non-disjunction is a pathological event that occurs during the second anaphase in meiosis when sister chromatids are not separated. As a result one of the resulting cells will have 1 extra chromosome and the other will be 1 short. An example of a non-disjunction that can occur in humans is Down syndrome that has a frequency of about 1/1000 people. It is caused by the non-disjunction of the 21st pair of chromosomes.