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?

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).