Meiosis and Variation - Essay Example

Sexual reproduction plays a significant role in animals. In the process, it creates new offspring essential to the survival and reproduction of the population. The process leads to a combination of unique genomes from different parents (Hultén, 2002). 

The fundamental role of the process is to reduce the chromosome number by half to give rise to haploid gametes. The restoration of the somatic diploid chromosome number occurs in the resulting offspring. The restoration occurs through the fusion of haploid sperm cells and a haploid oocyte at fertilization (Hultén, 2002). Cell division takes place in two ways. These are meiosis I and meiosis II. Each division comprises prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase (Hultén, 2002). In meiosis I, there are key processes that take place.

The processes include the reduction of chromosome number by half, pairing and association of four chromatids of paternal and maternal homologs, and crossing over (Hultén, 2002). In Meiosis II, there is the completion of the process initiated in Meiosis I (Hultén, 2002). At this stage, the two daughter cells produce four products. The potential gametes at this stage contain a combination of variant genes from both parent homologs (Hultén, 2002). The difference is the one that leads to variation in the genetic material of the gamete cells. In conclusion, it is clear meiosis plays a significant role in the variation of sexually reproducing organisms.