Knowee
Questions
Features
Study Tools

Crossing over, random orientation of chromosomes, and random fertilization are mechanisms involved in meiosis and sexual reproduction that generate diversity.

Question

Crossing over, random orientation of chromosomes, and random fertilization are mechanisms involved in meiosis and sexual reproduction that generate diversity.

🧐 Not the exact question you are looking for?Go ask a question

Solution

Sure, here's a step-by-step explanation of how these mechanisms generate diversity:

  1. Crossing Over: This occurs during Prophase I of meiosis. Homologous chromosomes pair up and exchange segments of DNA. This means that the genes from the mother and father can mix, creating new combinations. This is one of the main sources of genetic variation in offspring.

  2. Random Orientation of Chromosomes: This occurs during Metaphase I of meiosis. The way in which the homologous chromosomes line up along the metaphase plate is completely random and independent for each pair. This means that the combination of whether the daughter cells get the mother's or father's chromosome for each homologous pair is random. This random assortment leads to many possible combinations of chromosomes in the gametes, contributing to genetic diversity.

  3. Random Fertilization: This is the process by which one sperm cell fertilizes one egg cell. Because each sperm and egg cell is genetically unique due to crossing over and random orientation, the fertilization process is random as well. This means that any sperm can fertilize any egg, leading to a huge number of possible genetic combinations in the offspring.

In conclusion, these three mechanisms involved in meiosis and sexual reproduction generate genetic diversity by creating new combinations of genes. This diversity is crucial for the survival and evolution of species.

This problem has been solved

Similar Questions

So I have a problem about inheritance. In single meiosis, random assortment can create 4 different genetically gametes or not ?

Verified Answer

Independent assortment of alleles of different genes can be explained by the random alignment of of chromosomes during meiosis I.

The gene shuffling that occurs during meiosis allows two parents to produce genetically diverse offspring.Group startsTrue or False

What is crossing over? Why is crossing over important to genetic diversity?

Which event contributes to genetic variation within a population?Multiple Choicemitosisasexual reproductioncrossing over during meiosiscytokinesis

1/3

Upgrade your grade with Knowee

Get personalized homework help. Review tough concepts in more detail, or go deeper into your topic by exploring other relevant questions.