Brassica Rapa Lab Report

Plant height and leaf area were compared in two rapid-cycling Brassica rapa genotypes for 14 days of growth. The dwarf mutant, rosette which is relatively smaller than its counterpart the standard Brassica rapa were grown in a lab and observed for morphological difference. Difference of internode height was found to be because of fewer and smaller cells of the rosette dwarf variant. The average rosette dwarf epidermal cell was found to be about 65% of the size of an average standard epidermal cell within an internode. Difference in leaf size was found to be related to smaller epidermal cells within the rosette dwarf variant. The average rosette dwarf epidermal cell is about 87% of the size of an average standard epidermal cell within a leaf.

A group of scientists found by using a scanning electron microscope, there is a difference is cell size from the standard and rosette dwarf mustard plants (Rood, Zanewich, & Bray, 1990). We hypothesized difference in plant height is due to fewer and smaller cells in the internodes of rosette dwarf Brassica rapa. We also hypothesized the difference is leaf size is do to small cellular size in the Brassica rapa. This study uses the rapid-cycling plants to further analyzed the difference in standard and rosette dwarf Brassica rapa using the techniques discussed

We determined that the p-value was less then 0.05 at about 6.7 x 10^-11 for epidermal cell size of standard and dwarf Brassica rapa. With a p-value smaller than 0.05, we determined there is significant difference in cell length. Using the results stated in table 2, we determined that an average rosette dwarf epidermal cell is about 65% of the size of an average standard epidermal cell within an internode. Using the average length and epidermal cell in millimeters of the internode, we determined the number of cells within an internode for standard and rosette dwarf Brassica rapa. The number of epidermal cells within a standard internode is 350 cells. The number of epidermal cells within a rosette dwarf internode is 28