What number of chromosomes are present in a gamete as compared to that of a parent cell after meiosis?
Meiosis is a reductional cell division. It mainly takes place in the reproductive cell and reduces the chromosome number by half. This process occurs in all sexually reproducing single-celled and multicellular eukaryotes, including animals, plants, and fungi. Meiosis begins with a parent cell that is diploid, which means it has two copies of each chromosome. The parent cell then undergoes one round of DNA replication which is followed by two separate cycles of nuclear division. The process results in four daughter cells that are haploid, which means they contain half the number of chromosomes of the diploid parent cell. So, the correct answer is option D.