Blog Post #8

All throughout are group's experiment with the Story of the Seed project our plant has acquired a lot of species of the Brassica oleracea since the last blog post. The plants have grown so much over the course of this project and starts to change and variate everyday. I think the plants have exhibited the most change and can be from 6cm to 17cm long, and not only that they have exhibited change and variation their color and size. Most of the leaves happen to be very sharp and scraggly and others are round. The leaves are very moist and have great color differentiation going from light green to dark green. The stems on the plants grew at an enormous rate since the last time we looked at them. But we could not get measurements on the plants due to thickness of the plants, but you can tell by looking at them they grew significantly. The collard plant we had, had a good sized diameter but was very stalky. Like the collard's the cabbage was very stalky, but for different reason to hold the weight of it. The kale was the tallest of the three and a very long skinny stem because it is a very lightweight plant. With both of the main focuses there were many differences in the stem and leaves.


Most of the different types of brassica are normally eaten by humans, artificial selection can be used to create specific phenotypes for Brassica. They can use this to make a bigger trait for the plant. Descent with modification comes from animals needing to adapt to a habitat. Selective breeding is pretty much the same thing but is created naturally and better suits plants. All of these traits are phenotypes. The phenotypes are coded in DNA by genes in their chromosomes. Phenotypes are obtained in a lot of ways. Examples, selective breeding, artificial selection, descent with modification, mutations, and adaptations. mutations don't sound good they sound harmful, but there actually very interesting. While all mutations happen to change the phenotype some do nothing but others do harm. Adaptations and descent with modification are connected in a certain way. Descent with modification is when an animal adapts and survives the natural selection and then is able to reproduce that organism or it can happen if either of the parents have a new trait.

One of the things plants have most in common is their colors. all of the plants are green. I don't believe plants have always been green since the beginning of their ancestors. The reason for that being the world has changed so the plants had to change and adapted. When the earth changes almost everything else has to change with it and adapt. While technology continues to advance and progress more and more greenhouse gases will continued to be used, which will change habitats and increase temperatures. Once Brassica had and was able to adapt to the new world they reproduced creating descent with modification and didn't die off of natural selection.


Farmers and breeders always wan to sell the biggest best plants. Of course all farmers want their plants to be appealing to get higher prices. Farmers don't usually get to choose where they farm, although we have plant modification they can grow corn even in a drought or "dry spot." Very popular spots to bugs are grapes in the dry areas or soy beans. To make these plants appealing and perfect plant breeding is very effective but even more so, genetically modifying them. To make the seed and get the best trait they want, they take a gene from the plants seed and put a copy to it, in the DNA of plant cells. After that the farmer grows the plant and lets it mature until its ready to produce seeds for the farmer. Finally, the government inspects the seeds and approves them and then they can be sold on the market.

Matter of Selection

Through this Story of The Seed experiment the garden has accumulated many species of Brassica
oleracea.  These plants grow more and more each day, with that comes more and more variation each day. These plants may be related but have many differences.  The trait that exhibited the most variation was the leaves. The leaves could be anywhere from 7 cm all the way to 17 cm. The leaves aren't just different in size but also in shape and color.  From the pictures you can see how different these leaves are in shape. Some are round as basketballs and others are jagged like swords. The colors are also very different as you can see by how some of the leaves are dark green and light green, with some having hints of purple.  The quality that showed the greatest range of difference was the size of the the stems. Due to the stems being too hard to reach or too long I couldn't get measurements, but the pictures show an obvious difference in size. For example the cabbage plant has a very short and stocky stem to hold all the weight, the collard green's stem had a medium diameter but was pretty short, and the kale had a very tall stem and was a relatively skinny.  With the leaves there were many variations, with the stems there is one common difference which is height.

	Plant 1	Plant 2	Our Plant	Plant 4
Leave Length	9.5 cm	7.5 cm	17 cm	9 cm
Leave Width	5 cm	1.5 cm	13 cm	6.5 cm
Stem Height	56 cm	45 cm	16 cm	50 cm
Stem Thickness	7 cm	5 cm	8 cm	6cm

Since most forms of Brassica are eaten by us humans, people used artificial selection to create specific phenotypes for the Brassica.  For example maybe they wanted to make larger cabbage so the used this to get that larger trait from the plant. Some of the different species could have needed to adapt to a certain habitat or area which created descent with modification.  Selective breeding is very similar but happens naturally in the wild and creates better fit plants. Lets take a step back here. All these traits we are talking about aren't just qualities the organism has, these traits are phenotypes. These phenotypes are coded in DNA by genes in the chromosomes.  Phenotypes can be obtained in many ways. For example, artificial selection, selective breeding, mutations, adaptation, or descent with modification. Mutations sound harmful, but aren't always. While all mutations alter the phenotype, some do it for good or don't harm it at all. The last thing I would like to share is descent with modification and adaptations.  These are connected in a way. First of all, an adaptation is a trait gained by an organism to make it more fit to the environment it lives in. Descent with modification is when an animal adapts and survives natrual selection and then reproduces and that organism has a new trait with out doing anything of the above. This also happens if either of the parents have the new trait.

This might sound silly or obvious but the thing the plants have in common is color.  They are all green. Well you probably could have guessed that, but there is a reason they are all green.  These plants possibly didn't start this exact color from the beginning of their ancestors. The reason for this is simple.  The world has changed so the plants had to change. The gradual change of the earth affects almost everything. As technology advances the more and more greenhouse gases are used this increases temperature and this changes habitats, which maybe could have altered the color if the habitats of the Brassica was affected.  Once the Brassica adapted to the "new" world they didn't die off from natural selection and reproduced creating descent with modification.

Breeders or farmers want to sell bigger and better plants. Most want their plants to look better too so they're more appealing.   Farmers don't get to live where they want, but with plant modification they can grow corn in drought areas, soy beans in a highly bug populated area, or even grapes in the dessert.  They way they can reach these "perfect" plants is to do plant breeding or a more effective was is genetically modifying the seeds. To modify a seed and get the trait desired they find something that has the trait they want, then they take that gene and put a copy into the DNA of host plant cells.  Then that plant is grown and matured and produces seeds. Then those seeds have to be approved by the government and then finally can be sold.

A Matter of Selection(Blog post #8)

         Throughout the Story of the seed the garden has experienced many changes and has accumulated many species of Brassica oleracea.  The plants have been growing very well from the start and they continue to even to the day.  The plants are related but they sure do have many differences.  The reason they are growing is because of variation.  The Leaves showed the most variation.  The leaves size ranged all the way from 7cm to 17cm.  The leaves don't just differ in size but also in shape and color.  In the pictures below, you can see how different the leaves shapes are from each other.  Some leaves are round and some are super jagged.  The colors ranged from dark green to light green to even some leaves with hints of purple in it.  The stems were very much different, the size between them was night and day.  In the pictures below, it shows the cabbage plant has a very short wide stem which held all the weight.  The collard greens stem was pretty short with a fairly medium/ average diameter.  Also, the Kale had a very tall stem, however, it was super skinny.  There were many variations between the Brassica oleraceas, with the common difference of height.
          Most forms of brassica oleracea are eaten by humans, so people used artificial selection to create certain phenotypes for the brassicas.  For example, maybe some people wanted to make some cabbage or another plant, so they used a strategy to get the larger trait from the plant.  Some different species possibly could have needed to adapt to a specific habitat or area which created descent with modification.  Selective breeding is very close but it happens naturally in nature and therefore creates better fit plants.  Every single trait that is being mentioned isn't just a quality that the organism has, but rather is part of the phenotypes.  The phenotypes are coded in the DNA by the genes in the chromosomes.  The phenotypes can be aquired in many ways.  For example: Mutations, selective breeding, artificial selection, adaptation, or even descent with modification.  You may think of mutations as harmful, but not all are harmful.  While all mutations change the phenotype, some do it for good and some don't harm at all.  An adaptation is a trait gained by a human/organism that makes them more fit for the specific environment that they live in.  Descent with modification is when an animal adapts and survives through natural selection and then reproduces and that organism has a brand new trait without doing any of the things listed above.  This can also happen if either of the parents have the new trait.
         The plants have at least one thing in common, the leaf color,  they are had some coloration of  green in it. They all had some green because all the brassica has green chloroplasts inside of the leaves.  When light shines on the leaves, it reflects green light, which makes us see the green.  This is because of the chlorophyll found in the thylakoid mebranes of the chloroplast.  This is why most plants are green and how we see them.


 
       Farmers and breeders will always want to sell bigger and better plants in order to make more money.  Most want their products to look as nice as they possibly can, appereance is everything.   By using plant modification, farmers can plant soy beans in an area with a lot of bugs, or even grapes in the dessert.  This way they can make the plants practically "perfect", by plant breeding or genetically modifying the seeds and to extract the desired trait.  To modify the seed the breeders take the gene and put a copy into the DNA of host plant cells.  Then when the plant is grown and mature it produces seeds.  Then the government can approve of the seeds and then they can be sold.