Describe the geneticgenealogical relationship between diploi

Describe the genetic/genealogical relationship between diploid parent sporophyte cells and diploid recombinant offspring sporophyte cells

Solution

Alternation of generation occurs in some plants as a part of their life cycle. The haploid gametophyte generation (n number of chromosomes) alternates with diploid sporophyte generation (2n number of chromosomes). Gametophyte means gamete bearing - a multicellular haploid gametophyte produces single celled haploid gametes by mitosis. Mitosis results in identical daughter cells as the parent cell. Two single celled haploid gametes (n) fuse to form a diploid zygote (2n). This unicellular zygote divides mitotically to produce a multicellular diploid sporophyte (2n). On maturity, the sporophyte cell (2n) undergoes meiosis and produces four haploid unicellular spores (n). Meiosis is the process which results in chromosome number reduction and chromosome recombination. The daughter cells produced are different from the parent sporophyte cell. These are haploid recombinant offspring spores. These single celled spores then divide mitotically to produce haploid gametophyte (n) and the cycle continues.