Genetic recombination

📖 Full definition

During the production of eggs and sperm, chromosomes swap segments with one another ("crossing-over"). This is why siblings, despite sharing the same parents, do not have the same allele combination. Recombination creates near-infinite diversity.

💡 Concrete example

The chance that two children of the same parents are genetically identical (outside identical twins) is less than 1 in 70 trillion.

🔄 Synonyms

crossing-over · genetic shuffling

🔗 See also

• Allele →
• Genotype →
• Heritability →

📰 Articles mentioning this

• Why Don\'t Siblings Always Look Alike? →