Question

Now that you've learned about mitotic and meiotic cell division, you understand that the process of mitosis results in cells that are identical to the parent cell whereas in meiosis, the daughter cells that are produced are genetically different from the parent cell. Meiosis introduces variation into populations of sexually reproducing organisms.
What if humans could reproduce through mitosis instead of using meiosis? What would children look like if parents reproduced using mitosis? Would there be any pitfalls in a population of humans if mitosis were the primary method for reproduction?

Answer 1

Children would look like a clone of their parents the problem with this is the lack of genetic diversity instead of sharing different genes to improve the survivability of the species . Say for example if some kind of disease killed one it could kill all because there is no mutation or that could help the offspring to survive better because they are a copy. Think about a starfish or the Gros Michel banana. No genetic diversity is a bad thing