Katie Inman Blog Post #7

This is the flower that my partner and I collected from the garden. It is from the brassica family and is a mature flower. Plants reproduce in a similar way that humans do, with male and female reproductive organs. Although not all plants are just male or female, some are both. In this brassica flower, it is both male and female which means it includes both genders gametes.

 These four pictures are showing anthers(yellow) which are connected to the stamen(green). Inside of the anthers are mircosporangium. Microsporangium is a sporangium which gives out spores that then become the male gametophytes. When the plant begins to flower, the microsporangia make microsporocyte, which then splits into 4 more cells through meiosis. Then through mitosis the microspores become pollen grains.  The pollen grains are the male gametophytes and when matured enough they become less attached to the anthers and are ready to continue in fertilizing the the female gametophytes.

 This picture is showing the pistil and at the top is  stigma which is the entrance for the pollen grain to the ovary. When the pollen grain or sperm germinate on the stigma it absorbs water and nutrients, opening a small pollen tube that goes through the style and into the ovary. Once the sperm reaches the ovaries it fertilizes the ovule creating diploid cell with a set of chromosomes from the mother(egg) and father(pollen)

Here we see the eggs or ovules inside the ovary. This is before they are fertilized. When they become fertilized the ovule becomes a zygote. A seed then develops from each ovule. In each seed their is a new sporophyte or embryo covered by a layer of tissues and a supply of food.  Then when the ovary walls become denser and the fruit that comes from the particular plant begins to form around the seed. When given the proper conditions the seed will begin to grow or germinate. It will begin to use photosynthesis once ready and until then it uses the food supply. After this it has completed the circle of life and the process will repeat over and over again

EXTRA: Using a compound microscope my partner and I took a picture of the male gametophytes/sperm/pollen. 

How Does Your Garden Grow? Blog Post #6 Annika Gordon

Our plant uses photosynthesis, cell division, and cellular respiration to grow bigger and add biomass, though it seems to be doing this very slowly. When the chlorophyll in the leaves soaks up sunlight during photosynthesis it helps our plant grow bigger, this happens its entire life. It uses cell division to grow back parts of leafs that may have been eaten, and to grow taller so it can get more sunlight and not be left in the shade by the plants surrounding it. Our plant, though small, still uses cellular respiration to produce sugar, ATP, and carbon dioxide, all things which help its growth progress. If a signal was to be sent to the nucleus of the cells in our plant, PEPC and Rubisco would be produced more. This would happen because they are enzymes and enzymes are proteins which make a reaction speed up. The enzymes in plants are partially responsible for its growth, so by producing more PEPC and Rubisco our plant would grow faster.

Katie Inman blog post #6

1. It was  a little hard trying to find our plant today, due to the rapid growth of the grass in the garden.. Our plant is still one of the smallest and is still being eaten by some time of insect. It helps create more biomass by feeding next level consumers, helping their level grow and produce more. Through the process of photosynthesis, not only our plant but all living things in the garden, continue to transfer sun light into energy so they can grow and increase the biomass on their level. It uses mitosis to duplicate the cells making more and making the plant bigger. Also, it uses cellular respiration to release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.


2. A signal could be sent to the nucleus  to make the enzymes Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase . Then it could make more since they are proteins. part of photosynthesis, involves these enzymes. The plant uses the enzyme to speed up i digesting other parts of the plant.

Blog Post Assignment #6 : Maddie Gong

1. Our plant hasn't grown much since the last time we saw it. But, many other group's plants are growing a lot around ours. The chloroplasts in the plants are taking in sunlight and using energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen. The plants are also creating energy, sugars and other gases through the process of photosynthesis. Cell division also takes place and new duplicate cells are formed in the plants. Similar to photosynthesis, plants undergo cellular respiration and use oxygen and glucose to create carbon dioxide, water and more energy. All of these products help to power the functions of the cell and start all the processes over again.

2. If a signal was sent out to the nucleus of one of our plants to produce more enzymes such as Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase the plant cell would start to make more proteins to end up producing more enzymes. The enzymes in the plant are part of photosynthesis and used to digest parts of the plant. They move all around the cell and help speed up some of the processes. The double helix of the particular part of DNA that coded for the required protein would be unzipped, make a complementary strand to one of the DNA strands and re-zipped by RNA Polymerase. Then, the two processes of transcription and translation occur. First, a ribosome would attach itself when the mRNA travels outside the nucleus. Next, the codons or triplets of RNA nucleotides are read by the ribosome and the twinning amino acid for each of the codons are brought by tRNA. After the last process, translation, all the specified amino acids from the mRNA codons have created a protein, or the enzyme the nucleus commanded.

Whitley Moody Blog Post #6

Our plant is still just about as small as it was the last time we checked it a few weeks ago.  But, I did realize that other plants are growing bigger.  Through photosynthesis the plants are growing new organic matter that is contributing the their total biomass. Cell division also contributes to the growing of the plants. Cells divide in order to help organisms grow and reproduce, so the more the cells divide the faster the plants will grow.
The plants would make the enzymes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase very quickly if a signal was sent to the nucleus because they help with photosynthesis and photosynthesis helps the plants grow.   This would happen because enzymes belong to the protein biomolecule group and proteins are shot quickly around the cell, meaning the growing and producing of those enzymes would go very quickly.

Aja's Seed Story by Annika Gordon

For story of the seed blogpost #5 we had to interview someone on their experience during the project, I choose Aja. When I asked Aja "What have you learned?" She responded with, “I learned that germination is when a seed grows and becomes a sprout.” I then went on to ask what surprised or amazed her the most? She told me “I was actually really surprised about how much the plants had grown because looking at the garden now they are 5 times as big as they were maybe more.” I asked her i anything made her laugh during this experiment and after a bit of thought she old me that that question made her laugh, but she wasn't sure if it was considered part of the project. I went on to ask, what made you pause and think a little deeper and what questions do you have about things you observed or experienced in the garden? she said “how other surgery substances would affect plant growth was something that popped into my head often during this experiment. Would they make the plant grow faster than what we used?” and “I am curious about how competition works in the garden and would like to learn more about this process.” For my last question I asked her what her biggest setback was, and almost immediately she responded with, “most of our plants were very weak or had died from our experiment. The salt caused plants not to sprout and if they did they were very weak. Poor care was also played a huge part in this.”

Aaron Janse's Story

Aaron learned that it's surprisingly easy to grow plants and it's even easier to grow them in a greenhouse. He was really amazed by how fast his plants grew and surprised with how quickly his plant died. He laughed when he saw how large everyone's plants were compared to his. Aaron had to stop and think a little deeper on making a blog and how blogs help you to look back on your experiences. The one question he had about his observations was where his plant went. His biggest setback was consistently watering his plant and the hardest part was keeping all his variables controlled and consistent. Aaron's favorite part about the project was being able to plant it outdoors.