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.

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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. We put these roots into some acetic alcohol which is a fixative, so it stops and helps preserve the cells.  Then we removed them and put them in ice cold water and then dried them on filter paper.

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After this we put the root tips in the pre-heated hydrochloric acid, this will dissolve the calcium pectate but leave the cell walls unharmed. So it breaks up tissue without damaging the cell. 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 ...

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*** 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