The ferns that we used in the experiment are called Ceratopteris richardii (C-ferns). These ferns were used because of their exclusive properties in development and in the plant life cycle. In these plants, the haploid and diploid stages exist independently, making it easier to study them without influencing the cell life cycle. The haploid stage is the gametophyte stage and the diploid is the sporophyte stage. The second exclusive property that these plants possess is the fact that the spores develop into gametophytes and then into young sporophytes in 2-3 weeks, which making it very less time consuming.
Plants require many nutrients that are necessary for their growth and development and one such nutrient is Nitrogen. Nitrogen is important because it’s a chief component of chlorophyll and plants use chlorophyll for photosynthesis and this …show more content…
We took 2 petri dishes that already had agar gel applied to them, and labeled them ‘Control’ and ‘Experimental’. We added 3 drops of the 1% Ammonium Nitrate solution using a dropper to the Control dish. We didn’t add anything to the Experimental dish in order to maintain the regular growth medium.
We then inoculated each plate with three drops of the fern spores that we were given by the TA. And then we spread the spores evenly across the surface of both the mediums. And then we covered the petri dishes using the lids.
We observed the spores under the microscopes and then stored the plants in a designated area under the plant lights. We observed the dishes for the next 5 weeks and kept track of how their appearance changed. During the final week, our group counted the number of spores that have germinated on both the plates and made note of the findings.
All the groups informed the TA about the findings and he complied all the findings in a table.
Statistical Analyses
Plants require many nutrients that are necessary for their growth and development and one such nutrient is Nitrogen. Nitrogen is important because it’s a chief component of chlorophyll and plants use chlorophyll for photosynthesis and this …show more content…
We took 2 petri dishes that already had agar gel applied to them, and labeled them ‘Control’ and ‘Experimental’. We added 3 drops of the 1% Ammonium Nitrate solution using a dropper to the Control dish. We didn’t add anything to the Experimental dish in order to maintain the regular growth medium.
We then inoculated each plate with three drops of the fern spores that we were given by the TA. And then we spread the spores evenly across the surface of both the mediums. And then we covered the petri dishes using the lids.
We observed the spores under the microscopes and then stored the plants in a designated area under the plant lights. We observed the dishes for the next 5 weeks and kept track of how their appearance changed. During the final week, our group counted the number of spores that have germinated on both the plates and made note of the findings.
All the groups informed the TA about the findings and he complied all the findings in a table.
Statistical Analyses