Strawberries have 56 chromosomes, and are octoploidy (i. e., eight copies of each chromosome). how many total chromosome copies are present during prophase of a strawberry's cell cycle division?

Ans.

Prophase is the first phase of mitotic cell division, during which visible paired chromatids are formed from chromosomes and nuclear envelop starts disappearing. During prophase, cell contains double number of chromosomes as present in a normal cell at rest stage.

This is because, chromosomes get doubled by DNA replication during S-phase that takes place before prophase. At the end of mitosis, two daughter cells are formed, each with half number of chromosomes as present in prophase.

Thus, the number of chromosomes copies in a strawberry cell, during prophase will be 112 (56 X 2 = 112).