Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Yesterday I dissected a flower from our broccoli plant do figure how the plant and others like reproduce. Throughout the dissection, I got to see each part of the flower that plays an important role in the production.

In order for the plant to reproduce, it needs to combine male gametophytes (pollen)  with female gametophytes. The photo above is an anther which is the producer of pollen. Meiosis occurs in the anther, which in a flower produces haploid male pollen grains.

In the photo above is part of a carpel, the stigma and style. The carpel is the female part of the flower. The stigma is the roundish tip at the end. The stigma is the location of pollination. It is when a grain of pollen lands on the stigma. The style is the long tube that connects the stigma to the ovary when pollination is over, pollen grains will produce pollen tubes. These grow down the style toward the ovary, where they then release sperm cells

The photo above is a photo of the bottom of the carpel, the ovary. Within the ovary there are small little ovules. The ovary is where the female gametophytes are produced.

 Now that I have covered all of the main components of the flower reproductive system, we can now talk about it happens. The flower is an angiosperm, which mean the reproductive system happens within the flower. It starts when a mature plant produces a flower. The flower now contains all of the things we discussed earlier. It has the male anatomy, the anthers, and the female anatomy, the carpel. The carpel is surrounded by the anthers, which makes a easy transfer of the male. Inside each of the anthers, every cell goes through meiosis which produces four haploid cells, also known as spores. One spore cell is the same as one grain of pollen. Pollen grains make up the entire male gametophytes, and they will keep growing until they are released and transferred to the stigma. Inside of the ovary of the flower, ovules develop into eight nuclei through a series of divisions. These nuclei and their surrounding membrane create the embryo sac. The embryo sac contains a female gamete, or the egg cell. After the pollen tubes enter the stigma, they access the embryo sac When this happens it creates a zygote which is a fertile egg and the process is repeated

Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

My partner, Celi, and I picked a broccoli flower from the garden to examine and dissect. Before dissecting, we read about the reproductive anatomy of the flower. Flowers have both male and female parts, the male parts are called the anthers and the female parts are the stigma, style and ovaries. Below are pictures we took of the flowers reproductive anatomy through a microscope.

 This picture shows the carpel, which contains the stigma and style. The style is the long tube in the middle and the stigma is the green point at the end of that tube. 

This picture shows the anthers. The anthers are the frilly, curly tips to all the long tubes. 

In this picture, the ovaries are seen inside of the style. The ovaries are little beads located at the base of the style.

 This picture just shows the flower before dissection. The flower is from a broccoli plant in our garden.

Flowers are angiosperms, which means that they reproduce within themselves. Each flower contains all the necessary female and male parts to reproduce. As you know, the male parts are called the anthers. The anthers produce and store all of the flower's pollen.The female part of a flower is called the carpel. it is the innermost part of the flower and is home to all of the female reproductive organs. Inside of the carpel is the style, and inside of the base of the style are the ovaries. The ovaries are responsible for producing female gametophytes for the flowers reproduction. The carpel leo contains the stigma, which is located at the tops of the style. The stigma is a sticky ball that is responsible for collecting pollen. Once the female and male parts of the flower have worked together to produce gametophytes and pollen, the pollination process can begin. Pollination is different for every flower, some flowers spread pollen through the wind, while others use animals like bees. Overall, the flower is able to survive and populate with only the anatomy in itself.

Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Today, my lab partner, Morgan, and I dissected a flower from the WGHS Gold Garden. We chose a flower from the broccoli plant. Over the dissection, we got to see each part of the flower and then we learned their functions. Through the following pictures, I will explain and show the anatomy of the flower and their role in reproduction.

This is the whole flower at 20x magnification. Inside you can see the top of the stamen, called the anthers. They hold the pollen, which is the grainy-type thing on the anthers.

This is the anther at 40x magnification. This gives us a better look at the pollen.  Anthers are oval sacs in which meiosis takes place. Meiosis in a flower produces haploid male  pollen grains. The middle picture is a close-up picture of pollen.

This picture shows the style and the stigma, part of the carpel. Carpels are also known as pistils, and they are the female parts of the flower. On the right side of the picture, it shows the stigma, the roundish part at the top with the opening at the top; the style is the stalk. The pollen from the anthers usually lands on the top of the stigma, which is sticky. 

To the left is a 40x magnification of the ovary, at the bottom of the carpel. Below is another picture of the ovary, as well as the ovules from inside the ovary. The ovary is another part of the plant where female gametophytes are produced. Pollen is the male gametophyte.

Now that you understand the basic anatomy and functions of a flower's reproductive organs, it is time to explain the whole process. 

This flower is an angiosperm, which means the reproductive process takes place within the flower. It starts when a mature plant produces flowers. Each of the flowers has the male anatomy, the anthers, and the female anatomy, the carpel. Inside of the anthers, every cell goes through meiosis an this produces 4 haploid spore cells. One spore cell is equivalent to one grain of pollen. Pollen grains make up the entire male gametophytes, and they continue to grow until they are released and are transferred to the stigma. Within the ovary of the flower, ovules develop into eight nuclei through a series of divisions. These nuclei and their surrounding membrane create the embryo sac. The embryo sac contains a female gamete, or the egg cell. After the pollen tubes enter the stigma, they access the embryo sac. This creates a zygote which evolves into a seed. Then the cycle starts over again.  

Who Wants to Live a Million Years: Analysis of a Natural Selection Simulation

1. It took four tries for my species to survive a million years. If my species did not have the needed genes to get through a catastrophic event and could not adapt quickly enough, they would die. I believe this is definitely true for any real species. 
2. The successful phenotypes I chose were long legs, long necks, stripes, fur and fat. These phenotypes showed the widest variety which was necessary since i could not predict what would happen. I knew my species needed to be ready for anything. Long legs and camouflaging stripes allowed the species to run and hide. A long neck helped the species reach fruit high in trees, and the fur and fat kept them warm in cold weather.
3. I do not think that my species would be greatly affected by genetic drift. The species was well rounded enough to be prepared for almost any sudden catastrophic event. 
4. The dominant phenotypes seemed to be fur and long legs. They appeared most commonly, almost always being present. A long neck seemed to be recessive. It randomly appeared even if it was not an original phenotype or had been absent for awhile.
5. A: fat and fur, B: slim with no extra body fat, C: camouflaging stripes and long legs, D: long neck and tall
6. I believe this game would be more realistic if the phenotypes were less predictable. Adding in mutations or harmful phenotypes might enhance the stimulation.

GATTACA Essay

    The question I have chosen to answer is about the symbiotic relationship between Jerome and Vincent, and how it benefits them, what they get out of it, and how this concept defies the rules of biology. Both Vincent and Jerome lack an emotional or physical quality. Jerome being the brawnier of the two, and Vincent the brain. Both men lack the other quality (brawn or brain) and have therefore struggled to accomplish their dreams. Therefore when they become “one person” they create the perfect being.

Vincent has never been especially athletic, while Jerome was a champion swimmer. Unfortunately Jerome became paralyzed from the waist down in a car wreck and has no more use for his remarkable strength, until he gives it to Vincent. Vincent is able to use Jeromes steady heartbeat and perfect genes to disguise his scrawny muscles and weak heart. With his new physical statistics he is able to accomplish his dreams. Jerome is able to feed off of Vincents energy through the experience and get a taste of inspiration and motivation, both being emotional traits he lacked.

Vincent had always been an “in-valid” outsider, and Jerome was now crippled. In other words both men seemed to have no life purpose, until they met each other. Their qualities balanced each other out, they experienced not only success, but also friendship for the first time. This feeling of utter, achievement and fulfilment gave the men more of a purpose in life. For the first time they saw what beauty the world had to offer, they found a spark in life.

The idea that two people can act as one person questions the logic behind biology. The fact that Vincent was able to use Jeromes DNA to disguise as him is quite remarkable. it basically says that your inherited genes don’t matter if you can just find others to use. A person would also be able to easily steal identities with just some DNA. Any biological test could be passed, your hereditary traits would essentially mean nothing.

In conclusion, Jerome and incent are able to complete each other. They physically and emotionally morph into one being. Jerome is able to live out his dream through Vincent, and Vincent can accomplish his thanks to Jerome. Both men give an equal amount and receive an equal amount. They discover both friendship and inspiration.

GATTACA essay

The human spirit – Anyone can overcome great adversity and there is no gene for the human spirit. Consider Vincent’s imperfections and strong will to live and chase after his goals and Jerome’s perfection, lack of desire, addiction, and depression.

In the movie GATTACA humans have added a new norm two their society.  Unnatural selection and genetically modifying humans.  The result, a perfect human being.  No flaws or imperfections, the best of what you could ever reproduce.  however some couples choose natural selection. An example of this happening was a boy name Vincent he was born through in a natural way, but he was born with many flaws. The most obvious was his physical disability. He also had a brother but he was born through unnatural selection and was perfect. Vincent also met a man named Jerome who was the best of the best and he had everything going for him but one thing.

Even in the future there is still discrimination but this time it is down to the genes. People who are born through unnatural selection instantly have more opportunity that natural born people. For example Vincent was a janitor for the longest time and he wasn’t even allowed to get a chance to be interviewed. How ever there is one thing that will truly show which human was the best. Natural born or unnatural born. It is the person’s will to succeed. Because the unnatural born people had everything for them and didn’t have to strive for greatness because they had it since birth they end having no drive. However a person who has had nothing, had to work and claw his way to the top, he is the one who possesses the passion.

A great example of a person who has had everything since birth is Jerome. Jerome is a person who is the spitting image of perfect. Except for four things. His legs no longer worked and the fact that he had no determination, depression and addiction. He was addicted to drinking and smoking and he was extremely depressed. It didn’t matter how smart or athletic he was never going to be the best. He said that “Jerome Morrow was never meant to be one step down on the podium.” The act that he lacked desire meant he was never going to be on the top. So in reality it doesn’t matter if you’re perfect in everything else. You need to have a goal or desire that you must reach.

Vincent was a person who was born with many imperfections, which makes him the exact opposite of Jerome. Vincent had a heart condition, but his biggest setback was the discrimination that was posed against him. How ever this ended up aiding Vincent in the end. What it did was force him to work extra hard to be the best. His strong will to live and never to give up made him a better worker than his brother and Jerome. Vincent never quite and kept striving to be his best.  

So in the end it seemed to appear a person born through genetic modification is almost at a disadvantage towards natural born people. The passion, determination and the will to succeed are the only things that you need to be successful. The human spirit, it decides whether are not a human will succeed in life. Not the human anatomy.

A Matter of Selection

In the Willow Glen Garden we have been growing a species of plant called brassica oleracea. From the time we first planted the seed and when they first sprouted, we could not notice any real differences.  However, now that they have grown almost to adult hood there are quite a bit of differences between them.  Because we have just finished our unit of genetics I can now look at these changes in more depth and understand how they happened.  One of the largest distinctions that I have noticed was the  leaves growing on the plants themselves.  Each family of brassica oleracea has a different sized leaf and shape.

Broccoli: Leaves vary from 20 to 30 cm long and 15 to 20cm wide. With green leaves and light green stem.

Kholrabi:  Leaves vary from 30 to 40 cm long and 15 to 25cm wide. They have purple stems and dark green leaves.

Dino Kale: Leaves vary from 35 to 45 cm long and 8 to 13cm wide. The leaves are always very narrow and dark green with a light green stem.

Green Cabbage: Leaves vary from 25 to 30 cm long and 15 to 20 cm wide. The leaves are dark green with light green stems.

Siberian Kale: Leaves vary from 25 to 30 cm long and 10 to 15 cm long. With dark green leave and purple stems. The leaves are also have ruffled edges.

Purple Cabbage: Leaves very form 15 to 20 cm long and 15 to 22 cm wide. With purple leaves and stem.

The data shows that all of the plants have different sized and shaped leaves.  A dino kale has long skinny leaves, but the cabbage has short wide leaves.  The characteristic that shows that largest range is the size of the plant.  One plant like to broccoli can be up to 3 feet tall where as the cabbage can only reach about one foot.

The reason why all of these plants have such different structures is because of the fact that their genes had to change because they were always having to adapt to their new environment.  Natural variation forms when there is a natural force that is affecting the species enough to make it adapt and change.  Because of this change it is common for more than one population of the same species to form.  Our plants that we are growing are great example of this.  Because natural forces it had to adapt.  However not all of the species went through the same natural force, making different populations with different characteristics.  To adapt the plant went through a number of mutations until one of them benefited the plant.  It can also be considered descent with modification.  Each generation becomes better suited to it's environment.  Another reason why there is such a large variation is because of us.  To make harvesting or anything easier they would use a process called artificial selection.  To produce a desired outcome they would change the plants anatomy. An example of this is the case with cabbage.  Humans had genetically modified it so that the buds would grow closer together. This type of selective breeding is the reason why there are so many species of brassica oleracea. 

Out of all the plants one characteristic that seemed to stay the same was the color of either the stem or the plant's leaves. The all had darker green or light green parts.  An example of this is the broccolis or cabbages that had green stems while the others had different colored stems but green leaves. I believe the reason why the one thing that they did not change was color because it never really had a reason to change. What ever thing that was making the plants adapt, must of not have need the color to adapt as well.

In order for a scientist to get a desired trait from the plant they could use a variety of methods. One could be that they move all of the plants into an environmental biome where it would force the plants to go under numerous mutations. A more modern and scientific way is that scientist could find a desirable trait, and then imbed it into the plant.