Student Blog Post Assignment #6

Jacob Sweet

11/6/14

Period 5

Student Blog Post Assignment #6: How Does My Garden Grow?

The first two of our plants (plants A and B) this week

The third of our plants (plant C) this week

     Our plants are using several different processes grow and add biomass to themselves. The first of these processes is cell division (mitosis). In this process, cells duplicate split in two identical copies so that once the daughter cells grow it will be like having a copy of the original cell to add more biomass. During mitosis, a cell's DNA replicates and lines up on spindle fibers to be split. Once this happens, the cell begins to split as the DNA on each side gets put into nuclear membranes. Finally, the cells split off from each other while having a complete set of DNA for themselves. They then begin to grow to continue the cycle and eventually split again. These actions require large amounts of energy which can be provided through the process of photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, the overall equation is shown as (for lack of subscripts () signifies it): 6CO(2) + 6H(2)O [with light energy] = C(6)H(12)O(6) + 6O(2). This means that the plant will take in carbon dioxide and water and with light will turn it into sugars and oxygen. The plant is able to take in sunlight as energy because its cells have chloroplast, an organelle that does specifically that. For energy, the plant can use the sugars; however, these sugars (glucose) need to be put through the process of respiration in order to be turned into energy. In respiration, plants use glucose and oxygen to produce energy, carbon dioxide, and some water. This can take place in the light and the dark unlike photosynthesis since it does not require sunlight to work. This can be thought of as "burning" sugars for "fuel" or energy.

     Plants can create enzymes easily if a signal was sent to the nucleus to create a specific enzyme. Enzymes belong to the biomolecule group of proteins which are created in ribosomes. The nucleus would signal the cell's endoplasmic reticulum (which holds the ribosomes) to create a specific protein, in this case the specific enzymes PEPC and Rubisco because they are important to photosynthesis. Once the ribosomes create these enzymes, they are sent through vesicles to reach the golgi apparatus. The golgi apparatus packages and makes any last changes to the enzymes before sending them out of the cell through more vesicles.