The cells in our bodies receive half of their chromosomes from the father and the other half from the mother. So for each pair of homologous chromosomes one will be a paternal chromosome and one will be a maternal chromosome. We have 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes.
(a) How many possible combinations of paternal and maternal chromosomes are there?
(b) What is the probability of getting a gamete (an organism’s reproductive cell) with nine paternal and 14 maternal chromosomes? Assume that any ordered combination is equally likely.