Figure 2.

Schematic representation for the formation of new gametes in a tetraploid individual. Process flow is from left to right, represented by the black arrow on top of the image. First, chromosomes are paired, forming bivalents, after which the linear sequence for meiotic recombination is randomly placed along the chromosome length (recombination point). The nucleotides (represented by integer numbers in the zoomed region) are then swapped between sequences, which represents crossing over. A gamete is formed by randomly selecting one of the two available bivalents (chromosome colours are preserved in the figure), which is then submitted to a mutation rate per nucleotide μ (schematically drawn in the lower right corner of the figure). The paired gametes produced by two different organisms are then joined and form the genome of the offspring.