Question

a student views a diagram of mitosis as shown below. which explanation can the student form to describe how mitosis contributes to maintaining genetic continuity? a. mitosis increases genetic variation through the recombination of alleles. b. mitosis causes alleles to independently assort from each other during division. c. mitosis prevents mutations from occurring during replication of the genetic information. d. mitosis produces daughter cells with the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell.

Explanation:

Mitosis is a type of cell - division that results in two daughter cells having the same genetic content as the parent cell. This is because the chromosomes are replicated and then evenly distributed to the daughter cells. Genetic continuity is maintained as the daughter cells have the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell. Option A is incorrect as mitosis does not increase genetic variation through allele recombination (that occurs in meiosis). Option B is incorrect as independent assortment of alleles also occurs in meiosis. Option C is incorrect as mitosis does not prevent mutations during genetic information replication.

Answer:

D. Mitosis produces daughter cells with the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell.