Question

the metaphase plate is an imaginary plane along which the centromeres of sister chromatids line up during the early stages of mitosis. a condition called failed alignment occurs when a pair of sister chromatids do not line up on this plate. what is the most likely result of failed alignment during mitosis?
o a. one daughter cell will have an extra chromosome, and one will have an absent chromosome.
o b. the daughter cells will each be one half of their expected size.
o c. the daughter cells will each have several chromosomes that the parent cell did not have.
o d. one daughter cell will be functional, and one will be nonfunctional.

Explanation:

During mitosis, sister chromatids are supposed to separate evenly. If there is failed alignment (a type of error in chromosome segregation), one daughter cell will end up with an extra chromosome (because a pair of sister chromatids that should have separated did not separate properly and both went to one cell) and the other daughter cell will be missing that chromosome (since it didn't receive the chromatid that went to the other cell). Option B is incorrect because cell size is not directly related to chromosome alignment in this context. Option C is wrong as daughter cells in mitosis should have the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell (barring such segregation errors which cause a gain or loss of one - not several new chromosomes). Option D is too extreme - non - functionality is not the immediate and most direct result compared to the chromosome number change described in option A.

Answer:

A. One daughter cell will have an extra chromosome, and one will have an absent chromosome.