Reassortment
Type of nonhereditary genetic change involving swapping of DNA or RNA
Reassortment is the mixing of the genetic material of a species into new combinations in different individuals. The product of reassortment is called a reassortant. It is particularly used when two similar viruses that are infecting the same cell exchange genetic material. More specifically, it refers to the swapping of entire segments of the genome, which only occurs between viruses with segmented genomes.
(All known viruses with segmented genomes are RNA viruses. When only part of a nucleic acid molecule is changed by swapping, the process is instead known as recombination.)
The public source identifies “Reassortment” as type of nonhereditary genetic change involving swapping of DNA or RNA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Reassortment, Type and nonhereditary.
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This entry incorporates text from “Reassortment” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.