During mammalian fertilization, two haploid gamete cells fuse to generate a diploid cell called a zygote. Each parent donates a set of chromosomes, yielding offspring that carry both a maternal and a paternal set of chromosomes. Each chromosome within the maternal set has a correlative chromosome within the paternal set that encodes for the same hereditary characteristics. These corresponding chromosomes are called homologous pairs. Diploid mammalian cells have