BIO II Lab Practical 1

Describe three ways that algae affect your life.

Algae has a very important role in our ecosystem, and is a main food source for many fish and other aquatic life. Algae also help to purify the air and water by consuming CO2, ammonia, and nitrate among others. Algae can also be used in certain types of foods and medicines consumed by people.

Why do you think that the bryrophytes are sometimes referred to as the amphibians of the plant kingdom?

Amphibians are those organisms which live on both land and in water. Bryophytes are called amphibians of the plant kingdom because these plants though live in soil but they need water for sexual reproduction.

What advantages does asexual reproduction have over sexual reproduction?

Asexual reproduction has the advantage of being much faster than sexual reproduction. As asexual reproduction produces genetically identical offspring, they are already adapted to their environment, given that it is stable. Even if the environment is unstable, those with useful mutations will be able to reproduce quickly and therefore be able to colonize the new environment

List the steps of a life cycle of a liverwort and indicate which stages are sporophytic and which are gametophytic.

The lifecycle of a liverwort begins with the release of haploid spores from the sporangium that developed on the sporophyte. Then, spores are spread by wind or water germinate into flattened thalli gametophytes attached to the substrate by thin, single-celled filaments. Male and female gametangia develop on separate plants. Once released, male gametes swim using their flagella to the female archegonium, and fertilization proceeds. The zygote grows into a small sporophyte still attached to the parent gametophyte and develops spore-producing cells and elaters. The spore-producing cells undergo meiosis to form spores, which disperse and produce new gametophytes.

Is the term "gymnosperm" an appropriate description? Explain your answer.

The term gymnosperm is an appropriate description because the name is based on the unenclosed condition of their seeds (called ovules in their unfertilized state).

1. What structures and features do ferns contribute to their success in broader range of environment?

The xylem, phloem, leaves, roots, and stems all contribute to ferns having success in a higher range of environments as compared to bryophytes. These structures allow them to better utilize the nutrients/ water sources in their habitats.

Give an example of a unicellular green algae, a filamentous green algae, and a colonial green algae.

Unicellular: chlamydomas. Filamentous: Spirogyra Colonial: Volvox

In fungi, the only distinction between a spore and a gamete is function. Explain

a. A spore will germinate and develop into a spore-ling, where a gamete needs to combine with another gamete in order to develop into a zygote and move further through its development process.

Compare and contrast the structure of a fungal mycelium with the structure of a filamentous alga

a. Both mycelium and filamentous algae are made up of filaments, where in filamentous algae these are tubular and in mycelium they are thread-like. However, mycelium cells have a chitin cell wall, where filamentous algae have cellulose cell walls. Depending on the type of algae or fungus, both could be coencytic but fungal mycelium does not have cytoplasm or chlorophyll like algae.

1. How is alternation of generation different in ferns and pines?

a. Ferns have two generations (haploid gametophyte and diploid sporophyte) that exist independently while in pines the sporophyte is the dominant generation. For ferns they need water in order for fertilization to occur, whereas the pines depend on pollen grains.

What products or activities by fungi benefit other organisms? What products or activities of fungi are harmful to other organism?

a. The metabolic products of some fungi benefits animals and humans in the preparation of antibiotics, steroids, vitamins and other compounds, they also are a food source, and increase soil fertility, and plant nutrition with some species. However, fungi can be harmful as well, as they cause plant, human, and animal diseases, can spoil foods, and be poisonous.

1. Describe the environmental agents for uniting sperm and egg in bryophytes.

a. Water is the environmental agent for uniting sperm and egg in bryophytes, as they have motile sperm.

1. Describe the environmental agents for uniting sperm and egg in pines.

a. Wind and birds are the environmental agents responsible for uniting sperm and egg in pine trees, as pine trees depend on pollen grains.

1. Describe three ways the fungi affect your life.

a. used in making antibiotics such as penicillin, they are used in the fermentation of bread, wine, beer, and cheese, and they can have adverse effects on our health and our environment (sickness in people and plants.)

What factors may account for the ubiquitous occurrence and great structural diversity of unicellular organisms?

able to reproduce rapidly and develop adaptations quickly.

1. What are the distinguishing features of horsetails?

hollow stems that are jointed with siliceous ridges making it rough to the touch. They do not appear the have leaves.

Does dominance of the haploid condition in a fungal life cycle offer an adaptive advantage? Why or why not?

Dominance of the haploid condition in a fungal life cycle does not offer an adaptive advantage, due to the lack of genetic variation. Those with genetic variation are better suited to adapt to a changing environment than those without.

1. What structures and features do fern possess that bryophytes do not?

Fern possess xylem and phloem, as well as true roots and stems, that bryophytes do not.

1. How are the above plants different from ferns?

Ferns are considered the most advanced seedless vascular plants and display characteristics commonly observed in seed plants. Ferns form large leaves and branching roots. In contrast, whisk ferns, the psilophytes, lack both roots and leaves, which were probably lost by evolutionary reduction.Horsetails are related to ferns in that they have a vascular system. They never developed the ability to reproduce with seeds. They might be a little hard for you to see because many of them are extinct. Because they are better able to survive in various environments, you can find them from very northern and southern latitudes to the equator. Unlike ferns, these are tough plants. While ferns are soft, horsetails are rough plants and even have silica (silicon-based compound) in their epidermal cells.

1. Compare and contrast alternation of generation in mosses, ferns and pines.

Ferns have two generations (haploid gametophyte and diploid sporophyte) that exist independently while in pines the sporophyte is the dominant generation. Mosses have the same size of sporophyte and gametophyte.

How do green algae differ from cyanobacteria?

Green algae are eukaryotes that possess chloroplasts, cyanobacteria lack chloroplasts

1. What does the term "gymnosperm" mean?

Gymnosperm are vascular plants having seeds that are not enclosed in an ovary. Examples are conifers or cycads. The word gymnos means "naked" and sperma means, "seed". Thus meaning "naked seed".

What does the term Kelp refer to?

Large, brown, cold-water algae called seaweed algae/laminaria.

What ecological role do liverworts, mosses, and hornworts play in the environment?

Liverworts, mosses, and hornworts are all decomposers that help to break down dead organic matter, which helps to cycle nutrients back into the environment. They also retain water, filter CO2, and provide shelter for other small organisms.

1. What are the similarities and differences of the environmental agents for uniting sperm and eggs in pines and bryophytes?

Pines and bryophytes are similar because both require the uniting of sperm and egg in order to reproduce using renewable resources. Differences: Bryophytes (moss) antheridia produce sperm that must actually swim through a film of water to reach the ova inside archegonia. Pines have miniature gametophytes produced by reproductive cones. The male cones release pollen. The pollen is the male gametophyte. Pollen drifts with the wind to the female cones. Under the cone scale is the female gametophyte or ovule. The pollen grows pollen tubes through the ovule towards the ova and delivers sperm nuclei. No water required.

1. What is the evolutionary significance of pollen and seeds?

Pollen and seed were innovative structures that allowed seed plants to break their dependence on water for reproduction and development of the embryo, and to conquer dry land. The pollen grains are the male gametophytes, which contain the sperm (gametes) of the plant.

Is the sporophyte of mosses ever independent of the gametophyte? Explain.

Sporophyte is dependent on gametophyte because typically remains attached to it in order to gain nutrition and protection.

1. What advantages of vascular tissues in the land plants?

The advantages of vascular tissues in land plants enable liquids, nutrients and energy to be transported throughout the plant.

Is the cell the fundamental unit of life in plasmodial slim molds? Or is the "whole organism," regardless of cellular composition the fundamental unit?

The fundamental unit of life in plasmodial slime molds are plasmodium in which individual cells are indistinguishable thus the fundamental unit is the whole organism. Plasmodia are coenocytic (multinucleate) because their nuclei are not separated by cell walls and the entire plasmodium resembles a moving mass of slime.

What event begins the gametophyte phase of the life cycle? Where does this event occur in liverworts and mosses?

The gametophyte phase of the life cycle begins with meiosis, which occurs in the sporangium.

What limits the heights of mosses?

The heights of mosses are limited by the fact that they are non-vascular and lack xylem, this means that they do not have the capacity the transport water and other nutrients long distances like vascular plants. This also means that they lack the structure to support taller stems.

What are the implications of these similarities and differences?

The implications of the differences between bryophytes and ferns/fern allies is that since bryophytes lack a vascular system and true roots and stems, they are usually small, where ferns can vary in size up to 10m. Being that fern/fern allies have a sporophyte dominant life cycle, they are able to time the dispersal of their next generation with ideal environmental conditions where bryophytes cannot.

What features distinguish a moss from a liverwort?

Mosses are distinguished from liverworts in that mosses have microphyll and capsules that open and close using the perisome and is covered with a clipart, where liverwort cells have oil bodies and flattened thalli.

Alternation of generations

Alternation in an organism's life cycle with different reproductive forms. A sexual with an asexual. Haploid gametophyte produces gametes which fuse to form a zygote that then produce a diploid sporophyte.

Compare and contrast the complexity of bryophytes and algae regarding their morphology, habitat, asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction.

Green algae and bryophytes are similar in morphology in that they both contain chlorophyll as well as starch and cellulose in their cell walls. Bryophytes are the most simple of the land plants (plantae), and are non-vascular as is green algae, which is a protist. Bryophytes are small and short in stature and live in a diverse range of moist terrestrial habitats, where algae lives in aquatic habitats. Bryophytes reproduce sexually with the alternation of generations, enabling them to produce a larger number of spores, but also increases the genetic diversity of progeny where algae reproduces asexually with the haploid-dominant life cycle producing lesser haploid spores.

What are the main differences and similarities among the major groups of algae? How are these groups related to each other evolutionarily?

Green algae, diatoms, red algae, brown algae, and dinoflagellates. They are all classified as protista. All are eukaryotic and lack distinguishing characteristics of fungi, plants, and animals. Some are unicellular, colonial, multicellular, autotrophic, or heterotrophic. Most of them are microscopic in size and live in moist habitats. Show evolutionary relatedness with fungi, plants, and animals, but don't form a monophyletic group descended from a single common ancestor. They all use different forms of Chlorophyll as a pigment, some using Chlorophyll c, a few using Chlorophyll b, and one that uses Chlorophyll d.

List the steps of a life cycle of a moss and indicate which stages are sporophytic and Which are gametophytic. Also, indicate where meiosis and syngamy occur.

Mosses alternate between haploid (gametophytic) and diploid (sporophytic) generations. The haploid gametophytes produce haploid gametes, which can be sperm or eggs. When egg and sperm merge (syngamy), they form a diploid zygote which grows into a diploid sporophyte. Sporophytes produce haploid spores, containing genetic information from both haploid gametophyte parents. A spore goes through meiosis to produce a haploid gametophyte, completing the cycle.

Is the structure of algae similar to those of land plants?

Yes, they serve the same type of functions. The blade of algae like the leaves of plants is where photosynthesis takes place, the holdfast is like the stem of a plant because it holds together the organism.

What requirements might make culturing parasitic zoomastigotes difficult in the lab?

need a living host to survive and cannot be cultured in an artificial media

What is the advantage of maintaining a dikaryotic condition rather than immediate nuclear fusion?

organism is able to conserve its' resources and wait for adequate food sources to allow for maximum efficiency during growth.

What functions do cilia, flagella, and pseudopods have in common?

Assist in locomotion

How are ferns and fern allies similar to and different from bryophytes?

Bryophytes and fern/fern allies both belong to kingdom Plantae, and are both photosynthetic primitive land plants. Both bryophytes and ferns/fern allies show alternation of generations and reproduce via spores. One difference between bryophytes and ferns/fern allies is that bryophytes are non-vascular plants while ferns are vascular. Bryophytes lack true stems and roots, where ferns/fern allies do. In bryophytes the gametophyte generation is dominant where the sporophyte generation is dominant in ferns/fern allies.

1. What event begins the sporophyte phase of the life cycle? Where does this event occur in liverworts and mosses?

Fertilization occurring will begin the sporophyte phase of the life cycle. In liverworts and mosses, this occurs in the male and female reproductive structures, antheridia and archegonia, respectively.

How did liverworts get their name?

Liverworts get their name because they are shaped like the liver. In medieval times people thought the plant's shape would tell you the part of the body it could help cure.

What are the major differences in the four phyla of fungi?

The sexual reproduction of zygomycota involved the formation of resistant bodies called zygosporangia that can remain dormant when the environment is too harsh for growth. Basidiomycota reproduce with club-liked shaped basidium. Ascomycota reproduce with the asci and ascocarps, and deuteromycota is strictly asexual, mostly by production of asexual condiospores.

Why is kelp brown?

They are unable to transfer sunlight energy directly to the photosynth pathway. It must pass absorbed energy to fucchlorophyll & fucoxanthin (brown pigment)

Why do some scientists call conjugation "sexual reproduction" and others do not?

don't because no part of the organism is being reproduced. The only thing happening is that there would be an exchange of genetic material between two organisms. do because of the presence of two separate organisms.

Explain fairy rings

explained by the way the hyphae grow. They typically grow out from the spore outwards from a central point, forming a circular mat of underground hyphal thread. This will continue to push outwards in search of more nutrient rich soil as the inner-most mycelium dies.

1. What are the distinguishing features of whisk ferns?

no roots or leaves, and have yellow sporangia. The stems have many branches with paired enations without vascular tissue.

1. What is the difference between pollination and fertilization?

pollination is the transfer of pollen from one flower to another, where fertilization occurs after successful pollination, when the male and female gametes fuse.

In what sense are protists "primitive" and in what sense are they "advanced"?

primitive in the sense that they resemble the first eukaryote and are simple in organization, and they are advanced in the sense that they have developed methods of locomotion such as cilia and flagella.

1. Why are green algae considered to be ancestral to plants?

share many characteristics with land plants including: chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, starch used as a carbohydrate storage material, and cell walls made of cellulose.

Why are unicellular organisms that reproduce by mitosis considered immortal?

they do not die, instead they reproduce daughter cells, and could theoretically, continue to do so infinitely.

1. What are the distinguishing features of club mosses?

thin leaves, spear-shaped, and spirally arranged along the stem, which has primitive vascular tissue composed of a solid central column.