NAME: Amanda Morse

CLASS: Science 2
DATE: 4/22/14
PLANARIA LAB REPORT

PROBLEM: If trisected, which piece of a planarian will regenerate first?

HYPOTHESIS: If trisected, then the anterior will regenerate first.

THEORY:

Planaria are flatworms that have the ability to reproduce sexually or
asexually. Sexual reproduction is when two Planaria come to together and exchange
sperm. Since planaria are hermaphrodytes, they contain both types of gonads,
sperm cells and egg cells within their bodies. Once the two planaria come together,
each sperm fertilizes an egg cell. Once fertilization occurs in the egg cells, both
planaria will lay a certain amount of eggs. Each offspring does not look exactly like
their parents because of genetic diversity.

Planaria reproduce asexually by tail dropping and fragmentation. Asexual
reproduction is another way that planaria can reproduce. This specific type of
reproduction normally takes place when a planaria is within a stagnant
environment. Tail dropping is a way planaria can reproduce without a partner,
they simply drop their posterior piece and it regenerates due to the neoblast cells.
Fragmentation is another way that they reproduce asexually. This is when a
planarian will drop more then one piece of their body, for example posterior and the
mid section. These particular types of reproduction result in the offspring being
almost identical to the parent (cloning).

Planaria are able to reproduce asexually through the process of regeneration.
Regeneration is a part of asexual reproduction, when the body fully regenerates.
Regeneration will always happen within the bodies of planarian when they get
injured or drop their tails. This is because 30% of their bodies is comprised of
neoblasts. Neoblasts are totipotent stem cells that migrate to the sight of a wound
or in other instances when they drop their tails or other parts of their bodies.
Planaria also have a sense of head and tail orientation this is known as polarity.
Polarity is a great contributor to regeneration within planaria.They form a
blastema of neoblasts and rebuild pigmentation and tissue where the planarian was
injured. They always have neoblasts present in their cells to regenerate every time a
planarian is affected, injured or reproduces asexually. I hypothesized that if we
trisected the planaria then the anterior will regenerate first. I think this because the
anterior contains the cerebral ganglia, which acts as the brain in the process of
regeneration.


DATA:


Conclusion:
In this lab we trisected a planarian to find out which piece would regenerate
first. I hypothesized that the anterior would regenerate first. My data shows that
day-by-day the anterior had the most amount of movement out of all the pieces. By
day 10 the anterior had fully regenerated and there was lots of new pigmentation. It
had a complete set of oracles and oscelii. The posterior did not regenerate fully and
the mid section had not regenerated any new pieces at all. Out period 2s data 5 out
of the 12 (42%) of the anterior pieces regenerated first, 7 out of the 12 (58%) mid
sections regenerated first and 0 out of 12 (0%) posterior pieces regenerated first. In
comparison to the whole grade, my hypothesis was incorrect. The percent first
regenerated for each piece is as followed, 37% anterior, 49% mid section and 14%
posterior. 29 out of 78 anteriors regenerated first, 38 out of 78 mid sections
regenerated first and lastly 11 out of 78 posteriors regenerated first. Overall my
hypothesis was correct 50% of the time. In conclusion, when a planarian is trisected
the mid section will regenerate first

Analysis:

By looking at the 7
th
grade data we are able to uncover that the mid section
had the highest percentage of regeneration. Our 2
nd
period data was very reliable
because in comparison to the other classes we had a lot of the same data. Some
discrepancies that I noticed in the data were almost every class had either 1 or 2
posterior pieces regenerate first, except for 2. 2 had 0 out of 12 posterior pieces
regenerate first (0%). Overall 11/78 (14%)of the posteriors regenerated first which
42
58
37
49
14
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Anterior Mid section Posterior
%

F
i
r
s
t

R
e
g
e
n
e
r
a
t
e
d

2014 Regeneration Data
2nd Period
7th Grade
is the lowest in numbers. The data also shows that the mid section had the highest
percent of regeneration out of the whole 7
th
grade. 38/78 mid section pieces were
the first to regenerate. These discrepancies in the data could have very much been
unreliable because people could have made uneven incisions to the planaria. This
would cause the planaria to have to spend a longer time regenerating new tissue.
Also sketches could have been inaccurate making it so that you cant tell which piece
is which.

Neoblasts are totipotent undifferentiated stem cells that migrate to the sight
of a wound. They repair and replace lost cells. They are found all over the human
body and they help rebuild dead or injured tissue. Humans contain neoblasts all
over their body in the first few stages of birth. They are responsible for creating all
of the main organs, such as, liver, heart and brain. When a human is in the stages of
embryonic development they contain totipotent stem cells that can give rise to
anything in the body. As the embryo starts to develop into a fetus, its stem cells
become pluripotent. Which means that they can give rise to many cells but not all.
The final stage of stem cell growth is multipotentcy, which generally occurs in the
last stages of birth. Multipotent stem cells can only give rise to some things in the
body. Once a human is fully developed they have pockets of stem cells throughout
their body that live within niches. Niches hold the adult stem cells in pockets all over
the body. Where as planaria have neoblasts in them throughout their whole life.
Neoblasts in planaria are located throughout their body and never lose their
totipotency. They exist for their whole life cycle, and are there to replace dead tissue
whenever a planarian gets a wound or reproduces asexually. Neoblasts are one of
the most important kind of cells in both planaria and Humans. Without them people
would not be able to heal their wounds after they get injured.

There is much less controversy about stem cell research now because
scientists have found many different ways to create cells without harming any thing.
For example, before, scientists used to take cells from a living embryo to create hES
(human embryonic stem cells) but now they have found a different way to create
hES. They use cells from a leftover embryo donor to create these specific stem cells.
This new way to create these specific cells has made patients a lot less concerned
about the process of creating human embryonic stem cells. Also in order for
scientists to create IPS cells they have to modify adult stem cells in a lab. This could
create much controversy because there are not many stem cells located throughout
the body. Also in the process of reprogramming the patients cells, they introduce
genetic modification. This specifically has made people less certain that this process
is exactly safe. There could be a very high chance that something could go wrong
in the process of creating the IPS cells, because a modified cell is now being
introduced into the immune system. The last type of stem cell that has the least
amount of controversy are STAP cells. STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of
pluripotentcy) cells are created artificially in a lab. Scientists do this by stressing
somatic stem cells. This particular type of stem cell create less controversy then IPS
cells because they carry no genetic modifications. Therefore there is a lesser chance
that there will be a dangerous immune response to the modified cells.
Bibliography:

Genetic Science Learning Center. "Stem Cell Quick Reference." Learn.Genetics 8 May 2014
<http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/quickref/>


http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/quickref/


Genetic Science Learning Center. "The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over?." Learn.Genetics 8 May
2014 <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/scissues/>

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/scissues/


"Frequently Asked Questions." Stem Cells and Diseases [Stem Cell Information]. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May
2014.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/pages/health.aspx