Three Potatoes/ Cheyenne Central High School / CCH_S13_F07

School Level: High School
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Research Information


Research Question
How do pH levels effect male to hermaphrodite ratio?

Research Predictions
If c-ferns are exposed to low level pH solutions during the germination stage, the ratio of hermaphrodite to male will be higher because the acid will corrupt the hormone that the hermaphrodites release that changes the spores into males.

Experimental Design
When the spores are inoculated, the pH solutions will be included in the containers. These pH levels will be varied in order to test how they affect the gender ratio in the ferns. The control will be distilled water with a pH level of 7. The other levels will be solutions with pH levels of 5 and 3. During inoculation, three drops of the pH solution will be included in each dish. Three drops will be added every class hour unless the spores appear to be sufficiently saturated. Ten days after inoculation, the gender ratio will be measured.

Research Conclusions
Claim: According to our data, the hypothesis that the lowest pH level will produce the highest hermaphrodite to male ratio was both correct and incorrect.
Evidence: The hypothesis states that there will be more males than there will be hermaphrodites. Referring to the data, one can see that the pH level of 5 produced more males than females. On average, there was 1.16 males to every hermaphrodite. This goes against the hypothesis. However, for the pH of 3, there was a ratio of .54 males to 1 hermaphrodite. In the pH of 7, the ratio of male to hermaphrodite was .6:1. This evidence supports the hypothesis because for the pH of three, there is more hermaphrodites than males.
Reasoning: The initial hypothesis was stated because common sense makes one believe that the more acid from the lowest pH will cause the most damage to the antheridiogen. Two possible reasons why the male spores in the pH level of 5 were more prevalent is that they either preferred that environment most or they were under stress. Some research suggests that c-ferns prefer an environment with the pH level of 5. However, that doesn't necessarily explain why males grew better. Prior knowledge shows that they c-ferns could have been under stress. With stress, an organism tends to produce through sexual reproduction and create more diverse offspring. The pH level of 5 could have produced more males for this reason.


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April 2, 2013 | 2:03 PM | Dr. Catrina Adams

Farewell and Best Wishes
As this research project is now in the final stages of wrapping-up, we wish to thank everyone who participated in this inquiry; the students, mentors, teachers and others behind the scenes. We appreciate all of your efforts and contributions to this online learning community.

Scientific exploration is a process of discovery that can be fun! There are many unanswered questions about plants just waiting for new scientists to consider, investigate, and share.

Please come back and visit the PlantingScience Research Gallery Archive anytime to view this project in the future. You can search the Archive by key word, team name, topic, or school name.

Good bye for now.
Warm regards,
The PlantingScience team
April 1, 2013 | 4:47 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team!

Wow! Your poster is amazing! Very well done!

I'm really proud of all the great work that you've put into this project, and hope that you learned a little bit about the interesting modes of reproduction that plants have.

Isn't it interesting that things like pH can change the gender of plants? Environmental influences like that are really rare in animals, but very common in plants! I think this just goes to show that plants can be really interesting, and strange, organisms to study. Sometimes we get results that are kind of confusing or not readily understandable until we think a little deeper about the organism and the environment in which it is growing, as was your case here where your intermediate pH turned out to be the most interesting.

Good job on this project, and good luck with any other science projects you conduct in the future! You've certainly gotten a good start in plant biology here, and thanks for letting me be a part of your research studies!
April 1, 2013 | 1:39 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

Adios!
We uploaded our final presentation file! Although it's just everything you can see here put into one place, it's worth a look!

I sure enjoyed getting to discuss our experimentation process with you, you helped a lot and really made us think deeper than we would have alone.

Your help was all greatly appreciated, and it's a shame I can't do all my science experiments with your help!
March 27, 2013 | 9:58 AM | Dr. Catrina Adams

Looks like you are in the final stages of your projects
It’s great to see that teams from your school are wrapping up and posting conclusions. Enjoy the final stages of your project, and feel free to post any final comments or questions you have for your mentors. 
March 22, 2013 | 4:46 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team!

I see that you've summarized your results and started to think about conclusions. Your results are interesting, and you pose a couple reasons why the pH of 5 resulted in more males than hermaphrodites.

If you had to explain why, which reason would you choose? Is it the c-fern preference for pH=5, them being stressed, or some combination? Why do you think so?
March 20, 2013 | 12:34 PM | cheyennegirl  (Team Member)

Keeping you posted
Today we made observations on our c-ferns and added water. So far though, I don't believe we're ready to make a conclusion as to what the data is telling us.
March 17, 2013 | 6:40 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team!

It looks like you've made some great observations. As for the stress of pH, I think you're right that often plants will change their mode of reproduction (if they are able to) to maximize their reproductive success. This could be going on in your system. If the pH of 5 is normal for them, then you would probably conclude that having lots of males is normal for them too. In that case, they might be making hermaphrodites when they get stressed---they can basically guarantee reproduction if they have both male and female parts to reproduce, which could be important in a stressful environment.

I would include your observations from all pH levels and try to interpret them to form some conclusions. It sounds like you're on the right track, so keep going and keep me posted!
March 13, 2013 | 12:02 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


When performing our experiment, we realized that our pH7 dish produced a lower number of fertilized gametophytes than our other two levels. I was wondering if this was something we should include in our conclusion, whether or not it was important to mention.
March 13, 2013 | 11:57 AM | cheyennegirl  (Team Member)

pH 5
After a bit of research, we dicovered that the c-ferns prefer and prosper in a pH of 5. However, because of our knowledge on asexual and sexual reproduction we were wondering something. We know that sexual reproduction produces a more diverse offspring and we also know that some plants, like aspen trees, produce through sexual reproduction when under stress. Since there was more males in the pH level of 5, we're wondering if maybe the gametophytes with the pH 5 were under stress or if they just prospered from that pH level. What do you think?
March 13, 2013 | 11:45 AM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)

the math
we did a bit of math concerning the ratios and figured that the ph of 5 actually had the higest number of males the ph of 7 had the lowest number of males and ph of 3 was in between
March 12, 2013 | 11:16 AM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team!

Thanks for posting your data file. I agree---pH = 5 is interesting. Why do you think a pH of 5 is affecting the hormone and not pH = 7 or pH = 3? Or do you think the pH isn't affecting the hormone but affecting something else that then affects the ratio?

Any ideas of what might be going on?

Good job so far and keep it up!
March 11, 2013 | 12:35 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


The file named "science" is a table of our data collected day 13, or today.
March 10, 2013 | 3:16 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team,

Usually the "control" is what you want to compare the other "treatments" to. Usually, scientists make the control the normal condition, like what you would see normally with no experimentation. So in your case, I think you're right that the control should be the pH = 7 because 7 is the normal pH for water.

The treatments are then your modifications to the normal condition---what you do to things to make them not normal. Since water is usually pH = 7, you added acid to it to make it 5 and 3. You then will compare the treatments back to the control, and to each other to see if there are any differences in the measurement that you are taking.

In this case, I think you've set everything up well, and the fact that the pH of 5 is potentially having a greater effect than 3 or 7 might not mean that you've set something up wrong, but rather that the measurement you're taking isn't affect by pH in a direct linear fashion.

Keep an eye on your experiment, keeping taking measurements, and then we'll try to figure out what's going on!
March 6, 2013 | 1:12 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)


We decided that due to the fact that we can see antheridia we have decided to not at more of the ph solutions to the c-ferns because wo want to delay fertilization long enought that we can gather our data
March 6, 2013 | 1:09 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


It appears that our dish with a pH level of 5 is developing faster than our other two dishes. Perhaps this means that our original idea of a pH level of 7 being the control was incorrect and the actual control is a pH level of 5. What are your thoughts on that?
March 6, 2013 | 12:30 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team!

Cool picture---it looks like you have lots of germination happening. I would suspect that those little bumps on the surface of the spores are roots starting to grow. You'll have to keep an eye on them to find out.

Are you getting comparable levels of germination among all your pH treatments?
March 4, 2013 | 1:09 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)

Pictures
we've added new pictures and a some scientific drawings under data files.
March 4, 2013 | 12:58 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

sweet analogies
The pH3 dish has plenty of rizoids, and some of the spores are becoming mishapen. They look like they're in a cartoon and got hit and are growing a little bump.
March 4, 2013 | 12:47 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)


I looked at the c-ferns in the petry dish with a ph of 5 and we hae at least 1 gamatophyte that I believe is a hermaphidite because it is the only one within its general area although I can't be compleatly sure. any comments?
March 3, 2013 | 9:20 AM | cheyennegirl  (Team Member)

Ryziod action
We checked our spores on Friday and we discovered that some spores are sprouting ryzoids. We also added more of the pH solutionto each. So far that is all that has happened. More to come for Monday.
March 2, 2013 | 10:00 AM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi team,

Great! Science is always more fun if you don't know the answer to your questions beforehand. Discovering something new is what science is all about!

Good luck and keep me posted of your progress!
February 27, 2013 | 12:40 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)


the perpose is to if and at what ph the hormone breaks down
February 27, 2013 | 12:29 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


The point of our experiment is to find out whether or not the hormone will break down in acid.
February 26, 2013 | 6:22 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi team!

It looks like you've filled out your Research Information and have a good idea of your question and methods. You're making great progress!

One question: It sounds as though your experiment is designed to determine if the hormone is pH sensitive. Is that right? Is it that we do not know if it is pH sensitive and that's why we're trying to find out, or do we know it will break down in acid and we're trying to demonstrate it?

I'm excited to see how your experiment goes!
February 26, 2013 | 1:20 PM | 51  (Student, Team Green - LCH_S13_W02 · -1)


I think your research question is very good.
February 25, 2013 | 1:14 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


I can spell many things

but inoculate is not one of them.
February 25, 2013 | 12:40 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)

sampling
The way that we were thinking of sampling the C-ferns was by takeing a q-tip and diping it into the C-ferns to get a randon sample then wipeing it off onto a microscope slide and counting the diffeten genders
February 22, 2013 | 1:18 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

haha just kidding
We will be waiting to innoculate until Monday.
February 22, 2013 | 1:05 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


We're innoculating our spores today and putting them in the pH solution.

We've also changed our levels to pH levels of 3, 5, and 7.
February 22, 2013 | 12:39 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

c-fern thingy
We uploaded our experimental design under data files if you want to take a look at it or see if you have any suggestions for us.
February 21, 2013 | 5:51 AM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi all,

I've read a little bit about antheridiogen and I don't see where it is a lipid OR a protein. Lipids have long chains of carbons on them, and I don't see any of those on antheridiogen. Proteins are made when the DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA, and then translated to a string of amino acids that take the shape of a protein. I don't see any anteridiogen genes for protein production. It looks like antheridiogen is a class of species-specific hormones that often take the form of esters.

Hormones are usually small chemicals that influence development in small amounts, and can have dosage effects (more hormone = more response). They are species-specific because each type of fern species makes a different kind of antheridiogen hormone that only members of that same species will recognize and respond to. Esters are a class of chemical compounds that have a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen and single-bonded to another oxygen.

I wasn't able to find much on the pH breakdown of antheridiogen, so I'm not sure what a good starting point would be. Maybe some internet research would help you decide where to start. Don't get discouraged though---not being able to find the information you want might just mean that no one has performed the experiment yet, which is where you can come in and contribute to science!
February 20, 2013 | 1:25 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)


Mr. Scholes do you know wether antheridiogen is a lipid or a protien? We would like to know because we're thinking of testing wether or not ph levels will effect the ratio of males:hermaphidites and wether antheridiogen is a lipid or a protien is important to this because we need to know at what ph this chemical breaks down.
February 20, 2013 | 1:20 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

antheridiogen
We have a few questions concerning what we might be interested in.
We might want to research how the pH levels in our solution would affect the antheridiogen hormones coming from the hermaphrodites. Do you know if antheridiogen is a lipid or protein?
February 19, 2013 | 1:02 PM | diddykong13  (Student, Super Mario Bros. - CCH_S13_F16 · -1)


Are you going to test the wavelength of the light or do something with the heredity? It sounds great so far, though!
February 19, 2013 | 12:17 PM | zastavo  (Student, Butterfly or Die Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ - WHIA_S13_P09 · -1)


hey my name is zastavo and i love your guys team team.
February 19, 2013 | 10:51 AM | raymay  (Student, Non Applicable - CCH_S13_F12 · -1)


hey my name is raymay and i love your guys team team.
February 14, 2013 | 7:29 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Gender determination is sometimes complicated in plants. For animals, we usually think of the X and Y chromosomes, where a female inherits two X chromosomes and males inherit an X and a Y chromosome. In plants, there can be fully male plants and fully female plants, where all flowers on the plant are either male or female. There can also be hermaphrodite (both male and female) plants where there can be a mix of male and female flowers on the same plant. Sometimes there are both the male and female parts on the same flower too. So you can see that plants have all kinds of combinations of genders possible.

For ferns, the spore develops usually as a female or a hermaphrodite depending on the expression of a few genes and the presence or absence of certain hormones. The expression of the genes and the production of the hormones are in part influenced by the environment.

It will be interesting to see what genders you produce in your classroom.
February 14, 2013 | 4:16 PM | cheyennegirl  (Team Member)


In class on Wednesday we learned more about how c-ferns grow starting as a spore and then becoming a female or a male depending on which gender develops first. What knowledge to you have on that process and the factors that influence the gender?
February 13, 2013 | 6:26 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)


Hi Team!

To answer some questions, I specifically study how plants regrow after they're damaged by herbivores (animals that eat plants). Often when a plant is eaten by a rabbit, deer, or other animal, it isn't killed but just damaged. This damage is stressful for the plant and some attributes of the plant are changed. Sometimes the plants grow multiple stems where originally there was only one, sometimes the plants are taller or shorter after they regrow, sometimes the plant produces more or fewer seeds after it regrows, etc. Different types of plants have different responses to the damage.

So basically I study how an aspect of the environment (the damage) interacts with the genotype (since different types of plants respond differently to the damage).


You're exactly right that we observe genes through phenotypes! Once my plants are damaged, I can look at gene expression as they regrow to see which genes might be important in determining the response of the plant to the damage. If you modify the genes in some way (like making them expressed more or less than normal), you can see what effect the modification has on the phenotype, which gives you an idea of what the gene does!


For your experiment, it sounds like you want to track genes from parent to offspring. If you want to do this, it might be good to have a parent with one set of genes and another parent with another set of genes (so the two parents will have different phenotypes). Then you can cross them to see what phenotype (and therefore what genes) the offspring have. This will give you an idea of how the genes are being inherited, and if they're dominant/recessive.

If you want to modify the phenotype with an environmental aspect, like looking at different kinds of light, you could do that too, but remember that the change in phenotype of the plant will be due to the change in the environment, not a change in the genes, and so you might not learn anything about inheritance of genes. If you just want to influence plant growth, light is a good thing to vary.

So if you want to "track" the genes from parent to offspring, you can find a phenotype with a genetic basis to measure in the parents and compare that to the offspring!
February 13, 2013 | 1:36 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)


When we ask you about influencing c-fern growth, we had some ideas in mind and were wondering what you thought of them in addition to any ideas you may have.
We were thinking about varying the wavelength of light the c-ferns are exposed to, or the type of light.
February 13, 2013 | 12:50 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

what we know
To your first question:
We know about dominant/recessive genes, but don't know how they're transferred. We know that offspring receives genes from their parents, and some organisms have more genes than others.
Second:
We observe genes through phenotypes. Some parts of the DNA make the phenotype.
Lastly:
We're not quite sure what our final experiment will be, and we're not sure whether or not we'll need to track it.

We wanted to know some things about you as well.
How exactly do you work with DNA in plants?
Do YOU even know the answers to the questions you asked?
What do you think would be an interesting way to influence c-fern growth?
February 13, 2013 | 12:43 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)

Intro's Again
Sorry that I wasn't very conversational last time I was more than half asleep. Personally I'm interested in genetic modification and I was wondering how it is that when modifying genetics you tell what each gen does.
February 12, 2013 | 4:29 PM | Mr. Daniel Scholes  (Scientist/Mentor)

Hi!
Hi Team!

Its great to see you all online and ready to start your projects. It is particularly interesting that you are working with DNA---I also work with DNA in plants when I do science so it should be a lot of fun to work together on your projects.


Just to start, it sounds like you're interested in heredity. Heredity (or inheritance) refers to the ways in which DNA is transferred from one generation to the next (parent to offspring). I have some questions to gauge what you know so far:

What do you know about inheritance so far?
What information is in the DNA, and how do we know (how do we observe it)?
How do you think you'll track the information in the DNA being transferred from parent to offspring?


I think when we know the answers to these questions, we'll be able to put together a really great project to answer the questions you're interested in.
February 11, 2013 | 1:22 PM | cheyennegirl  (Team Member)

Introduction
Hello! I'm looking forward to working with an expert on plants. I hope to learn a lot from you and also use your help with our experiment. Our group has two major questions that we will be researching. The first is, how does the informantion that is in DNA get transferred from parents to offspring? The second is, can we observe this by growing C-ferns? Your evaluation and input on these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
February 11, 2013 | 1:15 PM | foxnewsofficial  (Team Member)

wuddup
Hello Mr. Scholes, I am excited to be working with you! I hope to accomplish a lot through this activity and hopefully learn something new. Working with a real scientist should be a great new experience.
During this activity, I hope to answer a couple questions. First: How does the info that is in DNA get transferred from parent to offspring? And second, can we observe this by growing C-ferns?
Hopefully you will help to make this experience exciting and fun as well as informative.
Sincerely,
Alyssa
February 11, 2013 | 1:13 PM | thefirstrussian  (Team Member)

Introductions
Hello I am ThFirstRussian I'm a bit awkward with introductions over the internet so what would you like to know about me?
February 5, 2013 | 8:01 AM | Dr. Catrina Adams

Welcome!
I am happy to welcome you to this community of plant researchers. Your team has the opportunity to be mentored by a scientist to help you develop and perform your own research project. The mentor's role is to encourage and guide you through the scientific process of discovery. The more you share your ideas and research information online, the more your mentor can help.

Your scientist mentor for this project will be Mr. Daniel Scholes from University of Illinois. Please introduce yourself and post some possible research topic ideas to get a conversation rolling.

These resources are available to help you get started:
Thinking Like a Scientist / Working Like a Scientist
Designing Experiments
Guide to Using A Spreadsheet

Best wishes as you start this scientific journey. We are all pleased to share this experience with you.
Have fun!

Sincerely,
The PlantingScience team




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