blog post 8 --- Sophia Andrakin

1.)
 a.) Which part (anatomy) or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to exhibit the most variation (greatest number of different forms)? 
        When I was looking around at period 4 plants. The main thing that really popped out at me was the sizes of all the different plants. Their was some plants that were 27 inches tall and others that were just 5 inches. Then their were some plants that were in between those to heights. Also, their was were the leaves were placed on the plants. The really small ones had their leaves were compacted into a little ball. On the tall ones their were only a handful of leaves on their, and they are all spread out. Then the plants that were the average height had a lot of leaves but they were not all compacted like the small ones. They were open and sticking out.


b.) Which part or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to show the greatest range of variation (biggest difference between one extreme and its opposite)? Use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.
           The greatest variation of the different plants is when you take a closer look and realize that their leave sizes are really different. Their are some that are very wide and short. Their are some that have a short width and length. Their are others that have a huge width and length. For this example I used plants from another class because our plants are dying.

Kale 
-Width: 13 centimeters
-Length:13 centimeters

Collard
-Width: 15 centimeters 
-Length: 20 centimeters

Cabbage
-Width: 8 centimeters
-Length: 11 centimeters
         



2.) Using the terms that follow, explain why you think there is so much variability in the domestic forms of Brassica oleraceatraits, selective breeding, artificial selection, genes, descent with modification, natural variations, mutations
          You can tell at first glance that their is a lot of variety between all the plants because none of  the plants look alike. You may think that when plant multiple seeds you will expect the same outcome but that is not always the case. Some may have smaller and some might come out bigger. You never know one might have a mutation and come out with no leaves.The sizes and the different characteristics will very depending on their specific trait. It does not matter if those plants were supposed to have the same outcome.
           When using selective breeding their is a large amount of variability in the plants. Selective breeding is often based on the plants phenotype. The plants would want to try to reproduce with the best phenotype so their offspring will have a better chance of surviving and thriving in their certain environment. This is constantly changing because environments change and they have to adapted to fit into their environment. When this happens it gives us a variety of different types of plants that can survive and thrive in different types of environments.
           Their can also be a substantial amount of variety when you use artificial selection. This type of selection as you can probably tell by the name does not happen naturally. It does create different types of embryos and seeds with different traits and humans combined to make all different types of traits depending on which characteristics best suit what they want. Allowing the plant to have a large variety to fit humans needs.
            Also their is a vast amount of variety in the plant just when it is shown though your genes. It is because a plants have different genes. Half for your mother and half from your father. Even though their supposed to have the same out come sometimes when their combing both parents DNA together something can go wrong. That is called a mutation, or when you have different traits than expected. When just one of the codons are different than the other one is can cause a great number of different outcomes, big or small, effecting the phenotype or genotype it all depends on which proteins gets mixed up. Though this it can cause multiply different types of brassica.  
             When using descent with modification, there is a sizable variability in this type of plant. This happens because the traits and characteristics are passed down to their kids though heredity. Plants can turn out very differently because, if two plants somehow somewhere bare offspring with each other. they would create a offspring that has half of both of its parents traits. With all the different variations of Brassicas out their their can be so many different types of combos and outcomes. Their can be a humongous amount of different hybrids which means a lot of different variety just because of heredity.             Their is also lots of variety though natural selection. This represents genetic diversity, because if an organism is going though changes and has natural variation it can breed with another it can increase the chances of diversity of different plants. This type of variation is not harmful but can cause good things for an organism. When it is exposed to different types of conditions it can possible adapted to that certain condition to make it more fit.This is how variations in natural selections are created.
          Lastly, it can happen though mutation. This can lead to variability because when a plant or animal mutates it changes the gene which can cause that gene to be usual effect. This may effect the genotype or phenotype it depends on which gene mutated, but still no matter what it still causes a variety. This happens because all the plants are supposed to stay the same but, when a mutation happens it differ from the original plant. When that certain plant keeps reproducing it pass down that mutation to its offspring. This type of variation can happen to all living things.     

3.)Which part (anatomy) of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to be most consistently the same in all of the examples in our garden, regardless of how extreme the differences between other parts of the same plants may be? Why do think this is so? Again, use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.
        Even though in the Brassica oreracea their is vast majority of differences ,but when you examined each plant closer you can see one thing that stayed the same. The width of the stem stayed the same. I think it is due to because their was no need for a stem to grow bigger or smaller. So the mutations that had a bigger or smaller stem died out because it did not help the plant more fit than the others.  
Collard
-width: .4 centimeters
brusselsprout
-width: .6 centimeters
kale
-width: .8 centimeter              

    

4.)What would plant breeders have to do in order to get the body part or characteristic you described above (in your response to question #3) to become much different than it is presently?
          One of the things they do to make the stem wider is to start artificial selection. Breed multiple different types of brassicas. Keep your eye out for a plant with a slightly larger stem then the rest of them. Once you have found a handful of these types of plants you separate them from the rest. When you do that it forces them only to breed with each other. After many and many generation of those plants you can see the width of the the stem getting bigger and bigger.        

Comments

Popular posts from this blog