NAME

CLASS
DATE
PLANARIA LAB REPORT
www.volenteermarin.org

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

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

THEORY:

Planaria are flatworm like creatures that are hermaphrodites, meaning they
can reproduce asexually and sexually. The Planaria, have both sexes, male and
female, so they receive sperm, and they can excrete it. The sperm and eggs are
stored in the gonads, which have both testes and ovaries. If sperm is received the
eggs will be laid in its habitat. Since half of the genes were from one parent and half
the other, the offspring will be genetically diverse. Genetic diversity allows the
offspring to have immunities to the weaknesses of the parents, which helps Planaria
survive.

Planaria reproduce sexually, but when conditions are sterile, and there is no
other Planaria to mate with, asexual reproduction is necessary. Asexual
reproduction can occur in two ways, tail dropping and fragmentation. Tail
dropping is when Planaria pull off there own tail, then it rebuilds itself.
Fragmentation is the same process as tail dropping except the organism trisects into
three parts, anterior, posterior, and midsection. As said earlier, in sexual
reproduction an organism becomes genetically diverse, the difference in asexual
reproduction is the offspring is a clone. A clone is a being that has the exact same
genetics as the parent. The disadvantage of being a clone is that the next generation
will have the same vulnerabilities as the parent.

Planaria are able to reproduce asextualy through the process of regeneration.
Regeneration is the reproduction of body parts that were cut off and that get
recreated. The neoblasts, or stem cells are what make this process occur. The
neoblasts are totipotent which means they can become any type of cell. They make
up 30% of their anatomy so when there is an incision they move to it through a
process called blastoma. The neoblasts then turn on the genes to make specialized
cells. When the stem cells create new tissue it is not pigmented and that is why it is
called ghost tissue. During this process the organism always keeps one neoblast so it
can regenerate the 30% that were used in the recreation of the lost body parts. The
reason the midsection will regenerate first is because it has the digestive system
where the pharynx will secret enzymes to ingest food. Then the food will be
digested, and the energy from that food will provide more power for the process,
making it faster




DATA:


CONCLUSION:

In this lab we trisected a Planaria and drew drawings on its development
over a period of 9 days. I hypothesized that the midsection would regenerate first
instead of the Anterior or Posterior. My data shows by day 3, my Planarias
midsection had been the first to generate new un-pigmented ghost tissue. Over the
period of another three days the midsection had grown much longer and had
developed a pigmented tail. Then on day six, there was a sign of one undeveloped
ocelli and the start of a head. And finally by day nine the head was almost
completely formed, the tissue was mostly pigmented, and the ocelli had advanced to
the state when the Planaria was uncut. There was a close second fastest
regeneration to the midsection and that was the posterior. The slight difference was
that the head was still completely ghost tissue, the shape of it was unfinished and
the ocelli were still growing in. In my period, 58% of the groups ended up having the
midsection grow fastest, the anterior piece had 42% and posterior had 0%. For the
seventh grade the percentages were 49% for mid section, 37% for the anterior, and
14% for the posterior. For the results of both my class and the 7
th
grade the
midsection had the highest percentages to regenerate first (58%, 49%). To sum it all
up, my hypothesis about the midsection and its regeneration being faster was
correct for the majority of the 7
th
grade and the people in my class.


0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Anterior Midsection Posterior
2014 Regeneration Data
2nd period
7th grade
ANALYSIS:

Contemplating the results, I really do think my classes Planaria lab results were both
accurate and valid. The reason I think so was because I was looking at the data for
my class and all of the other classes, and I saw that the percentages for my class
were very similar to the others. For period 1, 54% of the class had the midsection
regenerate first, for the 2
nd
it was 58%, for the 3
rd
54%, for the 4
th
33%, for, 6
th
50%,
and for the 7
th
it was 42%. Having results close together is a sign of solid, consistent
data. It shows that students were trying to make it as accurate and fair as they could.
If they did otherwise, the results would be more varied. This proved to me that my
results were accurate. Even though the data of most classes were close together,
there was one discrepancy I noticed. Group 4 had a percentage much lower than the
others. Why that may be is because they may have cut imprecisely, making the
growth time either longer or shorter for any of the three pieces. Also not having the
correct amount of the resources in certain groups containers could have affected
growth. For instance, one group could have gotten more water or food than the
other. This type of error could have been a problem for any of the classes. Its just
that the 4th class had a dramatic outlier that might have been caused by an
experimental imperfection that could have been avoided. To improve the
experiment, instead of having the teacher cut the example with the naked eye, there
should be a microscope so everyone can get a turn to see where to cut. Also there
should be more clear measurements of the materials that each group put in their
petri dishes so that there are more accurate comparisons between the groups.


Planaria are very diverse, interesting, squirmy creatures, and are far from human,
but they share in common something with humans, stem cells. Though they both
have them does not mean they are the same. In humans, there are three types of
stem cells, totipotent, pluripotent, and multipotent. Totipotent means that the stem
cell can form any type of cell tissue. Pluripotent means the stem cell gives rise to
fewer types of cells. Multipotent cells can only replace certain cells in the area they
are in. All of these types of stem cells are very important in the creation and
maintenance of human life, but only one kind is present at a time. The Totipotency
of human stem cells is only present in the zygote, and divides to make the blastocyst.
The blastocysts inside cell mass becomes pluripotent, they line up into three layers.
The stem cells are then given chemical signals telling what part of the body they will
make. Then the fetus starts to develop, and the stem cells become multipotent
stored niches that are kept throughout life. As opposed to humans, planaria always
have only one type of stem cell. The stem cells or neoblasts in planaria are totipotent,
just like the zygote. The difference between planaria and humans is that our stem
cells stage and become more differentiated. Planarian can just regenerate whole
chunks of their bodies that are lost, which the regular multipotent human cell can
not. Humans are still capable of regenerating the cells in the body, just not large
masses of flesh.

In modern Science, embryotic cell testing is commonly used, but there is much
controversy on whether it should be done. The proper meaning of stem cell
research may have been misunderstood and made people reluctant to support hES
research. People are upset because scientists are destroying embryos, which they
are, but they are not seeing the bigger picture. Stem cell research should provide
many benefits such as possibly curing diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons,
helping the transplanting of vital organs, and regenerating lost tissue in burn
victims. Scientists also can test many types of drugs without harming animals or
humans, and much more. Now I think people are beginning to see this and recognize
how important it is in advancing medical technology, and how it can help millions of
people. What also could be helping settle the controversy is that scientists have
found new ways to develop stem cells without using the embryotic blastocysts
inside cells mass (embryotic stem cells). The first type of man-made stem cell is
called an IPS cell. IPS cells are created when 4 different genes that are only in stem
cells are introduced into a differentiated cell. The 4 genes seem to reconstruct the
cells DNA and uncover the genes that were shut down during the differentiation
process. This allows the cell to act in a way that is very similar to the embryonic
stem cells and gives it the capability to form into many types of cells. STAP stem
cells are the second type of artificial stem cell. The process of manufacturing STAPs
is surprisingly less complicated than IPS cells. It is simply a matter of stressing
differentiated cells. This is done by placing the cell in an acidic fluid and forcing it
through a very small tube. This triggers essential genes that transform the cells DNA
to its original state in a stem cell. STAP cells also have a unique quality. Not only can
they regenerate any type of cell in the body, they can also form the placenta, which
neither embryotic stem cells nor IPS cells can do. Even though STAP and IPS stem
cells have a few different aspects from embryotic ones, they are the closest matches
and must be worked on to be made identical.

Bib:

http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,167245,00.html

http://dmtec.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/2/6/13260057/sb_regeneration.pdf

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

http://www.ipscell.com/tag/stap-cells/