What explains diversity among people at the genetic level?

• A. Meiosis
• B. Mitosis
• C. Recombination
• D. Binary fission

Answer: (C)

Genetic diversity among people arises from recombination, the reshuffling of genetic material to create new combinations of alleles in reproductive cells. During formation of eggs and sperm, homologous chromosomes exchange segments (crossing over) and pairs orient randomly (independent assortment). These events produce gametes with unique allele combinations, so when sperm fertilizes an egg, the resulting offspring inherit mixes of genes that differ from each other and from their parents. Mitosis creates identical cells and doesn’t generate new allele combinations, while binary fission is a bacterial replication method and doesn’t apply to human genetic variation.