During Mitosis, can the presence or absence of freckles ever sort independently of dimples? What about Meiosis? Explain using the terms linked/unlinked and independent assortment in your answer. Solution Independent assortment is contextually related to the crossing over event that takes place during meiosis, not during mitosis. When a pair of chromosomes bearing two genes which are present very close to each other undergoes meiosis, then during the crossing over event, the chances that the crossing over event occurs in between the two genes is very less; this is called linkage. Therefore, such linked genes do not assort independently. Crossing over does not take place during mitosis. Thus, presence or absence of freckles cannot sort independently of dimples (or any other traits) during mitosis. however, if the genes governing the two traits are not linked, they may assort independently of each other during meiosis..