Mitosis Onion Root Tip Lab

November 19, 2011 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

Percentage of Cells in Each Mitosis Stage

Question: How much time do cells spend in each part of the

cell cycle?

Hypotheses: If the tip of an onion root is magnified, then

more than 90% of the cells will be in interphase.

Constant: The microscope used to magnify the onion root

tip, the slide the root is placed on stays the same, the day it’s
magnified

Procedure:

1. Obtain a slide of onion root cells. Examine the slide

under the microscope using the low-power lens, then
focus on high power.
2. Find examples of cells in each stage of the cell cycle,
including interphase and the stages of mitosis. Draw
and label 1 cell per stage in the provided table. Label
structures the following structures: cell membrane,
DNA/Chromosomes, Nuclear membrane, Nucleus on
Table 1 of the handout (paper).
3. Select a random area of the slide to study using the
high-power lens; focus on high power.
4. Identify the stage of each cell in the view, and record
your data by using theOnion Root Tip Lab Data Table
found here.
5. To make your counting faster….
1. Find the total number of cells by counting the number
of cells across (horizontally) and counting the number
 of cells down (vertically). Multiply these numbers to
find the total number of cells.
2. To find the number of cells in each stage of mitosis,
count them (there won’t be that many).
3. To find the number of cells in interphase subtract the
number of cells in the different stages of mitosis
(prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase) from the
total number of cells in the field of view. This will give
you the number of cells in interphase.
6. Repeat steps 4 a second time for a second sample.
7. Calculate the percentage of cells in each part of the cell
cycle for each sample. Complete Table 2.
1. Sample Calculation:
(# of cells in interphase)/(total number of cells) x 100 = %
of cells in interphase

Backgound:

The process by which a single cell divides into two identical

“daugter” cells is called Mitosis. Each daughter cell has an
identical number or chromosomes as the parent
cell. Mitosis takes place in all living cells. The four stages of
mitosis include prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and
telophase. These stages follow each other without
interruption.

1. What patterns exist in your data? In which stage of the

cell cycle are most of the cells you examined? How does
this data support what you know about the cell cycle?
Over 80% of the cells examined were in the stage of
interphase. This proves information about the cell cycle to
be correct by supporting the fact that a vast majority of a
cell’s life is spent in interphase.
2. Find the average percentage of cells in each stage of the
cell cycle among the three samples. Assume that a cell takes
24 hours to complete one cell cycle. Calculate how much
time is spent in each stage of the cell cycle. (Hint: Multiply
the percentage of cells in each stage, as a decimal, by 24
hours).

Sample Total
Cells Interphase Prophase Metaphase

1 324 267 82.00% 19 5.00% 36

11.00%
2 234 174 74.00% 22 9.00% 23
10.00%
Average 279 220.5 78% 20.5 0.07 29.5
0.105

Anaphase Telophase

1 1.00% 1 1.00%
12 5.00% 3 1.00%
6.5 0.03 2 0.01
3. The cells in the root of an onion are actively
dividing. How might the numbers you count here be
different than if you had examined cells from a different
part of the plant?

The numbers could be different if examined from a different

part of the plant because they might not be dividing as fast.
More cells would be in interphase and hardly any examples
of anaphase and telophase would be reported.

4. Using the data from Table 2, create a graph in Google

Spreadsheets using the % of cells in each stage of
Mitosis. Add a title and label the graph. Upload a picture of
the graph to your post.

5. A chemical company is testing a new product that it

believes will increase the growth rate of food
plants. Suppose you are able to view the slides of a plant’s
root tips that have been treated with the product. If the
product is successful, how might the slides look different
from the slides you viewed in this lab?

The slides could look very different from the slides in this
lab. The cells would divide much quicker in order for more
rapid growth, therefore, there could be many more cells in
the later stages of mitosis. The cells would be mostly in the
stages of anaphase and telophase.

6. Design an experiment that would test the product

described in question. Explain what you could test or do to
show that the product really does increase the rate of cell
growth and division in plants. Assume the product is a
liquid that can be added to the soil in which the plant is
growing.

An experiment that could be conducted to prove that the

liquid product increased the rate of cell growth would be…

Before the liquid was applied, calculate the cells in each

stage of mitosis, as well as interphase. After one week, the
cells would be examined again. Again, the number of cells in
each stage of mitosis (and interphase) would be
calculated. If the amount of cells in the later stages of
mitosis increased rapidly over the week, it would most likely
prove that the product aided in the plants fast growing.

The hypothesis stated that 90% of the cells magnified from

the cell root tip would be in interphase. The hypothesis was
proven incorrect; the graph and data table both state that
only 82% of the cells were proven to be in interphase. The
average number of cells in anaphase and telophase were
both less than 1%.The findings from this experiment
confirm current explanations of the cell cycle by supporting
the fact that a vast majority of a cell’s life is spent in
interphase. Information about the cell cycle have aided
many scientists in discoveries about many things- from the
creation of a person to cloning.

An error that was made during this experiment was that the
microscope wasn’t originally focused on the tip of the onion
root. This would mess up the experiment results because
the data wouldn’t be exclusively from the root tip. Another
error that was made was that the number of cells in each
stage of mitosis weren’t counted, they were more like
estimated. This threw off percentages for each stage of
mitosis and possibly is what made the hypothesis proven
false.

A modification that could be made to this experiment is

magnifying root tips from multiple onions and finding the
average. Also, the whole class could have shared their
averages and a grand (and most accurate) average could be
calculated.