Is elodea prokaryotic or eukaryotic

Descriptive Title

C Nathan Hancock, Your names here

Introduction Identifying the types of cells present in a sample can be important for the prevention and treatment of diseases, biological engineering, and other biological research. One of the tools that can be used for identifying cell types is light microscopy. The first distinction that should be made when identifying cells is whether they are prokaryotes or eukaryotes. Prokaryotic cells are much smaller than eukaryotic cells and do not contain membrane bound compartments such as the nucleus, golgi, vacuole, mitochondria, or chloroplast. Eukaryotic cells contain these membrane bound structures and are found in organisms ranging from single celled fungus and protozoan to plants and animals. Our goal was to determine if light microscopy with a 40X objective can be used to differentiate between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Our hypothesis was that …………..To test this hypothesis, we observed a number of known samples for reference and then attempted to characterize two unknown samples. Based on our hypothesis, we predict that we will correctly/incorrectly identify the unknowns as a prokaryote or eukaryote.

File:20100306 204728 Euglena.jpg File:ElodeaLeaffaceupcells.jpg

Figure 2 Eukaryotic Cells

Images from Wikipedia showing Euglena (left) and Elodea (right) cells.

File:20101212 200110 LactobacillusAcidophilus.jpg File:0008L.jpg

Figure 1 Prokaryotic Cells

Images from Wikipedia of gram stained Lactobacilli from yogurt (left) and unstained Anabaena (right).

Materials and Methods An Olympus CH-2 microscope with 4X, 10X and 40X objectives was used for these experiments as described in the Bio 121 Laboratory manual. The plain yogurt was Great Value brand, the bread yeast was Fleischmann's brand, the Spirulina was General Nutrition brand, and the other biological materials (Anabaena, Elodea, Euglena, volvox and Saccharomyces) were obtained from Carolina Biolabs.

File:S cerevisiae under DIC microscopy.jpg File:Alga volvox.png Image result for rotifers

Figure 3 Unknown Samples

Image of unknown A (left), unknown B (middle), and unknown C (right)

Results As controls, we observed a number of organisms under the light microscope. The first of these, Lactobacilli, is a prokaryote found in yogurt cultures. At 40X magnification, these bacteria looked like ……... (Figure 1). We also observed the photosynthetic bacteria Anabaena. Under the microscope, these cells looked like ……… (Figure 1).

We also observed two types of eukaryotic cell types under the microscope. The first of these was the protozoan Euglena. We observed ……. (Figure 2). The second eukaryote we observed was Elodea, an aquatic plant. We observed ……. (Figure 2).

We attempted to identify two unknown cell types using light microscopy (Figure 3). For the unknown A cells we observed ……… . For the unknown B cells we observed ……… .

Discussion The main differences we observed between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells were …….. We were able to observe ……(discuss specific organelles)…..We were not able to observe……(discuss specific organelles)…..This was/wasn’t consistent with our expectations because ……

Based on our observations, we characterized unknown A cells as Prokaryotic/Eukaryotic because………….. After making this initial characterization, the cells were revealed to be Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as bread yeast. ……….(discuss here what you conclude or learned from this).

Based on our observations, we characterized unknown B cells as Prokaryotic/Eukaryotic because………….. After making this initial characterization, the cells were revealed to be volvox. ……….(discuss here what you conclude or learned from this).

Based on our observations, we characterized unknown C cells as Prokaryotic/Eukaryotic because………….. After making this initial characterization, the cells were revealed to be rotifers. ……….(discuss here what you conclude or learned from this).

Add the rest of the things that are needed for your discussion here (conclusions, support hypothesis?, improve techniques, recommendations to other scientists based on these results)