NAME Betsy Tietze

CLASS Period 2
DATE Monday 7, 2014
PLANARIA LAB REPORT

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

HYPOTHESIS: If trisected, then the Anterior Piece will regenerate first.

THEORY:

Planaria are flatworms that have the ability to reproduce sexually or
asexually. Planaria are categorized as hermaphrodites, which means that they have
both male and female gonads. Since planaria are hermaphrodites, that means that
when they meet other planaria, they exchange genes and then since they both have
female and male gonads, they both end up carrying different babies. Just incase you
dont know what gonads are; they are the sexual organs for males or females. This is
the main way that planaria reproduce.

Like I said before, planaria can both reproduce sexually and asexually. There
are two techniques for asexual reproduction. Those two tactics are tail dropping and
fragmentation. How the planaria drop their tails is they constrict their muscles
around their tail and then they pull apart and then they have another planaria.
When the planaria do fragmentation they do the same thing as when they are tail
dropping. Whenever a planaria drops their tail or does fragmentation, their
offspring has the same genetic info so they look the same. However, if conditions
around the offspring are bad, then that could affect their appearance. Planaria can
grow back any part of their body that they dont have at the time. That is why tail
dropping and fragmentation work.

Planaria are able to reproduce asexually through the process of regeneration.
How planaria do regeneration is by tail dropping but there is more happening than
just some flatworm dropping its tail. What really happens when a planaria
reproduces through regeneration is because there is this one type of cell called a
neoblast that is a undifferentiated stem cell. How these neoblasts help in
regeneration is because when planaria get injured or drop their tail, the neoblasts
go to the site of the injury. When a lot of neoblasts go to the injury, they form a
blastema. A blastema is a layer of undifferentiated cells that can turn into any type
of cell needed. Then once the cells get the info of what type of cell they need to be,
then they slowly but surely work and form a new body for whatever piece of the
planaria is needed. The main reason why I predicted that the anterior piece of the
trisected planaria would regenerate first is because it has the part in it that acts like
a brain, and without a brain, nobody can fully function.

DATA:




CONCLUSION:

In this lab we trisected planaria and hypothesized which one we thought
would regenerate first. I hypothesized that the anterior piece (the head piece)
because it contains the Cerebral Ganglia, which acts as a brain for the planaria. My
data shows that by day 10, the mid section had grown the most. The mid section
grew the most out of the two pieces that we had not lost. There were 78 pieces of
planaria in the entire 7
th
grade. 49% of those pieces, or 38/78 were mid sections
pieces that regenerated the most. Close after, the anterior piece with 37%, or 29/78
out of the total pieces regenerated first. And that leaves the posterior piece with
only 14% of the total pieces of planaria. In conclusion, planaria will regenerate
when trisected and the mid section has the biggest percentage of regenerating faster.

ANALYSIS:

If you look at the data table above the conclusion section, you will see that
most of the data from the 7
th
grade lines up with the data from period 2. This makes
our data valid. It makes them valid mainly because of the fact that they do line up
pretty closely shows that the data was consistent. What was difficult to control in
this lab started right at the beginning when we were trisecting the planaria. What
was hard to control about it was because the planaria kept on squirming around
when we were trying to cut them with the scalpels. What I would do to make the
results more reliable is I would make sure that everybody makes the incisions of the
planaria almost exactly the same, have everybody make their sketches as reliable as
possible, and feed all the planaria the same amount of food and at the same time.
And since the results were based off of the sketches and they werent which ones
actually grew the most, there isnt any way you can actually check which one would
actually grow the most when an incision is cut.
42
58
37
49
14
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Anterior Mid Section Posterior
%

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2014 Regeneration Data
2nd Period
7th Grade
Neoblasts in planaria and human stem cells are a lot alike, but they have
many differences in how they function. For example, neoblasts in planaria are there
to help them regenerate and grow new pieces of body when they are harmed and
that can only happen in humans for the cartilage of your finger or other harmed skin
areas. The main reason why humans have totipotent stem cells is because humans
are always growing and the stem cells are the main way that they grow. Some
similarities between neoblasts and totipotent stem cells are that they both help the
host (the human or planaria) grow. Stem cells in humans are mainly there to help
them grow and to help heal wounds like broken bones or something like that. Those
are some of the main differences and similarities of neoblasts and stem cells.
Well, there is less controversy over stem cell research mainly because, when
people try and fail, they learn new things and so do the people around them. What I
mean by this is, if somebody tries 5 theories, and all of them are wrong, then they
know that they are wrong. The more trial and error, the more you learn about the
subject. Most people agree that using HES (Human Embryonic Stem cells) to help
replace and repair damaged tissue or other things that need help to e repaired. More
people are agreeing that using HES for testing drugs/medicine to get a better
understanding on what medicines to use for diseases is also a good idea. This is why
there is way less controversy over the subject of human embryonic stem cells.