What is the significance of meiosis?

(i) It maintains a definite and constant number of chromosomes in the organisms.(ii) By crossing over, meiosis provides an opportunity for the exchange of genes and thus, causes genetic variation within the species. The variation serves as raw material in the evolutionary process.(iii) Meiosis has an impact on genetic consequences due to events such as paring of homologous chromosomes, process of crossing over and recombination and segregation of homologous chromosomes.