LIFE 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Nuclear Membrane, Heterochromatin, Sister Chromatids
Document Summary
A single starting cell can produce four gametes. Meiosis and fertilization together constitute a cycle of reproduction. The most obvious distinction between meiosis and mitosis is that meiosis involves two divisions with no replication of dna. Without dna replication, the process converts these cells into ones with a single copy of each chromosome. In each round of division, cells go through four stages: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase. Two sets of chromosomes are present in the somatic cells of adults making them diploid cells. Only one set is present in the gametes, which are haploid. Many types of algae, for example, spend the majority of their life cycle in a haploid state. The single diploid zygote undergoes mitosis to give rise to all of the cells in the adult body they are the cells that will eventually undergo meiosis to produce gametes.