Lab Report On Plant Cell Walls

The leaves of a plant are the main photosynthetic organs and are involved in gas exchange and water transportation throughout a plant (Evans et al, 17). A leaf typically consists of an upper and lower epidermis, the mesophyll cells, veins, guard cells and stomata. The mesophyll cells contains spongey cells which have large gaps between each cell to allow oxygen and carbon dioxide circulation. The mesophyll cells contain palisade cells, which are located beneath the upper epidermis. The palisade cells contain many chloroplasts, which are green organelles. Located in the internal layers of chloroplasts is the pigment chlorophyll which is involved in trapping the light energy in photosynthesis (Evans et al, 17).

The cell membranes are the utmost essential organelle that surrounds all living cells. Its purpose is to control what goes in and out of the cells and is accountable for the various other properties of the cells as well. The nucleus and other organelles also have membranes that are practically indistinguishable. Membranes are organised in a mosaic arrangement, comprised of carbohydrates, proteins and phospholipids. This can be seen in Figure 1. The objective of this indirect examination is to study the causes of various solvents and conducts on live beetroot cells. The reason why beetroot cells have been selected for this experiment is because they have a big membrane-bound central vacuole, as seen in Figure 2. The red colour anthocyanin, which provides the beetroot its bright colour is located in the vacuole. The cell membrane encloses the whole beetroot cell. The anthocyanin cannot leak out if the membranes stay unharmed. The red colour can escape if the membranes are hassled or broken.

The image above is our chromatogram, you can see at the top the orange bands of a carotene, next are the bands of xanthophylls which are yellow. The next light green bands directly bellow the yellow is chlorophyll a, the darker green bands are chlorophyll b. In order to test absorbance of the chlorophylls they were cut out of this chromatogram submerged into acetone and then used to get an absorption spectrum as seen below.

Purpose: To determine the concentration of solute in the potato’s cytoplasm by measuring the change

The lipids found in cell membranes belong to a class known as triglycerides, so called because they have one molecule of glycerol chemically linked to three molecules of fatty acids. The majority belong to one subgroup of triglycerides known as phospholipids. The cell membrane is made up of a phospholipid bilayer. The hydrophobic tails of the detergent molecules are taken up by this bilayer.

Hypothesis: To investigate the effect of different concentrations of ethanol on the permeability of beetroot cell membranes.

Plant cells have selectively permeable membrane that allows selective substances to penetrate into the cell. Cell membranes are consisting of lipid layer that are made up of phospholipids. (Essays, UK.2013). These phospholipids are amphipathic in nature, which have phospholipids head and tail respectively. Phospholipids heads are hydrophilic and tails

The purpose of this experiment was to alter the cell membrane of the beets, in a given fashion, so that we can test how much betacyanin was able to cross the cell membrane of the beet through various treatment. In which after we would test the absorbance level of each treatment, run it through excel and observe which treatment was most effective at getting betacyanin through the cell membrane more.

The Effect of Temperature on the Permeability of Beetroot Membrane Analysis The graph shows the colorimeter readings increase as the temperature increases, they increase by the most at higher temperatures. This is shown by a smooth curve. This means that the beetroot samples release more dye at higher temperatures.

The values of color absorbance are effective because color absorbance has a linear relationship with concentration values, which in turn, allows us to easily find concentration values for many solutions. Beer’s law describes this phenomenon since the absorbance is directly proportional to concentration. We observed that as the color absorbance increased, the concentration of the FeSCN2+ complex ion increased. This is because as the FeSCN2+ concentration increases, the blood-red color becomes darker due to more presence of the blood-red FeSCN2+ ion. Therefore, the color absorbance increases because there is more blue color absorbed by the darker red color. We then graphed the absorbance and concentration values and created a line of best fit. Using the line of best fit, we were able to predict the equilibrium concentrations of the FeSCN2+ solutions and find the change required to reach equilibrium. Since we already knew the initial concentration of FeSCN2+ and since we already found the equilibrium concentration of FeSCN2+, we can calculate the change in equilibrium. Using this data, we were able to calculate the equilibrium concentration of all of the species in this lab, since we already knew the change from the initial concentration to the equilibrium change. Q is less than K because there was no initial concentration of FeSCN2+, but after the system reached

The results increase steadily between 0°C and 45°C. There is a steep increase between 45°C and 65°C. This is the point when the proteins in the cell membranes are denatured causing gaps to form in the membrane, thus allowing more red pigment from the beetroot to diffuse into the distilled water.

Abstract: The purpose of this lab is to separate and identify pigments and other molecules within plant cells by a process called chromatography. We will also be measuring the rate of photosynthesis in isolated chloroplasts. Beta carotene, the most abundant carotene in plants, is carried along near the solvent front because it is very soluble in the solvent being used and because it forms no hydrogen bonds with cellulose. Xanthophyll is found further from the solvent font because it is less soluble in the solvent and has been slowed down by hydrogen bonding to the cellulose. Chlorophylls contain oxygen and nitrogen and are bound more tightly to the paper than the other pigments.

Introduction: Cell membranes contain many different types of molecules which have different roles in the overall structure of the membrane. Phospholipids form a bilayer, which is the basic structure of the membrane. Their non-polar tails form a barrier to most water soluble substances. Membrane proteins serves as channels for transport of metabolites, some act as enzymes or carriers, while some are receptors. Lastly carbohydrate molecules of the membrane are relatively short-chain polysaccharides, which has multiple functions, for example, cell-cell recognition and acting as receptor sites for chemical signals.

Beetroot cells contain a red pigment, which is stored in the cell vacuole and a vacuole membrane to prevent this leaking out of the cell surrounds it. The outer of the cell is also surrounded by a membrane, which again helps contain the pigment inside the cell. In this experiment I aim to find out the relationship between the leakage of red pigment from a beetroot cell and the surface area. To do this successfully I will need to alter the surface area of the beetroot cells accurately and then measure if any and how much dye is let out. I can hopefully then look at my results and then find a relationship between the two factors and be able to explain exactly why any changes took place.

For lab 12, it is hypothesized that chlorophylls a and b are present in a plant leaf and contribute to the starch production in photosynthesis. Also, products of photosynthesis will be present in leaf tissue exposed to red and blue light wavelengths for several days, but a decreased presence in leaf tissue exposed to green and black light wavelengths. In lab 13, it is expected that since chlorophylls a and b are more polar and smaller molecules than the anthyocyanins and carotenoids, they will travel higher up the chromatography paper than the other pigments.