Independent assortment describes which of the following?

• A. Genes for different traits segregate independently during gamete formation
• B. Genes for the same trait segregate together
• C. Genes are always found on different chromosomes
• D. Crossing over occurs between all genes

Answer: (A)

Independent assortment is the idea that alleles of different genes segregate into gametes independently of one another during meiosis. During meiosis I, homologous chromosome pairs align and separate in a way that the maternal or paternal copy of each gene can be distributed to gametes without being tied to the alleles of other genes. This random distribution creates many possible combinations of alleles in offspring, which is Mendel’s second law in action.

This works best when the genes are on different chromosomes or are far apart on the same chromosome, so recombination can shuffle their alleles. If genes are tightly linked, they tend to be inherited together, which reduces independent assortment. Crossing over can separate linked genes, but it doesn’t guarantee that all gene pairs will rearrange in every meiosis, and it certainly isn’t correct to say that crossing over occurs between all genes.