Variety Blog

In the beginning, each bug is assigned a color. My first was yellow. The object of the project was to create a genetic difference by mating your bugs with other bugs with different colors. We had to make punnett squares to indicate the offspring for each new bug.

For P1 I mated starting with one color ( yellow) and ended up with two colors for the F1 generation.

For F1 I mated starting with two colors ( yellow and black) and ended up having four different colors ( yellow, black, brown, and orange) in the F2 generation.

When F2 mated, the offspring ended up with either 7 or 8 colors.

All of this happens when the chromosomes cross over. This is also called synopsis. Crossing over is when homologous chromosomes line up closely together and form a tetrad.

1/24/10

Since it was a short week, and one day we got a free day, we didn't learn as much as usual. This week we finished reviewing Mitosis and started learning about Meiosis. Mitosis and Meiosis are a lot alike. Mitosis has only four stages but Meiosis has ten phases.


Mitosis is the seperation of one cell into two cells. That's why it only goes through four phases.

Meiosis is the seperation of one cell into four cells. The phases in Mitosis are Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telephase. The phases in Meiosis are Diploid, Prophase I, Metaphase I, Anaphase I, Telephase I, Prophase II, Metaphase II, Anaphase II, Telephase II, and Gamete. I think Meiosis is just Mitosis twice with two new phases.

1/10

This week we learned about cell reproduction and mitosis.

Cell reproduction:

• Makes more organelles



• Replicates DNA



• Cells must grow before and after the cell splits

*If you kept splitting a cell, there wouldn't be enough organelles and DNA for new cells. If you split and cell, gave it time to grow, then split it again there would me enough organelles and DNA to make new cells.

We also learned about Mitosis- the process by which the eukariotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus into two identical sets in the nucleus. The term "Mitosis" means nuclear cell division. There are four phrases in Mitosis.

Prophase: When the chromosomes begin to condense into a tight ball.

Metaphase: When the chromosomes, of the dividing cell,begin to line up with the spindle aparatus ( the structure that seperates the chromosomes into the daughter cells).

Anaphase: The spindle aparatus pulls two identical sets of chromosomes apart from one another. Each new set of chromosomes is moved to the opposite side of the spindle aparatus.

Telophase: The chromosomes move toward the opposite ends of the spindle aparatus.

We also did an "Onion Root Cell" lab. We took slides with onion root cells on them and looked at them under a microscope. Some of them looked like this.