Which process ensures the production of sperm and eggs cells through a cell division that halves the chromosome number?

• A. Mitosis
• B. Cytokinesis
• C. Meiosis
• D. Binary fission

Answer: (C)

Producing sperm and eggs relies on a division that cuts the chromosome number in half, creating haploid cells. This process is meiosis. It involves two consecutive divisions after a single round of DNA replication, producing four haploid gametes from one diploid germ cell. Halving the chromosome number ensures that fertilization, when a sperm and an egg unite, restores the normal diploid chromosome count in the resulting embryo. Meiosis also introduces genetic variation through crossing over and independent assortment during the first division. The other processes don’t accomplish this halving: mitosis preserves the chromosome number to create identical diploid body cells; cytokinesis is just the division of the cytoplasm after division; binary fission is a bacterial replication method and does not produce gametes in eukaryotes.