Question

The life cycle of humans is illustrated below.


CNX OpenStax. “Figure 11 02 01”. May 2016. CC BY 4.0. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Figure_11_02_01.jpg

Before humans reproduce, their gametes undergo meiosis. What would most likely occur if gametes did not undergo meiosis before fertilization?
The zygote would be genetically identical to the parents.
The zygote would be genetically unique from the parents.
The zygote would have half the amount of chromosomes it should.
The zygote would have double the amount of chromosomes it should.

Answers

GPT-4o mini
If gametes did not undergo meiosis before fertilization, the most likely outcome would be:

**The zygote would have double the amount of chromosomes it should.**

Meiosis is the process that reduces the chromosome number by half to produce gametes (sperm and egg), so if gametes are produced without meiosis, they would contain the full set of chromosomes. When these gametes fuse during fertilization, the resulting zygote would have twice the normal number of chromosomes, leading to the zygote having a diploid number that is not typical for the species.