Q.Find examples where the four daughter cells from meiosis are equal in size and where they are found unequal in size.

Meiosis converts one diploid cell into four haploid cells, but those four are not always the same size.

• Equal-sized products: In male gamete formation (spermatogenesis), one meiotic cell gives rise to four sperm cells of roughly the same size, each an equal, functional product. The same equal-sharing is seen when a spore-forming diploid cell in plants divides to make four haploid spores of comparable size. …

Meiosis takes a single diploid cell through two successive divisions and ends with four haploid daughter cells. Halving the chromosome number is a fixed outcome — every one of the four cells carries half the chromosome number of the parent. What is not fixed is how the cytoplasm gets divided among those four cells, and this is where size differences appear.

When the four are equal in size

• In the formation of male gametes, one diploid cell divides meiotically and shares its cytoplasm evenly, so the four resulting cells are of comparable size and each matures into a functional sperm.
• In many plants and lower organisms, a diploid cell set aside for spore formation divides by meiosis and produces four haploid spores of roughly equal size, each able to develop on its own.

When the four are unequal in size

• In the formation of the female gamete (the egg), the cytoplasm is deliberately divided in a lopsided way. One of the four cells retains almost all of the cytoplasm and grows into a large egg richly stocked with reserves for the future embryo, while the remaining products stay very small. …

Step 1 — Recall that all four meiotic products are always equal in chromosome content (each haploid) — size is a separate, cytoplasm-related question.

Step 2 — Think about which gamete-forming processes split cytoplasm evenly, e.g. spermatogenesis (sperm formation) and spore formation, where all four products are functional and so stay comparable in size. …