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Discovering Differences: Environmental and Genetic Influences

Kendra Sykes, Ashley Savannah, and Kerlyne Jean

We tested four different characteristics of the plants. These were: petioral trichomes, height, number of flowers, and number of leaves.

Our first experiment for the petioral trichomes our results were as follows:

wild type HL HF: avg. 15.5

wild type HL LF: avg. 10.25

This shows that the environment has an influence on the number of petioral trichomes.

wild type LL LF: avg. 2.7

petite LL LF: avg. 5.5

This shows that genome does not have an influence on the number of petioral trichomes because it showed up on both though the numbers were different.

The next experiment was height and we hypothesized that bothe environment and genome would influence height our results were the following:

wild type HL HF: avg. 16.25 cm

wild type HL LF: avg. 6.5 cm

This shows that environment does have an influence on the height of the plant because the heights were significantly different.

wild type LL LF: avg. 9.8 cm

petite LL LF: avg. 3.18 cm

This also shows that genome has an influence on the plant because almost all the plants of the wild type were taller than the petite genome. We now see that both environment and genome has an in fluence on height.

The next experiment was the number of flowers on the plants and we hypothesized that environment would have an affect and that genome would not. These are our results:

wild type HL HF: avg. 2.2 flowers

wild type HL LF: avg. 3.7 flowers

Since the difference in number of flowers is so small a clear conclusion cannot be made on whether environment affects the number of flowers.

wild type LL LF: avg. 1 flower

petite LL LF: avg. 0 flowers

The genome may or may not affect the number of flowers in each group of four plants but maybe if buds were counted as well as flowers we would be able to see better observations or differences.

Our last test was the number of leaves on each plant. We think that environment should have an influence on the number of leaves. The results were:

wild type HL HF: avg. 7.1

wild type HL LF: avg. 8

We thought environment would have an influence but it didn't.

wild type LL LF: avg. 5.5

petite LL LF: avg. 8.5

Looking at these findings we think the genome does have an affect on the number of leaves on a plant.

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