Guiding Questions
The Basis of Heredity
- Explain in general terms how traits are transmitted from parents to offspring.
- Distinguish between asexual and sexual reproduction.
The Role of Meiosis in Sexual Life Cycles
- Distinguish between the following pairs of terms:
- somatic cell and gamete
- autosome and sex chromosome
- Explain how haploid and diploid cells differ from each other. State which cells in the human body are diploid and which are haploid.
- Explain why fertilization and meiosis must alternate in all sexual life cycles.
- Distinguish among the three life-cycle patterns characteristic of eukaryotes, and name one organism that displays each pattern.
- List the phases of meiosis I and meiosis II and describe the events characteristic of each phase.
- Recognize the phases of meiosis from diagrams or micrographs.
- Describe the process of synapsis during prophase I and explain how genetic recombination occurs.
- Describe three events that occur during meiosis I but not during mitosis.
Origins of Genetic Variation
- Explain how independent assortment, crossing over, and random fertilization contribute to genetic variation in sexually reproducing organisms.
- Explain why heritable variation is crucial to Darwin ’s theory of evolution by natural selection
