AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Sexual reproduction has the potential to produce tremendous genetic variation in offspring. This variation is due to independent assortment and crossing-over during meiosis, and random union of gametes during fertilization.

Detailed explanation-2: -Genetic variation is increased by meiosis Because of recombination and independent assortment in meiosis, each gamete contains a different set of DNA. This produces a unique combination of genes in the resulting zygote.

Detailed explanation-3: -Genetic variation can be caused by mutation (which can create entirely new alleles in a population), random mating, random fertilization, and recombination between homologous chromosomes during meiosis (which reshuffles alleles within an organism’s offspring).

Detailed explanation-4: -Explanation: Meiosis, which includes independent assortment of homologous chromosomes and chromosomal crossover, contributes to genetic diversity. Independent assortment of chromosomes is the random distribution of one chromosome per homologous chromosomal pair to each daughter cell during anaphase I.

Detailed explanation-5: -We now know that this independent assortment of genes occurs during meiosis in eukaryotes. Meiosis is a type of cell division that reduces the number of chromosomes in a parent cell by half to produce four reproductive cells called gametes.