Bio Q.

[studlyguy87]

"In an organism, a somatic cell has 12 chromosomes. The diploid number of chromosomes in a regular cell of this organism would be"

A.6
B.12
C.24
D.N
E.2N


The question doesn't specify ploidy of a somatic cell in the organism. So I am thinking that there is no answer. Am I correct??

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[9000]

A somatic cell is a non-sex cell. Therefore,it contains the full set of chromosomes for that particular organism. Somatic cells with paired chromosomes are diploid. Since, you are beginning with 12 somatic chromosomes the diploid number would be 6.

 

[kov82]

I don't fully know what I'm talking about lol, the other responder sounds pretty confident but I would guess 12 is the answer? maybe 24, but 6 sounds like the haploid number to me, I'm actually curious to know the answer, but I would have said 12 since somatic cells are non sex ("regular") cells.

 

[mathcod]

lol kov82. ura dummy.

jkjk, yea i'd agree with you and say 12.

 

[jj816]

B.12) bcuz somatic cells have diploid # of chromosomes. Its haploid would be 6 (in sex cells) but ya they pretty much gave you the answer in the question

 

[MatthewLeeDDS]

This question is basically seeing if you know the definition of a somatic cell, which IS a 'regular cell'. For regular cells (somatic), they always have diploid chromosomes anyway, so if it has 12, then thats the diploid number. Sex-cells are the ones that can vary.

So the chromosomes would look like this in that cell:

1|1 2|2 3|3 4|4 5|5 6|6

each one has a double of itself, mom and dad, in a somatic cell.

 

[studlyguy87]

Shouldn't the answer depend on the ploidy of the organism we are dealing with? I could see why the diploid number is 12 for somatic cells of diploid organisms, but that would certainly not be the case if the organism was, for instance, 4N. From my understanding not every organism has diploid somatic cells.

 

[BaylorDDS]

Yeah, i agree with you that the ploidy matters. A plant can be 8N in a somatic cell. But why wouldn't the answer just be E (2N)??

 

[joonkimdds]

if diploid is the answer, then shouldn't both 2N and 12 be the answer?

 

[pbure9]

if diploid is the answer, then shouldn't both 2N and 12 be the answer?

maybe because 12 is just the more specific answer than 2N? i'd go with 12 here. studly, was B an answer to that?

 

[alanan84]

Yeah, i agree with you that the ploidy matters. A plant can be 8N in a somatic cell. But why wouldn't the answer just be E (2N)??

I agree, I think it's E. They may be trying to trick you into going with 12 as the answer. Regardless, this is not a likely question on the DAT due to it's ambiguity.

 

[studlyguy87]

BTW, the correct answer to this poorly formulated question is B.

 

[THINKOFMYFUTURE]

12; question asks for "number of chromosomes".
6 would be number of chromosomes in a germ cell of that organism.

 

[cyrano]

Yeah, i agree with you that the ploidy matters. A plant can be 8N in a somatic cell. But why wouldn't the answer just be E (2N)??

I think 2N would just mean that it was diploid and it's not really asking if it's diploid. The question just wants to know how many chromosomes there are which is B) 12. Also, something could be 4N but then it would be tetraploid or something.

 

[BaylorDDS]

I think 2N would just mean that it was diploid and it's not really asking if it's diploid. The question just wants to know how many chromosomes there are which is B) 12. Also, something could be 4N but then it would be tetraploid or something.

Yeah, I think the answer is suppose to be B, but the poster or test worded it incorrectly. But from the question posted I thought the best answer was E because the question states "has 12 chromosomes," it doesn't say that the organism is diploid. So if the organism has 12 chromosomes in a somatic cell and is tetraploid, then the answer isn't B. Basically I think the question is flawed and there is no correct answer.

 

[hl11]

since the Q asks for number, i would also go for 12-(B). 2N is just telling us it is a diploid.