NAME Jack Robertson

CLASS 3
DATE April 7, 2013
PLANARIA LAB REPORT

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

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

THEORY:

Planaria are flatworms that reproduce sexually. Planaria are
hermaphrodites, this means that the have both female and male gonads. When
the Planaria reproduces they exchange sperm through the genital pores. The
planaria laid eggs that are genetically diverse from the parents. The offspring
will look different from the parents because of the exchange in genetic
material.

When conditions are less than ideal, planaria reproduce asexually.
Asexual reproduction is when the Planaria creates it own offspring by itself.
The Planaria manages to produce asexually by tail dropping. Tail dropping is
when the Planaria puts his tail against a rock and tightens the tail and moves
away from the rock. This causes the tail split off of the body. After the two
pieces split they began to grow back. This is called regeneration were the stem
cells in the Planaria regenerate the rest of the body. the offspring is an exact
clone because there is no exchange of sperm so the offspring with have the
same genetic material

Planaria reproduce asexually by regeneration. Regeneration is when
the Planaria grows back the cells that were once originally there to make up
the rest of the body. Planaria contain stem cells, stem cells make up 30% of
the body and they can turn into any type of cell the body needs. For instance, if
there is not enough red blood cells, the stem cells could turn into red blood
cells. Humans can also regenerate but only cuts or scrapes but the Planaria
can regenerate entire limps. This is a vital part of Planaria because it allows
them to reproduce in less than ideal places. I thought the mid-section would
grow back the quickest because the pharynx is attached to the mid section.
Because the pharynx is attached to the mid section it will allow the planaria to
gather the nutrients it needs allowing it to regenerate quicker because it will
have more energy to fuel to the process.








CONCLUSION:
In this lab we trisected a planarian Flat worm. I hypothesized that the mid-
section would regenerate the quickest. When we trisected the planaria, with
in a few days we started to see ghost cells in the mid section, which was a sign
that the mid-section had started to regenerate. The anterior and posterior did
not show signs of ghost cells forming on the cut ends of each piece. By day 7,
the mid section had fully regenerated. The seventh grade data showed that
49% of the mid-section regenerated first, compared to 37% of the anterior
pieces and only 14% of the posterior. The percent dropped about 4 times for
the posterior. The majority of the trisected pieces supported my hypothesis. In
conclusion, planaria will regenerate when trisected and the mid-section
would regenerate 12% faster than the anterior.

ANALYSIS:

My partner and I had unreliable data. Compared to the seventh grade
data 3
rd
periods data was relatively similar. There was a small number
of factors that made other groups data non valid. One of the reasons
some groups valid could have not been valid is because of how hard it
was to cut each piece of the planaria accurately. This affects the data
because if one piece is longer than the other, it has a head start and it
will regenerate quicker because it has less tissue to replace.

Human stem cells and neoblasts share similarities but also have a lot of
differences. One of the differences between the two types of cells is that
neoblasts are not located in humans they are located in planaria.
Another difference about human stem cells and neoblasts are that,
human stem cells are able to transform into any cell type in the human
23
54
23
37
49
14
0
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20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Anterior Mid Section Posterior
%

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2014 Planaria Data
3rd period
7th grade
body when they are giving a signal. The Stem cells only replace dead or
impaired cells. Neoblasts have the same capability as the human stem
cells but they also can also repair entire limps

Over the years, the controversy of stem cells research has lowered due
to recent discoveries. One of the major discoveries that caused the
controversy to die down was because scientist could make stem cells
act like HES (human embryonic stem cells). Although this was a great
discovery and caused the controversy to die down there is still a small
number of people who still argue. A handful of scientists still study stem
cells because they believe there could be a different stem cell type that
might be better for cell replacement. They think this because of STAP
cells (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) and IPS cells
(induced pluripotent stem cells). These two cell types share many
similarities with HES cells but are different. HES cells can perform these
tasks better than STAP and IPS cells. In conclusion the controversy over
stem cells has settled down due to recent discoveries.




Bibliography

"The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over?" The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over? N.p., n.d. Web.
07 May 2014. <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/scissues/>.

Watson, Stephanie, and Ph.D. Craig Freudenrich. "How Stem Cells Work."HowStuffWorks.
HowStuffWorks.com, 11 Nov. 2004. Web. 08 May 2014.
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/stem-cell6.htm>.