What is mitotic recombination?

Question

What is mitotic recombination and how can this occur?

Answer 1

The definition of mitotic recombination is similar to that of meiotic recombination: mitotic recombination is any mitotic process that generates a diploid daughter cell with a combination of alleles different from that in the diploid parental cell. While it is not reported as often, this may be in large part because it is usually not detected.
Crossing-over can occur between homologous chromosomes during mitosis, but is very rare because the chromosomes do not normally pair. When it occurs it can lead to new combinations of previously linked genes. Although infrequent, mitotic recombination has been utilized for genetic analysis in Aspergillus and in studies on developmental compartments in Drosophila where the frequency of mitotic recombination can be increased by X-irradiation.

Answer 2

Mitotic recombination is an error that occurs during mitosis (compared to crossing-over which occurs during meisis). It is very rare in sexually reproducing organisms and can lead to mosaic patches of cells/tissues in a heterozygote gene.

Answer 3

I think you might be referring to "crossing over", when chromosomes trade genes when lined up in metaphase I of meiosis. This allows for an infinite combination of differently coded gametes.