Question

What is the importance of crossing-over?

Answer 1

Answer:

It increases the likelihood that daughter cells will contain different genetic combinations.

Explanation:

All living cells undergo division which can either be Mitosis or Meiosis. Meiosis is peculiar to the cells of sexually-reproducing organisms. Meiosis is the type of cell division that results in daughter cells (gametes) with a reduced number of chromosomes (by half).

In meiosis, particularly during Prophase I, a unique phenomenon whereby chromosomal segment gets exchanged between the non-sister chromatids of homologous chromosomes occurs. This process is called CROSSING-OVER or RECOMBINATION. This crossing-over increases the chance of genetic diversity among sexually-reproducing organisms i.e. the chance that organisms with different genetic contents from the parents will be produced due to the different/recombined genetic combinations in the gametes produced by meiosis.

Crossing-over is unique to only organisms that undergo meiosis, in which the gametes will get recombined and possess different genetic contents as the parents.

Answer 2

The answer would be b. Crossing over simply creates a higher amount of genetic variation within the daughter cell which is advantageous to sexually reproducing organisms.