What does Mendel's law of independent assortment state?

Mendel's law of independent assortment states that during the development of reproductive cells, different genes independently separate from one another. This method of sexual reproduction ensures that each trait is transmitted to offspring independently from other traits.

Essentially, the organism creates reproductive cells that have a random mixture of genes from both its mother and its father. Another aspect of independent assortment is the recombination of the DNA among those genes. This process scrambles pieces of the maternal and paternal genes, ensuring that they assort independently. The exception to this rule is for genes that are located very close to one another on the same chromosome.