Independent assortment
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Independent assortment is a term in genetics for the independent segregation and assortment of chromosomes during sexual reproduction. Independent assortment occurs during meiosis in eukaryotic organisms. (The specific stage is metaphase of meiosis I.) Since the chromosomes separate independently of each other, the gametes can end up with any combination of paternal or maternal chromosomes. In fact, any of the possible combinations of gametes formed from maternal and paternal chromosomes will occur with equal frequency. The number of possible combinations for human cells, with 23 chromosomes, is 2^23 or approximately 8.4 million. The gametes will always end up with the standard 23 chromosomes (barring errors leading to aneuploidy), but the origin of any particular one will be randomly selected from paternal or maternal chromosomes. This contributes to the genetic variability of progeny.
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