Topic 6 - Meiosis

Question 1

Where does meiosis take place in animals?

Answer 1

Reproductive organs

Question 2

How will the genetic material in one sperm cell compare to another?

Answer 2

They will be genetically different.

Question 3

How does a fertilised egg divide to produce lots of cells in an embryo? How are they able to form an organism? (2 marks)

Answer 3

Fertilised egg cell reproduces via mitosis to produce two genetically identical cells.
These cells can differentiate into specialised cells to form an organism.

Question 4

Describe the process of meiosis.

Answer 4

The cell duplicates its genetic information forming two armed chromosomes.
The chromosome pairs line up at the centre of the cell.
They are then pulled apart as a nucleus forms around them.
The cell and cytoplasm split down the middle.
The chromosomes are lined up in the middle again and pulled apart by spindles fibres.
They split again to produce four daughter cells.
The daughter cells are genetically different from each other and have half the original number of chromosomes.