Question

Again, imagine that your liver, which has a volume of 2 liters, developed from a single embryonic precursor cell with a volume of 1000 μm3, or 1 x 10-12 liters. You previously calculated how many cell division cycles would be required for the precursor cell to produce your mature liver.

What if the control of liver organogenesis were a bit faulty, and the process went exactly 2 cell division cycles beyond this? What then would be the volume of your liver in liters?

I found that the answer to the first question is 41, but I can't figure out the second part.

Answer 1

Answer:

41 cycles

If cell division went 2 cell division cycle beyond the  precursor; we have 43 cycles

The volume would be = 17.59 Litres

Explanation:

From the given information:

The number of cells in the liver that developed from an embryonic precursor is roughly $\dfrac{2}{10^{-12}}= 2\times10^{12}$

The number of cell cycles needed to produce $2\times 10^{12$  cells is:

= $log_2(2\times 10^{12})$

= 40.86

$\simeq$ 41

Thus, nearly 41 cycles of cell division are required to form the mature liver.

Now;

Suppose 2 extra cell division cycles took place;

The total number of cells would be 2⁴³ = 1.759 × 10¹³; &

The volume would be =  1.759 × 10¹³ × 10⁻¹²

The volume would be = 17.59 Litres