Stem Cell Webquest

What are stem cells and why are they important? Stem cells have a amazing rate of growing into a lot of different cell types during early life and growth. The are used as sort of a defensive/repair system in the body that they live in. They do not have a limit of helping the body while it is still alive. Every stem cell can create either two stem cells, two specialized cells, or one specialized and stem cell. By specialized cell I mean any cell that helps or destroys things in the body. Such as a lung cell or a liver cell that goes and helps the organs.

Webquest Key Terms

Cell-based therapies- Treatment in which stem cells are induced to differentiate into the specific cell type required to repair damaged or destroyed cells or tissues.

Differentiation- The process whereby an unspecialized embryonic cell acquires the features of a specialized cell such as a heart, liver, or muscle cell. Differentiation is controlled by the interaction of a cell's genes with the physical and chemical conditions outside the cell, usually through signaling pathways involving proteins embedded in the cell surface.

Embryonic stem cell line-Embryonic stem cells, which have been cultured under in vitro conditions that allow proliferation without differentiation for months to years.

Proliferation- Expansion of the number of cells by the continuous division of single cells into two identical daughter cells.

Plasticity- The capacity of organisms with the same genotype to vary in developmental pattern, in phenotype, or in behavior according to varying environmental conditions.

Pluripotent- Not fixed as to developmental potentialities, capable of differentiating into one of many cell types.

Did my questions on the link below

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1W7QyyyXwecn4TaEynD81k4OxoWiyCPjeeR0VGN7Wxvs

Meiosis

In Meiosis there are alot of certain things that are different than Mitosis. Mitosis is for cell reproduction and each cell is made exactly the same. In Meiosis genes and traits are the difference. No two things created by Meiosis are exactly the same and this is very interesting. It makes sure that nothing is the same. That makes flowers the way they are, people the way we are, and animals the way they are. There are also 5 main steps in Meiosis but you'll see the difference is my explanations and diagram below.

Prophase I
Nuclear division is about to occur in the first phase. A spindle forms as centrosomes move away from each other. The nucleolus disappears and so do the nuclear envelope fragments. Homologous chromosomes both have two sister chromatids and have to go through synapsis to make bivalents. The exchange of color may occur over the nonsister chromatids After this happens the sister chromotids are no longer identical.

Metaphase I
The bivalents held together by chiasmata have moved towards the equator of the spindle. This is determined by a fully formed spindle and alignment of the bivalents at the equator of the spindle.Protein complexes on the outside of the centromeres are called Kinetochores and should be seen by now. These are attached to spindle fibers. The bivalents align themselves at the equator of the spindle. Then the maternal and paternal homologues may be oriented on either pole. This means that all possible combinations can occur in the daughter cells.

Anaphase I
The homologues of each bivalent seperate and move to opposite poles. Each chromosome still has two chromatids.

Telophase I
Creates divisions so that each daughter cell has one chromosome from each homologous pair. Each parent has two pairs of homologous pairs of chromosomes. After telophase we get into Interkinesis. This is when mitotic division is similar to Interphase except DNA replication does not occur because chromosomes are already duplicated.

Mitosis

There are two main ways of cell reproduction which are very different from each other. Mitosis uses 5 different phases to make an exact copy of the cell. For example if you tear a muscle then your brains tells the cells to start reproducing so the tear will heal. I'm sure you don't want bone cells where the muscle needs fixed. Meiosis is a completely different thing with having 7 steps instead of 5. Meiosis can only be used in one thing and that is sexual reproduction. Anything living uses this to make more of it. In Meiosis no two things are exactly the same and that is the beauty of it. I will talk about Meiosis in my next blog.

Mitosis is made up of 5 different steps and here is more detail about them.

Interphase
This is the starting phase when the cell is doing its normal job. New DNA is split up so that each chromosome has equal amount of DNA. The two chromosomes are called duplicated or replicated chromosomes and attach in a structure called the centromere. After time the cell gets ready to start Mitosis by putting together much of the things needed to move chromosomes around. Although interphase really isn't a part of Mitosis it is something important to know about.
Prophase
This is the first step in Mitosis and involves the chromosome to become visible. This is done by paired centrioles (centrosomes) moving to opposite ends of the cell. To tell that its no longer interphase the nucleoli disappear and inside the nucleus is grainy like spaghetti. As the centrosomes move apart the mitotic spindle forms. Some of the fibers of the mitotic spindle attach to chromosomes pulling them towards the center of the cell.


Metaphase
In metaphase the centromeres are now in the center of the cell. Many nonattached spindle fibers are visible in metaphase. Some of these fibers reach beyond the metaphase plate and overlap.

Anaphase
Sister chromatids part and become daughter chromosomes that move toward the spindle poles. Each daughter cell has a centromere and a single chromatid that appear to move to opposite poles. Each pole receives the same number and kinds of chromosomes. This cell is called the parent cell.

Telophase 
During this phase daughter cells that have the same chromosomes as the parent cell form as nuclear envelopes and nucleoli reappear. Chromosome will become indistinct chromatin.

In this experiment I had to choose which phase each picture was in out of 36 pictures. The highest # of pictures was Interphase with 20 pictures. Going from highest to lowest the next # of pictures were Prophase with 10 pictures. Next down was Metaphase with 3 pictures. After Metaphase was Anaphase with 2 pictures. Finally with 1 picture was Telophase. I think it was funny that the phases went in order with the last phase as the lowest # of pictures and Interphase with the highest # of pictures.

The questions from the lab are in the link below

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1VkdM64evQlortXHTTNlCBvAcCc9M8rvkUzkyooWDe2E

Cell Structure

There are 3 basic types of cell which are the animal cell, the plant cell, and the bacteria cell and I will explain all of them.

An animal cell is made up of alot of different parts which are used for different functions. First thing I will talk to you about is the nucleolus which is one of the most essential things in the structure. This is the way you can tell one cell from the other because RNA and DNA are stored here.

Arsenic as a Poison

Arsenic is known best as a deadly poison, although in small doses it does have medical benefits. BBC News Online looks at the workings of the chemical infamous for its deadly effects. Arsenic is a semi-metallic naturally-occurring chemical. It is all around us in the environment and we are all exposed to small doses on a regular basis. It is difficult to detect as it is generally odourless and flavourless, meaning people have little idea when it is around.

I got this information on:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/arsenic_poisoning.shtml

If consumed large amounts of Arsenic, humans can be killed quickly. If Arsenic is consumed with small amounts, but long time exposure humans die a much slower but painful death, or gain another illness. These illnesses include cancer, diabetes, thickening of the skin, liver disease, or problems with digestive system. Anyone who consumes large amounts of this poison by eating or drinking will most likely die. It causes a metallic taste in the mouth, excessive saliva production, and problems with swallowing. The next stage of the consummation is vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and access sweating. In the last stage consumers will have seizures and go into shocking dying soon after. Some ways to treat Arsenic poisoning are wash your hands with excessive amounts of water, remove any contaminated clothes, and washing out the stomach. Ways to prevent the consumption of Arsenic poison are to stay away from contaminated water and other things with mass amounts of Arsenic.

Enzyme Pressure Lab

This lab was intended to see how much pressure a yeast and H2O/H2O2 mixure could withstand in 3 minutes and was measured in kPa(kilo pascals). Madey Eckart, Sam Torres, and myself did this lab together...also with the help of Megan Roberson and Brett Copper.

In this part of the lab we measured how much yeast was put in a 3mL H2O/3mL H2O2 beaker and used different amounts of drops from a pipe-let throughout the experiment. In the first test we measure how much pressure a pipe-let with 10 drops of yeast could withstand. In the graph above it shows that the beaker could withstand 8.007kPa. In the second test we measured 15 drops instead of the 10 and it withstood 11.4 kPa. Our final test surprised us because in about half way through the pressure plug popped off from the beaker before the 3 min was over so the pressure it withstood was only 8.583kPa. So we all came to the conclusion that with more yeast the pressure builds up quicker but it can't withstand as much.

In this part of the lab we measured the the pressure in different temperatures. We kept a constant number of yeast drops (20) that were put into the beakers and still used 3mL H2O/ 3mL H2O2. In the first test we used a Room Temp. mixture and got a 8.587kPa result. The second test was a Cold temp. mixture and got a low pressure rate of 6.037kPa. In the third test we used a Warm Temp. mixture and got a pressure level of 8.569 kPa. In our fourth and final test we used a Hot Temp. mixture and got a pressure level of 7.427kPa. In this experiment the pressure seemed to jump around a little bit so we couldn't really find a pattern to it but I think if the water is too hot or cold the pressure will decrease.

This was the last experiment we did in this lab and was definitely different than the last two because instead of mixing the 3 mL H2O in with the 3mL H2O2 we replace the H2O with 3 mL different Ph leveled liquids but still used the 20 drops of yeast as in the second experiment. In the first test we did we used a pure acidic substance and in the result of it was 5.316kPa.In the second test we used a very neutral substance and the pressure level was 6.4 kPa. In the third and final test we used a pure basic substance which lasted to the pressure of 6.805kPa. So in the conclusion of this experiment as long as the substance is more basic it could withstand more pressure.

This experiment was fun in my opinion and hope we do more like this. Not only did I learn more about enzymes, but also how they effect certain things.

Membrane Structure

Membrane's are important because without them there would me no us. Biological membranes are sheetlike structures mostly made from lipids and proteins. Membrane-Lipids are in the bilayer and are 60 to100 Å(angstroms) thick. Protein membranes are spread all around the bilayer and perform the functions of the membrane. Both the lipids and proteins are constantly moving. Lipids are the primary determinants of the main structure, while the proteins carry out the membrane structure. Membranes are found everywhere and there are many different types. The plasma membrane surround cells and cells are what make up living things. The plasma membrane keeps the cells intact by holding all the cellular components inside. and it also protects it by keeping unwanted things outside of the cell. The membrane has may different functions that include signaling to other cells and transmitting the reaction into the cell itself, provides cell to cell contact that give direct communication. Membranes are actually permeable structures. 

The different parts of the membrane are obviously important towards it. The integral protein is a protein molecule that is permanently attached to the biological membrane and are hard to detach from the membrane. The peripheral protein is a protein that temporarily attaches to the membrane and it functions as sort of a communicator. The carbohydrates obviously are the sugars and other energy sources that help keep the membrane strong and functional. So not only did I learn about what the cell membrane does but I also learned about why it is used and a few terms and functions of it.