Question

Given that the commercial strawberry is an octoploid organism (8n), how many copies of each gene is present in one of the somatic cells? How many copies are present in a gamete cell?

Answer 1

Answer:

1. 8 copies of each gene in somatic cells

2. 4 copies of each gene in gametes

Explanation:

According to the question, strawberry is an octoploid organism (8n). This means that it contains 8 sets of chromosomes in its genome. If it contains 8 copies of each chromosome, then it also contains 8 copies of each gene in its body or somatic cell (4 copies from each parent).

However, it will produce gametes or reproductive cells via meiosis. Meiosis is a kind of cell division that reduces the chromosomal number by half. Hence, an octoploid strawberry (8n) with 8 copies of genes will undergo meiosis to produce gametes that have 4 copies of each chromosome and hence, four copies of each gene i.e. 4n (tetraploid).