Meiosis and fertilization alternate in sexual life cycles. Meiosis is a process that produces reproductive cells called gametes. These gametes have half the number of chromosomes as the parent cell. During fertilization, two haploid cells (gametes) fuse to form a diploid zygote. This restores the diploid condition. Sexual life cycles produce genetic variation among offspring. This is because during meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair up and exchange genetic material. This process is called crossing over. The resulting cells are genetically unique because of the random assortment of... Show more Meiosis and fertilization alternate in sexual life cycles. Meiosis is a process that produces reproductive cells called gametes. These gametes have half the number of chromosomes as the parent cell. During fertilization, two haploid cells (gametes) fuse to form a diploid zygote. This restores the diploid condition. Sexual life cycles produce genetic variation among offspring. This is because during meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair up and exchange genetic material. This process is called crossing over. The resulting cells are genetically unique because of the random assortment of paternal and maternal homologs. Show less
Meiosis and fertilization alternate in sexual life cycles.
Meiosis is a process that produces reproductive cells called gametes. These gametes have half the number of chromosomes as the parent cell. During fertilization, two haploid cells (gametes) fuse to form a diploid zygote. This restores the diploid condition. Sexual life cycles produce genetic variation among offspring. This is because during meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair up and exchange genetic material. This process is called crossing over. The resulting cells are genetically unique because of the random assortment of paternal and maternal homologs.
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