what is the purpose of meiosis and gamete formation
Things change in mieosis. The purpose of meiosis is to reduce the normal diploid cells (2 copies of each chromosome / cell) to haploid cells, called gametes (1 copy of each chromosome per cell). In humans, these special haploid cells resulting from meiosis are eggs (female) or sperm (male). In yeast cells, they are spores.
Meiosis occurs in specialized cells of the body called germline cells. To appreciate meiosis and gamete formation it is important to first understand two ideas, chromosome sets and homologous chromosomes. Chromosome sets: The 46 chromosomes you have consist of two sets. You are a diploid organism ('di' means two and 'ploid' means sets).