How Does Your Garden Grow? Steven Trujillo

1)Today my group's plant has grown good amount. This increase in size can be because of multiple things, but the main contributor to the growth is cell division.

In mitosis the chromosomes of a cell are duplicated to make two sets of chromosomes, and the cell nucleus divides into two identical nuclei. Before mitosis can begin the cell needs to create a twin set of its genetic information through DNA replication. At the start of mitosis the chromosomes wind up into objects that can be seen with a light microscope. Mitosis depends on photosynthesis and cellular respiration doing their job of making ATP for it to do cell division.

Photosynthesis, the plant uses the chloroplasts in it's cells to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to oxygen and glucose. Energy from the sun is used to split water molecules. The sunlight hits chloroplasts in the plant to break apart water molecules, the most efficient light is blue then red. Broken down water give the plant oxygen, hydrogen, and electrons that travel from protein to protein known as electron transport chain. This converts NADP into NADPH which is then used in the light-independent reactions. ATP is synthesized from ADP and the sunlight. This occurs in the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts. In the Calvin cycle, sugars are made using carbon dioxide and the products and other chemicals.

Photosynthesis creates the sugar for cellular respiration to break down and create ATP that the cell uses for all kinds of process in the cell.

Usually, the process of respiration uses oxygen has four stages known as glycolysis, Link reaction, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. In glycolysis, sugar in the cytoplasm is broken down into two molecules of pyruvate. The pyruvate in Link reaction looses a carbon dioxide and is converted into acetyl CoA. In the Kreb Cycle the acetyl CoA is borken down and the carbon dioxide is released again, now 4 molecules of carbon are released. In the end of the cycle it forms two molecules of pyruvic acid, two ATP molecules, ten NADH molecules, and two FADH2 molecules. The NADH and FADH2 generated in the Kreb Cycle are oxidized, providing energy to power ATP synthase and create more ATP for growth in the cell.

Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration do the reverse of each other, but both create ATP to power cell processes like Mitosis or Cell division, that all end up leading to making the small seed become a big plant.

2) To create enzymes a cell needs to use two vital components of a cell: RNA and organelles(ribosomes). To create mRNA, RNA must make a copy of DNA. This mRNA then leaves the nucleus and goes to the cytoplasm, where a ribosome attaches to the mRNA molecule. This ribosome starts translating codons into amino acids. Starting with the codon AUG and ending with UAA, UAG, or UGA. The amino acids used by the ribosome assemble protein. After translation, the protein goes through rough endoplasmic reticulum and then, if the protein is supposed to go outside of the cell, the Golgi Apparatus for final packaging. In the case of our plants, these enzymes are used to fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.