This work was created by Dr Jamie Love and Creative Commons Licence licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Student's Study Guide for Lesson Four
Meiosis

by Dr Jamie Love Creative Commons Licence 2002 - 2010

"Normal" cells contain ___ full sets of chromosomes and are described as _______.
Abbreviated as __ to remind us that it is a "double" set.
Most of your cells are diploid - they contain two sets of chromosomes. Each set of human chromosomes contains __ chromosomes so most cells in your body have __ chromosomes.

Mature gametes, the sex cells (sperm and egg) have only one __ set of chromosomes. Cells with only one set of chromosomes are called _______. ("Haploeides" is Greek for "______".)
Abbreviated as __ to remind us there's only one set of chromosomes.

______, the number of chromosomes in a cell, is very important in genetics and in understanding genetics, so keep track of the chromosome numbers.
When a diploid cell (2n) undergoes mitosis and cytokinesis it produces ___ diploid cells (each also of __).

Mitosis is often called "____ division" because the genetic material is copied.

(What would happen if gametes were diploid (2n)?)
[________________]

During meiosis and the cytokinesis that follow, one diploid mother cell (2n) makes ____ ______daughter cells and they are all _______ (1n)!

Meiosis is often called "_______ division" because the genetic material is reduced (by ____).

______ reproduction combines the genetic information from two different cells (usually from two different individuals). Each parent contributes a haploid (n) ______ (sex cell).
These two gametes, a female egg and a male sperm, fuse to produce a genetically unique single cell called a _____. The zygote is diploid (2n) it is "half _________" to each parent.

Meiosis reduces the genetic material in half and fertilization creates a ______ individual from the fusion of those two halves of genetic material.

When that individual undergoes meiosis his (or her) sperm (or egg) will ____ be a recreation of its father's sperm or mother's egg. An individual will produce _____ gametes containing a quarter of dad's genes and a ______ of mom's genes for a total of a half-filled gamete (haploid - n). That unique gamete will fuse with another (haploid) gamete from elsewhere and that fusion will create another unique ______ that will grow into a unique individual.

That new individual will be composed of the genetic materials from….

___ of mom's mom

¼ of mom's ___

¼ of ___'s mom

___ of dad's dad

Chromosomes must be distributed in a concise manner to make sure that a full set (__) of chromosomes is in the gametes. So, meiosis

  1. reduces the number of chromosomes from _______ (2n) to _______ (n).
  2. ensures the haploids are a ________ set of chromosomes.
  3. promotes genetic _________ among the products (gametes).
In meiosis the DNA is replicated only ____ (during S phase in interphase) but the nucleus divides _____!

A diploid cell (2n) is composed of a set (n) from both _____ and they can be thought of as pairs of ___________.
The chromosomes from your father are called ________ (and can be abbreviated as "P") and those from your mother are called ________ (abbreviated as "M"). [I remember this as " ____ and ____ ".]

These pairs are called __________ pairs (of chromosomes).
Pairs are _________ in size and appearance. [Except for the "sex chromosomes".]
They carry the same _____ in the same order (________).

The familiar pattern of a two-chromatid chromosome (seen during mitosis) is called a ____. During mitosis dyads line up at the _________ _____ and the division of the dyad (chromosome) during anaphase "creates" the new chromosomes.

When the two homologous pairs are aligned (side by side) we call the pair a ______.
Therefore, a tetrad is composed of two chromosomes - one maternal (__) and one paternal (__).
A tetrad will have two centromeres and four __________ (because it is made from two chromosomes).
Recall that a dyad was a single (__-shaped) chromosome so a tetrad is composed of ___ dyads.

Meiosis is different from mitosis because there are two _________ and the chromosomes line up differently at the two different metaphase plates. (As _______ in the first division and as _____ in the second division.)
We add a I (___) or II (___) to the end of each phase to remind us which division of meiosis we are talking about.

Prophase I looks identical to mitotic prophase but the chromosomes are matched up in homologous _____ and they ____ genetic material between themselves!

In metaphase I (of meiosis I ) _______ are aligned along the metaphase plate!

Notice that the M and P pairs in the tetrad can be aligned to ______ side.

Using a human cell as an example, a mitosis metaphase will show __ dyads (chromosomes) along the metaphase plate but in metaphase I (of meiosis I) the metaphase plate contains 23 _______.

In anaphase I (of meiosis I) each tetrad separates into two _____. The paternal and maternal partners are separated. Anaphase I is the point at which the _________ division occurs!

Notice that each pair is separated in a ______ direction.

After anaphase I comes telophase I and the two newly formed (daughter) nuclei will be _______ (contain n chromosomes). So, after cytokinesis we have two daughter cells that are haploid (and very different from each other - they will be "________ pairs"!).

The second division follows without interphase or S phase so there is no _________ of genetic materials. Both daughter cells enter meiosis II as haploid cells. The centrosomes are __________.

Meiosis II is identical to mitosis except now there will be only ____ as many chromosomes to deal with.
Both of the daughter cells produced from the __________ (which occurred after meiosis I) will go through ______ II together.

In Prophase II the spindle fibers connect to the chromosomes but this time they grab the chromosomes from both _____ (using both kinetochores) and prometaphase II is like prometaphase of _______ (but with half as many ___________).

Metaphase II and anaphase II are _________ to metaphase and anaphase in of mitosis (except there are ____ as many chromosomes).

At metaphase II the chromosomes line up along the metaphase plate (as a string of _____).

At anaphase II the chromosomes are pulled apart into separate chromatids (which are now ___________).

Anaphase II is followed by telophase II at which point the chromosomes are bundled into two (haploid) ______, one at each pole.

Then cytokinesis occurs and the cell divides its two haploid nuclei between the two new _____. The end result is two cells each with a haploid _______.