Which process leads to the formation of gametes?

The formation of gametes, which are the reproductive cells (sperm in males and eggs in females), occurs through the process of meiosis. Meiosis is a specialized type of cell division that reduces the chromosome number by half, resulting in four genetically distinct daughter cells, each with one set of chromosomes. This reduction is crucial because it ensures that when gametes fuse during fertilization, the resulting zygote has the correct diploid number of chromosomes.

Meiosis consists of two consecutive rounds of division, known as meiosis I and meiosis II. During these phases, a diploid cell undergoes DNA replication followed by two divisions, leading to the production of haploid cells that are genetically diverse due to processes such as crossing over and independent assortment.

In contrast, mitosis is a process of cell division that results in two identical diploid daughter cells, which is not suitable for gamete formation. Binary fission is a form of asexual reproduction typically observed in prokaryotic organisms and does not apply to gamete formation in multicellular organisms. Transcription, on the other hand, is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA template and is not related to cell division or gamete formation.

Thus, meiosis is uniquely