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what's the minimum no. of different gametes that can in theory be produced by humans?

my text book says 223 but I'm not quite sure how they got to that answer?
Any help would be appreciated
It depends on what you define as a different gamete. I can see where the textbook would get that answer - we humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, one of each from our mother and father. When a gamete cell is produced, it carries either the maternal or the paternal version of each chromosome. Therefore, the permutations that are possible for the assortment of maternal or paternal chromosomes in each gamete is 2^23. At the same time, it's a bit more complicated than that. Before chromosomes are assorted to each gamete, they go through a phase of crossing-over in which chunks of chromosome are exchanged between the maternal and paternal versions of the same chromosomes. As this can happen anywhere on any chromosome, the real number of different gametes that can be produced is virtually infinite. And that's just for one person!

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