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How does the random assortment of chromosomes during meiosis occur?

I am a mathematician, not a biologist, and I am surprised that it is difficult to find an answer to this question online (AI chatbots are also clueless). If I were human or a computer, I would use a random generator (coin flips, dice, pretty sophisticated algorithms in the case of a computer) to perform the random assortment.

How does this work during meiosis? What random generator mechanics are being used? It is not sufficient to say the assortment is random. Randomness needs to be accomplished by a mechanism.

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    $\begingroup$ We don't post duplicates on purpose, and we close them when we find them. If there's something you didn't understand about the answer posted there, could you either leave a comment on the answer to see if the author can help - or you can post a bounty on the question so it receives more attention. You'll be able to place bounties on things when you've sufficient reputation. Alternatively, you could edit to clarify how this is different from that one. $\endgroup$
    – Jiminy Cricket.
    Commented Jun 18 at 20:09
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    $\begingroup$ Would you consider en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion to be a "mechanism"? That's generally what one means when talking about randomness in chemical reactions. It's a bit weird to ask what the mechanism of randomness should be; in most of the physical world, randomness is the "null hypothesis", and the interesting stuff is that which happens not-completely-randomly. So, biologists would study why there are "hot spots" or places where recombination is more common than elsewhere, rather than why it doesn't always happen in the same exact place. $\endgroup$
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Jun 18 at 20:14
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    $\begingroup$ Randomness is hard in computing; it's not hard in the real world. $\endgroup$
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Jun 18 at 20:17
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    $\begingroup$ Quite true, computers generate pseudo-random numbers, the more sophisticated the algorithms, the more random. Electronic engineers use thermodynamics and the behavior of individual electrons in "hot" components to generate actual random numbers. $\endgroup$
    – Jiminy Cricket.
    Commented Jun 18 at 20:21
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    $\begingroup$ Does this answer your question? How random is genetic recombination? $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Jun 18 at 21:36

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God does play dice! And I am not aware that he needs to invoke his powers to ensure that there is a one-in-six chance of throwing a six.

So I don’t accept the unsubstantiated assertion in the question. Is there a mechanism to determine which atom of radioactive carbon-14 in a population is the one that decays? And radioactive decay — a zeroth order process — is surely random.

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  • $\begingroup$ David, I think the question poster would consider carbon-14 decay to be a mechanism, and thus be the answer he is seeking (although probably desiring further explanation about how radioactive decay controls the selection). The fact that our understanding of that quantum process indicates it is not predictable would not be relevant to its being a 'mechanism'. I presume you don't believe it is in fact based on decay but rather believe it is based on the thermodynamic unpredictability of ... $\endgroup$
    – mgkrebbs
    Commented Jun 21 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ (Cont'd)... molecular motions in the cellular environment. I suppose you jumped to a quantum mechanism rather than the actual thermodynamic one is for rhetorical impact since the thermodynamics are predictable in theory (though not in practice), while quantum theory indicates it is simply not predictable. Since the poster considers coin flipping a mechanism (though "theoretically predictable"), he should also consider thermodynamic disorder a mechanism. $\endgroup$
    – mgkrebbs
    Commented Jun 21 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ @mgkrebbs — I had considered discussing this. I would consider throwing dice the end as well as (or rather than) the "mechanism" the poster invokes. Likewise for chromosome segregation. And, though not qualified to say more, I assume randomness in nature is a fundamental consequence of the physics of matter. I would say that randomness needs no justification — it is non-randomness that does. Were the dice loaded? $\endgroup$
    – David
    Commented Jun 21 at 23:07

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