Blog Post 10: Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Blog Post 10:
 For this blog post, we were asked to dissect a flower from our garden and dissect it. Beforehand, We read about the reproductive anatomy of a flower. The male parts of the flower are called anthers, and the female parts are called ovaries, styles, and stigmas. We were asked to look at the different parts of the flower under a microscope and this is what we found. 

                          This image shows the carpel. The carpel contains the          

       style and the stigma. The stigma is the green round tip of 

       the center tube, and the center tube is the style.

          The curly long outer tubes are the anthers.The anthers are          where the pollen is produced.

        These pods or capsules are  inside of the 'ovary'. The ovary is at the bottom of the style, and these hold the fertile female cells.

              This is the flower before we dissected it. It is a broccoli flower. 

        We took a few pieces of pollen from the anthers and looked at it under a microscope. This is the pollen at 40x.
      Flowers reproduce within themselves, which means they are angiosperms. Each flower contains all the necessary female and male parts to reproduce. The anthers are the male parts, and they produce and store the flowers 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. Pollination begins once the female and male parts have worked together to produce gametophytes and pollen.There are many types of pollination, such as pollen being spread thru the wind, and for others pollen can be spread by animals such as bees. Overall, the flower is able to thrive with only the anatomy in itself.

Student Blog Post Assignment #10: Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Blog Post Assignment #10

Here are the various reproductive parts of the Brassica Oleracea broccoli flower:

This is the flower before dissection.

This is a picture of anthers around the carpel of a Brassica Oleracea flower. Together they form the idolized

beauty of this flower, combining to produce and iconic and powerful subject of life. Here is the heart of the plants

reproductive system.

This is the stamen, the make reproductive part of the flower. The thin, mostly transparent stalk is the filament, and 

the cap at its top is the anther. This section produces the plants pollen, containing the male gametes.

This is the female part of a flower, known as the carpel. The carpel has two parts: a thin stalk called the style and

a sticky rounded tip called the stigma. The stigma is where male pollen grains are collected.

This is a cross-section of the flower's ovary. Everything surrounding the ovary has been stripped away, and the
ovary has been sliced in half to reveal its center. Inside you may see round particles called ovules. These ovules
are small unfertilized seeds of the plant.

 Unlike humans, plants within themselves contain both male and female parts. The male reproductive organ is

called the stamen. The end segment of the stamen is called the anther, which is supported by the filament, a long, 

thin stalk. Inside of the anther, meiosis takes place, producing haploid male gametophytes. Together, the stamens 

of a flower(most have several) produce thousands of these pollen grains. The female piece of a flower is called
the carpel, or pistil. Each carpel has a ovary at its base, containing ovules which produce the female
gametophytes. Above the ovary is a stalk called the style, which is crowned with a sticky piece called the stigma,
a landing spot for pollen grains. Though some rely on wind pollination, the vast majority of angiosperms are
pollinated by animals-mainly insects, birds, and bats. These creatures pick up the male parts from one flower
and transfer them to others, continuing the life cycle of the plant.

Blog Post 10 - Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

       Reproduction in angiosperms is caused by fertilization between the anthers in the male part of the flower and the ovary in the female part of the flower. In the Anthers of the male part of the flower, the diploid cell goes through meiosis to produce four haploid microspore cells. The microspores then undergo mitosis to form pollen grains, which is the male gametophyte in the plant. In the ovary of the female part of the flower, the megaspore mother cell goes through meiosis to produce four haploid megaspore cells. However, one out of the four haploid cells will survive. It will undergo mitosis three times to produce 7 cells in total. Four of the cells that are produced will disintegrate, leaving one egg cell and two haploid nuclei, which form the endosperm mother cell. In fertilization, pollen produced from the stamen is placed on the stigma. Inside the pollen, one cells called the Tube cell creates a path to the ovary. The second cell inside the pollen, the Generative cell, creates two sperm which travel through the tube cell to the ovary. The sperm fertilize with the egg cell and the endosperm mother cell to ultimately produce a seed. 

Brassica Oleracea Flower:

This is a Brassica Oleracea Flower. The green circular object in the middle is the stigma. The darker yellow objects around the stigma are the anthers.

This is a close-up picture of the Sepals, or leaves that protect the bud when it was growing. 

This is a close-up picture of the petals. The petals serve the purpose to attract pollinators like butterflies and bees.

Male Part of the Flower: Stamen

This is the Stamen. The darker yellow tips are the Anthers. The pale yellow strips below the Anthers are the Filaments. Pollen is made in the Anthers.

This is a closer image of the Filaments. The function of the Filaments is to support the Anthers.

Female Part of the Flower: Carpel

The circular, sticky tip is the Stigma. Pollen is collected here. 

This is an image of the style. Sperm from the pollen is transported through a tube inside the Style to the Ovary. 

This is an image of the Style cut in half. The round seed-like objects inside the Style are pollen grains.

The green portion of the Carpel is the Ovary cut in half. Inside the Ovary are the ovules, or unfertilized parts that would develop into a seed. The Ovary is where fertilization occurs. 

Student Blog Post Assignment #10: Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Jacob Sweet

Period 5

3/26/15

Student Blog Post Assignment #10: Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

This is the pedal of the flower before it was cut. It is on both genders of the flower to collect more sunlight.

This is a picture of one of the flower's stamen, the male reproductive part. The tip is the anther and the stem is its filament.

This is a picture of the carpel of the flower (lowest part), the female reproductive part. The tip is the stigma, the mid-body is the style, and the ovary (not shown) is at the bottom.

This is a picture of the plant's ovary cut open, revealing the ovule.

     The reproductive system of the flower works on the same general basis as many other organism, through connecting sperm and egg cells. The stamen, the male reproductive piece of a flower, is made up of an anther at the top and a long filament connecting it to the ovary. In the anther, meiosis takes place to produce haploid male gametophytes (also known as pollen grains). The carpel, the female reproductive piece of a flower contains the ovary at the base of the flower, the style, a stem extending upwards from the ovary, and the stigma, the top of the style. The stigma is sticky so it can catch pollen grains in it and transport them down its pollen tubes to its ovule where it combines with an egg cell to form a zygote.

Blog post #9

In order for plants to adapt to changing environments there needs to be variation.    Some traits variation produces are different heights and shapes, unusual colors or marking in their foliage or flowers, or organisms  with greater ability to withstand environmental stresses. When studying all the plants in the WGHS GOLD Main Garden, the leave shapes are the biggest difference among them.  The Brassica Oleracea plants' leaves vary in their overall shape.


This plant has long, wide, rigid           This plant is short and squat. 
leaves. The leaves are somewhat oval      The leaves have an eery purple tint and  
shaped. There is only one leaf per        are in a bud formation.  
stem

                    

This plant has long, thin,                    This plant has more than one leaf

puffy looking leaves. This plant            per stem. Th leaves are jagged with a 

also has one leaf per stem.                 purple stem. 

 There is a lot of variety in visible traits in domestic forms of Brassica Olereaca due to the change of genes within the plant species.  Several processes have helped create this diversity. Such as selective breeding, descent with modification, and natural variation.  Selective breeding is when humans breed plants or animals with each other.  These mixes are usually carried out by breeding professionals and intended to result in a specific trait.  Descent with modification, or evolution, only occurs when there is a change in gene frequency within a population.  Traits will change in a species from generation to generation in order for the plants or animals to survive their living conditions.  Natural variation are mutations that randomly occur during sex cell division.  These variations lead to different phenotypes that change an offspring's ability to survive and reproduce.  The ability of these plants to adapt quickly and have variation is very important for their survival in different situations that may occur.  The variations help allow a species to survive even if one may die off.

Who Wants to Live a Million Years Questions

How many generations did it take for you to finally win a game? Why do you think it took this long? What do you think this means/suggests for most real species on Earth in terms of their species chances of long-term survival? Surprisingly I survived the first time. I think i just got lucky because I wasn't even completely sure how to play the game.I now realize how many species there must have been that didn't survive, that we know nothing about.
 
Which initial phenotypes/phenotype combinations did you select and why?Which starting/initial combinations seemed to allow you to continue/survive the longest (win the most games)? Why do you think this was so? I usually picked a tall organism that could reach tall plants, an organism with long fur to survive the cold, and an organism with with spikes to protect itself from predators. The reason I believe this combination worked is that all had traits that kept it alive and together could survive a Million years.

Do you think this population of theoretical creatures would be greatly affected by genetic drift? What evidence of drift did you see as you played the game (simulation)? The fictional animals in the game who want to live a million years are very sensitive to genetic drift. The animals adapt very quickly due to changes in allele frequencies in a population due to random events or chance.The weather changes in the stimulator had vast changes. Such as the animals needed to develop a defense trait if a predator was to appear. However if the animals were not properly built for the changes, the species would eventually die off. 

Which alleles/phenotypes seemed to be dominant and which seemed to be recessive? How could you tell? The allele I found to be dominant were the different lengths which were often visible on the animals. The trait I found to be recessive was the stripes found on the animals. The stripes were not always present and would come and go on the animal.

Match the environments/situations/conditions below with their corresponding adaptations:
(a) cold conditions; (b) hot conditions; (c) new large predator on the scene; (d) new tall food source
Once the situation shifted in the game, the animals had to make adaptations to be able to survive in there new surroundings. When the weather changed, they attempted to either grow hair and get fatter to survive the cold or lose weight and hair in order to withstand the heat.  When presented with a new large predator, the animals needed to have long legs to run faster and stripes to camouflage themselves.  Similar to the predator, the animals needed either long legs or long necks or both to reach higher food sources.
How would you improve this simulation to more realistically represent natural selection and biological evolution? Discuss at least three improvements. If I were to give input to improve the stimulator I would get rid of the life preservers. I found that I barely needed them because a lot of the situations did not require life preservers at the last minute. It is less realistic and would not happen in the real wild. Another thing I would like is to see if the animals could live thru modern day problems like pollution, deforestation, and human activity. I would also recommend more species and styles of animals like aquatic. 

Blog Post #9: A Matter of Selection      

Kale plant

Brussel Sprout plant

Broccoli Romanesco

     









       Leaves tend to exhibit the most variation, not only on the type of Brassica Oleracea plants, but on almost every species of plants. As you can see up above, the leaves from all the different types of Brassica Oleracea plants seem to contain different physical characteristics, such as leaf structure, color, texture, and the number of xylem/phloem roots. For example, the biggest leaf on the Broccoli Romanesco has a length of 1 foot and the width of 9 inches. The biggest leaf on the kale plant has a length of 1 foot and approximately 6 inches. A characteristic of the Brassica Oleracea plants that show the greatest range of variation is the structure of the plant. In the photo of the cabbage plant, the leaves are structured in more of a spiral pattern, while the kale plant shows the leaves growing out the base of the stem. These structures vary genetically in each of the plants and cannot be influenced by factors in the environment.

         There is so much variability in the domestic forms of Brassica Oleracea due to selected traits and developed mutations that have been gathered from an environment over time. Variety in the Brassica Oleracea probably developed over time due to a change in the environment. Whether or not the environment changed temperature or if there was a change in the number of organisms, mutations will develop due to descent with modification. Another way in which the Brassica Oleracea species could increase variability is by artificial selection. When farmers grow wish to modify the variety of the species, they may selectively breed it by only picking the desired traits. These acquired genes will increase the variability of the species because overtime, the selected traits will be spread into its offspring, which eventually will become the types of Brassica Oleracea which we know of today.

       For the most part, color seems to be almost similar throughout the types of Brassica Oleracea. Even though the shade of leaves from the Brussel Sprout plant is lighter than that of the Kale plant, they both contain chlorophyll which makes the color of the leaves green. You can see in the pictures above the similarity in color of stem and/or leaves. Due to the genotype of each of the types of Brassica Oleracea plants, the shades of the leaves, stems, flowers will always vary, however they all contain a similar genetic structure, such as green stems or green leaves, which makes them similar to each other.

          In order to modify a species of plants, someone would have to selectively pick the desired traits of a group of offspring. If there is an offspring that bests shows a desired trait, you would only allow those plants to reproduce and so on. In order for it to survive as well, you may have to change the environment in which it is growing. By Genetically modifying an organism or plant, you could add other genes from another similar organism from the same species to the plant in order for it to best acquire this gene and pass it on to its offspring. Over time, each of these genes or traits, both naturally or artificially will cause the plant type to change in its phenotype.