Question

If at the end of meiosis, the 4 daughter cells each having 4 chromosomes, how many chromosomes were in the mother cell?
A. $8$
B. $16$
C. $2$
D. $4$

Answer 1

Cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life. The process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells is called cell division. The cell division is a part of the cell cycle. There are three types of cell division namely binary fission, mitosis and meiosis.

Complete answer:
The cell division is a part of the cell cycle in which the parent cell undergoes distribution of genetic material to form the daughter cells that have the same constituent as the parent cell. Every individual is made up of a cell. On the basis of the number of cells found in an organism, the organisms are classified into unicellular or multicellular.
There are three main types of cell division namely- binary fission, mitosis and meiosis.
Binary fission- This type of cell division takes place in the prokaryotic cells of simple celled organisms such as bacteria, amoeba etc. The binary fission is a phenomenon of asexual reproduction in which the parent cell undergoes division to form two or more daughter cells resembling the parent in its structure.

Mitosis- Mitosis is also known as equational division. The chromosome number remains the same in the daughter cell when formed from the parent cell. This resembles the equal chromosome constitution in both parent and daughter cells.
Meiosis- Meiosis is a kind of cell division in which the chromosome number gets reduced to half so it is also called a reductional division. Meiotic division generally takes place in the sex chromosome.
From the above explanation we can understand that the chromosome numbers get reduced to half in the daughter cells. Since the daughter cells produced from meiotic division has $4$ chromosomes the parent cell will have twice the number of daughter chromosomes. So, the number of chromosomes in the mother cell is 8.

Hence, the correct answer is option (A)

Note: Chromosome is a thread like structure that is found in the nuclear material of the cell. It is tightly held by proteins called histones. Binary fission takes place in prokaryotes whereas meiosis and mitosis takes place in eukaryotes.