Question

A cell with 80 chromosomes undergoes meiosis. How many chromosomes are found in the daughter cells? How many daughter cells are produced? Are the daughter cells identical to one another or different from one another?

Answer 1

Answer:

Four daughter cells are produced each with 40 chromosomes. The daughter cells would exhibit genetic variations and would not be genetically identical to each other.

Explanation:

Meiosis is a cell division that forms four daughter cells from one parent cell as two sequential division meiosis I and meiosis II do not include any DNA replication between them. Crossing over during prophase-I of meiosis-I includes the exchange of genetic segments and occurs between the homologous chromosomes. It produces new gene combinations in the daughter cells which were otherwise not present in the parent cell.

Since there is no DNA replication between meiosis I and meiosis II, the daughter cells have half the number of the chromosomes compared to the parent cell. This occurs as homologous chromosomes move towards the opposite pole during anaphase I.

Therefore, a parent cell with 80 chromosomes will make a total of 4 daughter cells by meiosis. Each daughter cell would have 40 chromosomes. These daughter cells would have some new gene combinations and would be genetically dissimilar among themselves.