5. Explain how the processes involved in meiosis lead to variation in Essay

5. Explain how the processes involved in meiosis lead to variation in the genetic material of the gamete cells compared to the parent cell - Essay Example The restoration of the somatic diploid chromosome number occurs in the resulting offspring. The restoration occurs through fusion of haploid sperm cell and a haploid oocyte at fertilization (Hultà ©n, 2002). The cell division takes place in two ways. These are meiosis I and meiosis II. Each division comprises of prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase (Hultà ©n, 2002). In meiosis I, there are key processes that take place. The processes include reduction of chromosome number by half, pairing and association of four chromatids of paternal and maternal homologues and crossing over (Hultà ©n, 2002). In Meiosis II, there is completion of the process initiated at Meiosis I (Hultà ©n, 2002). At this stage, the two daughter cells produce four products. The potential gametes at this stage contain a combination of variant genes from both parent homologues (Hultà ©n, 2002). The process leads to variation in the genetic material of the gamete cells compared to the parent cell (Hultà ©n, 2002). As shown through the two processes of meiosis, each chromosome in a gamete cells inherits from both maternal and paternal genetic material (Hultà ©n, 2002). The resultant progeny is hereditarily diverse from parents (Hultà ©n, 2002). The difference is the one that leads to variation in the genetic material of the gamete