NAME: Caroline

CLASS: Science 2
DATE: 4714
PLANARIA LAB REPORT

PROBLEM: If trisected, which piece of a planarian will regenerate first?

HYPOTHESIS: If trisected, then the mid-section will regenerate first.

THEORY:

Planaria are flatworms that have the ability to reproduce sexually or
asexually. Planaria are hermaphrodite, which means they have female and male
parts. In a planaria there are many reproductive parts called gonads. Some
reproductive parts include the female organs, male organs, nervous system,
digestive system, excretory system, muscle layer, and the body wall. When both
plarania exchange sperm it goes into their ovaries, then they lay their eggs, and go
their separate ways. When the baby planarians are born, they have all the same
hermaphrodite parts just like their parents. Sexually reproduction is the most
preferable way for Planaria to reproduce.
Planaria reproduce asexually by tail dropping or fragmentation. Tail
dropping is when only the tail drops into stagnant water. Fragmentation is when the
planaria divide itself into lots of pieces from any of their body parts. The reason why
planaria produce asexually is because the environment isnt good. When the water
is stagnant, and they dont have any good resources, they produce asexually. The
offspring is identical because it has the same genes. When a planaria produces
asexually, they make clones. The clones have the same genes, but can look different
because their environment may lack their resources, which can make the baby
planaria not develop fully. Overall, Tail dropping and Fragmentation occur in the
process asexually.
Planaria are able to reproduce asexually through the process of regeneration.
Regeneration occurs when the planaria is injured and can produce a whole new
body. In our science class, we cut the planaria into three pieces. Our project was to
see the planaria regenerate. From the injured side of the planaria, the neoblasts
(which are stem cells) move to the hurt area and become a blastema. Then the
neoblast gets a signal to become any cell type. The totipotent cells then become any
cell that needs to make up the rest of the body. The cut part of the body slowly
grows back to complete a whole body. Without neoblast the planaria would not be
able to regenerate. I hypothesize that the mid section would regenerate first
because the mid section comprises of the pharynx. The pharynx is the mouth
of the planarian, and in order for any living animal to grow they must be able
to eat. This is why I believe that the mid section of a planaria will regenerate
first.





DATA:


CONCLUSION:

In this lab, we trisected a planaria to find out which body piece would
regenerate first. I hypothesized that mid section would grow back first. My data
shows by day that the mid section grew faster then the anterior and posterior. Each
day the mid section grew a lot of outer tissues. By Day 10, the mid section
regenerated an anterior and posterior before the other body parts. This shows that
the mid section has formed faster than the other body parts because it has more
tissue and pigmentation. Out of the whole 7
th
grade, 49% of the students agreed that
the planaria regenerated the mid section first. This leaves 37% (29/78) and 14%
(11/78) kids to believe that the anterior and posterior grew first. In our 2
nd
period
class, the mid section also had the most growth. 58% of students said that the mid
section had regenerated first and that 5/12, which is 42% of students said that the
anterior grew first. As you can see, most of the students responses were that the
mid section grew first. In conclusion, planarian will regenerate when trisected and
the mid section will grow back first. My hypothesis was correct 100% of the time.



42
58
37
49
14
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Anterior Mid-section Posterior
%

F
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s
s
t

R
e
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r
a
t
e
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2014 Regeneration Data
2 Period
7th Grade
ANALYSIS:

If you look at the data, regeneration happened first in the mid section. My results
are mostly valid because the overall vote of the class and grade agreed that the mid
section regenerated first. I also followed precise directions, and cut the planaria
evenly which helped me get the right data. Something that was difficult to control
was cutting the planaria evenly. If you cut a planaria uneven, one of the pieces has
more of an advance of growing first. This can mess up the whole project. Some
changes that would make results more reliable would be to draw their observations
right. Fortunately, I cut and drew correctly so my data is accurate that the mid
section grew first. Some observation that I had was that the mid section moved the
fastest, regenerated quickly, and grew more tissues and layers. By day 10, the mid
section was the first part of the planaria to grow a full head and tail. These are many
observations and data showing that the mid section grew back first.

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that help organisms create tissue and organs or
rebuild and replace cells that have died or have been wounded. Neoblast are very
important to the rise of any type of cell in the planarian body. Neoblasts in planarian
are totipotent through out their life. This means that the worm will always be able to
rebuild injured or missing body parts due to the totipotency ability of these neoblast.
However, in humans, the stem cells lose their totipotency early on in the life cycle.
Around 8 weeks, human stem cells become totipotent, pluripotent, and multipotent
to develop into a fetus. At the beginning of the life cycle the sperm and egg make a
zygote cell which forms into a blastocyst. This first process is totipotent but quickly
becomes pluripotent in the next stage of the cycle when the cell divides. The cell is
organized into three tissue layers abbreviated as Ecto., Meso., and Endo. Once the
embryo has the three layers, the pluripotent cells in each layer turn into what is
needed for developing a fetus such as the organs and livers. Then the cells turn
into multipotent which give rise to blood cells, tissue types and so much more.
Human stem cells and neoblasts in planarian are similar because they both help the
organism grow. Even though they have different steps in the process, they are very
similar because they both have totipotent cells, they have nearly the same way of
regenerating, and they can rebuild or regrow in an animal or human. Neoblasts have
many similarities and differences.

There are many reasons why stem cells are less controversial today. In research,
scientists are developing new technologies that dont kill the embryo. In the past,
one of the main reasons why stem cell research was so controversial was because
scientists were killing the embryo. However, there is a less controversial method
involving embryonic cells now. Scientists have discovered a new and innovative way
to create stem cells out of ordinary cells. These options are called induced
pluripotent stem cells (IPS) and stimulus triggered acquisition of pluripotency
(STAP). This means that embryonic stem cells are no longer the only stem cells that
can be used to cure diseases and sicknesses. In the past few years, scientists have
found many uses for stem cells and today there is a lot less controversy surrounding
stem cell research because of these advances.