Could someone please explain independent assortment to me I'm really having trouble understanding it
It's a very simple concept, but hard to explain.
Let’s say you have a cell starting meiosis; homologous pairs (one chromosome from mum, one from dad) are about to separate.
With each chromosome pair, it’s totally random which of the two chromosomes will go into which daughter cell, and the outcome for one homologous pair doesn't influence the outcome for other pairs. Like, a daughter cell might get mum’s chromosome 1, and dad’s chromosome 2 and 3, and mum’s chromosome 4. Or instead it might get mum’s chromosome 1, 2 and 3, and dad’s chromosome 4. There are literally millions of possible combinations of chromosomes, and thus alleles and traits, in each gamete.
So basically, it's random, and it's not like all your kids will get either all of your mum's chromosomes or all of your dad's chromosomes; it's a random mix-up.
If an exam asked what a genotype is, and hence on a SAC, which definition would you use?
Your first definition looks more like a genome definition. My definition: an organism's set of alleles for a particular gene/genes.
We were told to describe the process of Meosis, and for the first stage I said something along the lines of "parent cell splits into 2 daughter cells with a haploid amount of chromosomes" for which our teacher took off a mark for not saying "1/2 the number of chromosomes in daughter cells" instead. Aren't they the same thing? and isn't haploid a more correct application of terminology?
I believe you are correct. Maybe she wanted you to explain what haploid is...? because heaps of people mix up haploid and diploid and don't know what they're saying. Chat with her about it.
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