Contrary to the hypothesis – nicotine would have no effect on the ciliary activity and structure – the results show that nicotine indeed did have an effect on the cilia. The tables (1 – 3) and the image show that the cell activity and structure had changed after the cell was introduced to nicotinic surroundings.
Explanation of Conclusion
During the first trial, although the experiment didn’t proceed as smoothly as expected, some observations were made which defied the hypothesis. There were no dyed vacuoles seen at time 0 minute. This makes sense as the dye had just been added and the cells had just been killed. The cells would have required time to absorb the dye but their reproduction time is relatively low (Miller C N, 1). After 10 minutes, 0 mg/ml nicotine contained only 1 dyed vacuole and so did the 5 mg/ml and 15 mg/ml nicotine concentration samples. There were no dyed vacuoles in 25 mg/ml nicotine solution at this point.
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5 mg/ml contained 12 and 15 mg/ml nicotine concentration sample contained 8 dyed vacuoles. The highest vacuoles were seen in 0 mg/ml sample with 12 vacuoles. After 30 minutes, 25 mg/ml had the lowest visible vacuoles with only 10 dyed vacuoles. 5 mg/ml contained 19 and 15 mg/ml nicotine concentration sample contained 13 dyed vacuoles. The highest vacuoles were seen in 0 mg/ml sample with 29 vacuoles. This shows that given time, tetrahymena would induce phagocytosis and absorb the dye. This trial gave one important conclusion; with increasing nicotine concentration in the sample, the number of dyed vacuoles decreased. This could possible be due to any direct intervention that nicotine has on the process of phagocytosis and cilia. Nicotine downregulates the genes required for cilia to work properly (Leopold PL et al., 2009,