Question

What is one major difference between a human skin cell and a human egg cell?
A. Egg cell has twice as many Chromosomes as the skin cell.
B. Egg cell has half as many chromosomes as a skin cell
C. Skin cell has no genetic information in its chromosomes
D. Only the egg cell has a nucleus

Answer 1

Hint: A human skin cell is a type of somatic cell. Human egg cells are the female gamete cells. We know that somatic cells are diploid but gamete cells are not.

Complete answer: Cell is the functional unit of living beings. In most of the living organisms, there are two types of cells, viz. somatic cells and gamete cells.
Somatic cells divide by the mitotic divisions.
Here, the diploid parent cell gives rise to two diploid daughter cells.
The chromosome numbers remain the same (2n to 2n).
Meiosis is a cell division process that divides a diploid parent cell into haploid gametes.
The chromosome number becomes half (2n to n).
Gamete cells have half the number of chromosomes in somatic cells.

So, the correct option is B. Egg cell has half as many chromosomes as skin cells.

Note: Somatic cells are present in most of the body parts and responsible for all the biological pathways, processes, etc. Gamete cells are produced in reproductive organs in order to propagate the genetic information to the subsequent generation.