Chapter 9: ActivitiesActivity 9.2 Mistakes in Meiosis |
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Through meiosis, organisms shuffle
their DNA and divide it by half, producing a great diversity of gametes. When one
gamete fuses with another during sexual reproduction, they reconstitute the chromosome
number of the species. But errors sometimes occur, and gametes are produced with too
many or too few chromosomes. A common example of this mistake in the human
population results in Down syndrome, in which an offspring receives an extra copy of
chromosome 21 from one of the parental gametes. In this activity, you’ll see how errors
called nondisjunction occur in meiosis.
Prequiz Chapter 9, Section 9.4, Mistakes in Meiosis |