Can 12 mitotic divisions produce 6000 nuclei?

Question

The following quote is from "Principles of Development" by Tickle & Wolpert: "After fertilization and fusion of the sperm and egg nuclei, the zygote nucleus undergoes a series of rapid mitotic divisions [...] The result after 12 nuclear divisions is a syncytium in which around 6000 nuclei are present in a common cytoplasm"12 divisions (starting from 1 zygote nucleus) should produce no more than 2¹²=4096 nuclei, not 6000. Is this just a simple error in the textbook? Alternatively, is there a biological explanation that makes the 2¹² estimation invalid?

Answer 1

It appears the textbook has their math wrong. You are correct in stating that 12 divisions equals 4096. This holds true for mitosis because for each time mitosis takes place, the original cytoplasm is divided by 2. It sounds like you have a good grasp on Biology. Keep up the good work!