What is the end result of meiosis?

The end result of meiosis is the formation of four haploid gametes. Meiosis is a specialized type of cell division that occurs in sexually reproducing organisms, and its primary purpose is to produce gametes—sperm in males and eggs in females.

During meiosis, a diploid parent cell undergoes two rounds of division: meiosis I and meiosis II. In meiosis I, homologous chromosomes are separated, leading to two cells, each with half the number of chromosomes (haploid). In meiosis II, the sister chromatids are separated, resulting in four genetically distinct haploid cells. These gametes have half the chromosome number of the original diploid cell, making them ready to combine during fertilization, restoring the diploid state in the new organism.

This process is crucial for maintaining the chromosome number across generations and contributes to genetic diversity due to independent assortment and crossing over during meiosis.