Question

A diploid organism has a somatic chromosome number of 16. The centromeres of the 8 homologous pairs are designated as Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg and Hh, with uppercase letters referring to the centromeres of maternal chromosomes and lowercase letters to the centromeres of paternal chromosomes. Each centromere represents one chromosome. Where n = the haploid chromosome number. How many different combinations of centromeres could be produced during meiosis?
a.) 8

b.) 64

c.) 256

d.) 512

e.) 6561

Answer 1

Answer:

Option C, $256$

Explanation:

The diploid number of chromosomes are represented as $2N$.

Here the somatic chromosome number is $16$ which can be represented in the "$2N$" format with N being equal to $8$.

Now, as we know that the total number of chromosomal combination with chromosome number being

$16 \\OR\\2 N(8)$

is equal to

$2^N$

Substituting the given values in above equation, we get -

$2^8\\= 256$

Therefore, total of $256$ different combinations of centro-meres could be produced during meiosis.

Hence, option C is correct