Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Observing Mitosis. The purpose of this experiment is to prepare a slide of actively dividing plant tissue and to observe stages of the cell cycle in living tissue.

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Observing Mitosis The purpose of this experiment is to prepare a slide of actively dividing plant tissue and to observe stages of the cell cycle in living tissue. We had to consider the duration of mitosis in relation to the whole cell cycle. First of all got some hydrochloric acid and put it into a water bath at 60�C. Then we cut off some root tips from garlic, we used the tips because it's where mitosis still takes place - the meristem. ...read more.

Middle

After cooling down again and drying, we put the root tips onto a clean microscope slide and cut off the tip of it. We had to make sure it was the meristem and not other differentiated root tissue. Then we macerated the root tip, this breaks up all the cells and makes them one layer. If not sufficiently macerated the layer may not be thin enough to observe cell nuclei. After this we added a small drop of acetic orcein stain so that we could see the cells under the microscope. ...read more.

Conclusion

Some of the stages we could have seen were prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. It was most likely to find cells in the interphase because this stage is much longer than other stages. Some of the safety aspects: Hazard Risk Steps Taken Hydrochloric Acid Damage on contact to eyes and skin Wear goggles and a lab coat Glassware Sharp edges may cause cuts Be careful and put broken glass in the bin Sharps Cause cuts Be careful, tidy them away after Hot Water Bath Burn yourself Be careful Acetic Alcohol Corrosive Wear goggles and a lab coat ?? ?? ?? ?? ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Molecules & Cells section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

3 star(s)

*** Outlines and explains the steps in obtaining root tip squash slides to observe mitosis, and some 'trouble shooting' information. Could be improved by:
1)The addition of some relevant background information regarding the stages of mitosis
2)A clear explanation of why the various steps are completed
3)Some data, preferably manipulated with clear calculations to show how length of time spent in cell cycle phases can be calculated
4)Solutions to the potential problems that can affect the quality of the slides

Marked by teacher kerry Jackson 24/03/2012

Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Molecules & Cells essays

  1. Marked by a teacher

    To determine the effect of Detergent on the Permeability of Cell Membranes.

    3 star(s)

    In the second, using a syringe, 9cm2 of 10% detergent solution and 1cm2 distilled water will be added, making a 9% solution. This should be labelled 9%. In the third, 8cm2 of 10% detergent solution will be added, and 2cm2 of distilled water, using a syringe, making an 8% solution.

  2. Marked by a teacher

    Aim: To estimate the solute potential of a plant tissue.

    Plasmolyses is the shrinkage of volume of a cell. This is caused by the falling of water concentrations and ultimately results in the contraction of the membrane.

  1. The Strength of Plant Fibres

    On the other hand, the pampas has a very high tensile strength. Out of the three tests, only one had 700g while the other two were 800g. This may be because the first fibre was poorly peeled off; leading to quicker breakage.

  2. DETERMINING THE WATER POTENTIAL OF A POTATO TUBER CELLS USING THE WEIGHING METHOD.

    to make sure I am not trying to measure different water potentials I will have to use potatoes with approximately the same age, and same breed. But to make the experiment more accurate I will use just one potato and make sure it is peeled.

  1. To investigate one of the factors that affects the permeability of cell membranes.

    This decrease in light transmitted through the solution is because more pigment molecules from the beetroot are getting in the way, so when you increase the concentration of alcohol, more pigment leaks out. Therefore I can conclude that increasing the concentration of alcohol increases the permeability of cell membranes.

  2. Free essay

    Investigation into the antibacterial properties of mint and garlic.

    Controlled variables These are the variables that will be kept at constant for all experiments. There are several in this experiment: 1. The temperature at which all Petri dishes are incubated at. Reduced or elevated temperatures have a negative effect on the growth of bacteria, too high and they are killed and too low and their growth is slowed.

  1. Free essay

    An experiment measuring the potential difference generated by various simple electrochemical cell

    Disconnect the voltmeter. 6.Repeat these steps for the other 2 cells. Results: Cell Positive electrode Negative electrode Potential difference (1) Cu2+ (aq) + 2e- ? Cu(s) Zn2+ (aq) + 2e- ? Zn (s) + 1.06 V (2) Ag+ (aq) +e- ?

  2. Investigation of the effect of adding different concentrations of NaCl to an enzyme-substrate (amylase-starch) ...

    Non-competitive Inhibition It occurs when the inhibitor, which does not have to be similar to the natural substrate in terms of structure, binds to the enzyme in a location other than at the active site. This denatures the active site becoming unable to break down the substrate molecules.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work