Question

What are 2 things that happen in meiosis that add variation to our population?

Answer 1

Okay.

For this question, we can talk about two phases, in Meiosis 1.

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First, let's talk about Prophase 1.

During Prophase 1, the chromosomes from your mom, and the chromosomes from your dad, wrap around one another.
And when they wrap around one another, bits and pieces of their genes get traded, back and forth.

This is called "crossing over."
And it's one of the things that allows variation.

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Next, we go to Metaphase 1.

During Metaphase 1,
the chromosomes from your mom, and the chromosomes from your dad, line up in the middle of the cell.

They line up, so that they can get ready for the spindles to pull them apart. You know about that, right?

Well, during Metaphase 1, the chromosomes from both of your parents line up together, side by side.
And the ORDER in which they line up is totally random.
It's entirely up to chance, where your mom's chromosomes and your dad's chromosomes decide to line up.

We call this "independent assortment."
It's one of Mendel's laws.
And it is another thing that allows for variation.

Answer 2

Thank you so much! This helped majorly!

Answer 3

You're welcome. =)