meiosis - possible chromosome combinations following meiosis

there are two equations to work out combinations of homologous pairs: 2^n and (2^n)^2.
how do you know which one to use?
any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you

Reply 1

BankaiGintoki

Original post by miac0328

there are two equations to work out combinations of homologous pairs: 2^n and (2^n)^2.
how do you know which one to use?
any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you

For number of chromosome combinations from meiosis in gamete, is 2^n, where n = number of homologous pairs. For humans is 23. So 2^n is chromosome combination in 1 gamete.
A zygote is the fusion of 2 gametes. The chromosome combinations of a zygote from 2 parents is (2^n)^2.
Effectively, 1 gamete (2^n) * 1 gamete (2^n), means 2^46 number of chromosome combinations from 2 parents.