A sperm cell is most likely the result of which process?

A sperm cell is produced through the process of meiosis, which is a specialized form of cell division that reduces the chromosome number by half to produce gametes—sperm in males and eggs in females. During meiosis, a diploid precursor cell undergoes two rounds of division (meiosis I and meiosis II), resulting in four haploid cells, each genetically distinct from one another. This genetic variation is crucial for sexual reproduction, as the sperm cell must eventually fuse with an egg cell during fertilization to form a diploid zygote.

Meiosis involves specific stages that facilitate the exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes through a process known as crossing over, enhancing genetic diversity in the resulting sperm cells. This is fundamentally different from mitosis, which is a form of cell division that results in two identical daughter cells, maintaining the same chromosome number.

Osmosis is a process related to the movement of water across semipermeable membranes and does not involve cell division or the formation of gametes. Fertilization is the subsequent step after gametes are produced, where the sperm and egg unite, but it does not describe the process that creates sperm cells. Thus, the formation of sperm cells specifically arises from meiosis, making