Index 7 2.

6 Observing Cell Division Informal Lab Report

Purpose: ​The purpose of this lab is to observe and identify onion root tip cells and
whitefish embryo cells that are undergoing mitosis.

Materials:

-​Microscope
-prepared microscope slide of onion tip
-longitudinal section
-Photographs of whitefish embryo cells
-lens paper.

Procedure:​ Refer to page 46-47 in textbook and the handout

Observations:
Onion Root Tip-
Discussion:

(g) ​The actively dividing cells were found dividing in the root tip under the stage of
mitosis because the root tip allows cell division to continue to add cells at the root tip to
grow longer.

(h)​ I would not expect the whitefish embryo cells to continue dividing indefinitely
because when the cell divides, then it does not have time to get its nutrients and get rid
of its wastes and the cell increases in size making it harder for the nucleus to tell the
organelles what to do.
(i) ​This would kill plants because the herbicides would speed up the process of mitosis
and the plant would die without even growing. This might be dangerous to humans
because not all the cells divide at the same time, some cells go through mitosis at
different times and some only go once in a human lifetime. For example, skin cells
undergo mitosis every 24 hours and if cells keep on dividing then our body would die
because none of the cells are receiving nutrients and growing properly.

(j) ​I think the daughter cells would die because they have uneven chromosomes and
with uneven chromosomes can not go under mitosis because it does not have the same
chromosome as the original organism had and the body will not recognize the (DNA).

Conclusion: ​Our group learned that cell division (mitosis) has many phases or stages
that the cell goes through. The onion root tip had a cell wall and some parts of the cell
that were undergoing mitosis and we saw the cell membrane & nucleus being formed,
chromosomes and chromatids getting ready to be pulled, cytoplasm being created on
most of the cells, and the cell wall was formed around the cell to contain the organelles.