclear divisions and cell divisions take place. After the entire process, one diploid cell gives rise to four haploid cells. Haploid cells are very important for sexual reproduction. During fertilization, the two nuclei of the two gametes fuse with each other. Since each gamete has only one set of chromosomes, the end resulting zygote will have only two sets of chromosomes. That is the zygote becomes diploid. If the gametes were not haploid cells, the result at the end would be a zygote with four sets of chromosomes.