Chapter 11.3, Problem 8SAQ

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The number of chromatids, centromeres and bivalents in a human cell at the end of prophase I.

Introduction:

Meiosis is a type of reductional cell division which results into half the number of chromosomes in four haploid daughter cells each different from their parent cell. In this type of cell division, the chromosomes duplicate and exchange genetic information takes place during meiosis I. The two daughter cells splits their sister chromatid and again undergo the cell division called meiosis II, resulting into four haploid daughter cells.

Meiosis I and II each are subdivided into four stages: Prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.