When determining the number of base pairs in a genome of an organism, do you count the basepairs for both/all chromosomes in a set or just one of the chromosomes per set?

Question

For example, rice has 430 Mbp across 12 chromosomes. Rice is diploid so in total there are 24 chromosomes. Would that mean **on average** there is 430/12 Mbp per set of chromosome? Which would mean there is **an average of 430/24 Mbp per chromosome.

Please explain it like I’m a baby because I’m well confused

Edit:
Or is genome summed based on one chromosome (haploid) set?

In: 2

Answer 1

My teacher in Biology class had this same question during my high school years. He surmised that the reason that chromosomes were always diploid, was that they can only be seen as chromosomes during cell division. Otherwise, they are chromatin scattered within a nucleus of a cell. So, humans have 23 chromosomes, paired just prior to division, but singular, existing as chromatin when functioning as a cell.
Not exactly certain that this answers your question.