Glossary

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Segregation

Separation of hereditary factors during meiotic cell division for the next generation

In meiosis, chromosome pairs are naturally distrubted into daughter cells with only one copy of each chromosome. This makes haploid gametes, such as sperm and egg cells, genetically diverse. Segregation is an important factor that offers genetic diversity needed for conventional plant breeding. Unwanted genes such as marker genes can sometimes be removed from plants by taking advantage of segregation.