Meiosis results in how many daughter cells?

• A. Two
• B. Four
• C. Eight
• D. One

Answer: (B)

Meiosis produces four haploid daughter cells from a single diploid parent. This happens because meiosis has two rounds of division after one round of DNA replication: the first division separates homologous chromosomes, and the second division separates sister chromatids. As a result, you end up with four cells, each with half the chromosome number of the original cell. Two daughter cells would come from mitosis, not meiosis; eight would require extra divisions, and one would mean the cell didn’t divide at all.