Lily plants sometimes have twice as many chromosomes per cell as their parent plants had. Which of the following explains how this might have happened?
A)The lily's sister chromatids failed to separate during meiosis.
B)The chromosome number of the lily went from 2n to 1n.
C)The lily gametes fused during mitosis.
D)The parent plant lost half of its chromosomes during mitosis.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

During meiosis, the sister chromatids should separate, resulting in each daughter cell having half the number of chromosomes as the parent cell. If the sister chromatids fail to separate, the resulting daughter cells can have twice the number of chromosomes as the parent cell. This is called nondisjunction.

Lily Plants Sometimes Have Twice as Many Chromosomes Per Cell