The effect of phosphate on cell division in root tips

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The effect of phosphate on cell division in root tips

  In this investigation, my aim is to determine what the effect of phosphate ions are on plants that may be grown in a water culture, such as garlic cloves or broad bean seedlings. This can be determined by a root tip squash, examining the root tips under a microscope to see what percentage of cells have begun to undergo mitosis.

 A water culture is the growing of terrestrial plants with roots in an aerated solution*, where the concentration of difference ions can be altered to discover which are used for normal, healthy plant growth. In this case, I am able to change the concentration of phosphate ions to culture a batch of plants which can each be individually examined under a microscope.

 Mitosis is the nuclear division to produce two daughter nuclei containing identical sets of chromosomes, and with relevance to this experiment, takes place when an organism grows. There are four visible stages of mitosis – Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase and Telophase. The final stage of cell division, which is not visible under a microscope, is Interphase, where the metabolic activity of the nucleus is intense. The nucleus is involved in protein synthesis, as well as chromosomes being replicated. Understandably, mitosis requires a great deal of energy to occur, and is supplied in the form of ATP.

 A root tip squash involves squashing, staining and separating the cells in the apical meristem – when examined under a microscope, it is then far clearer to see if any of the cells are undergoing mitosis. If I examine a range of squashed plant tips, each of which have been cultured in a solution that have different phosphate concentrations, it is possible that I can determine a pattern and I will then be able to conclude what effect a lack, or an excess, of phosphates has on the mitotic cycle.

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 Phosphate ions, PO43-, have a variety of functions in plants; these include ATP and nucleic acids.

 ATP, adenosine triphosphate, consists of adenine linked to a pentose sugar, ribose, and a string of three phosphates; it powers the majority of energy-requiring reaction that occur. As mitosis is a reaction that requires excessive amounts of ATP, a solution lacking in phosphate ions would leave the plant without enough ATP, and the mitotic cycle would suffer.

 Nucleic acids are found in living cells in two types: deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). They are composed of long string of nucleotides, ...

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