A Matter of Selection, Aidan

The first thing we noticed when looking at our Brassica Oleracea were the differences in height and leaves. When our plants were still growing the leaves were smooth and aligned up the middle of the stem. Now the plants leaves are waxy and rough. The end of the leaf curls and touches the stem now. This is because as the plants grew the leaves grew as well. The leaves curl to get more exposure to the sun. The height of the stem at the begging of the semester was .5 ft and now they measure up to 1.6 ft.

I feel that the reason why Brassica Oleracea have been so successful in reproducing and staying alive for this long is through selective breeding. Selective breeding is when humans choose specific traits to pass on to new generations. Because of this only the best traits have been passed down. Brassicas now produce food such as cabbage broccoli and spinach which are all beneficial to us. This could also be considered artificial selection because the babies are not produced naturally. This way natural variation does not happen. Natural variation is not bad but it does open up the opportunity for detrimental mutations to corrupt the plant.

The part of the plant that changed the least is the stem. The reason being was the stem has the same function throughout its entire life and it was developed when the plant was first developed. Its purpose is to transport nutrients from the roots to the upper areas of the plant. Most stems grew around a foot.

Plant breeders would have to find 2 adult plants that have the specific trait that the breeder wants to see consistently throughout their population. Then they would have to take the pollen from one plant and put it on the pistol of another plant. They would have to know if the trait was dominant or recessive if they want it to spread out more efficiently.

a matter of selection, Anthony

The first noticeable difference in our Brassica oleracea were the leaves and height, our plants leaves in the beginning were smooth and straight in a vertical formation but after a couple of weeks the plants leaves started to become more ruffly and waxing. They also didn't reach the stem in the beginning and now they have grow and the outer leaf reaches the stem. also the stem measured in the beginning from the ground to the highest point was .5 ft and now they measure up to 1.6 ft.

Brassica oleracea has many characteristics I believe selective breeding helped aid in the process. selective breeding is where offspring of a plant has certain phenotypes from their parents and have selected specific traits like ruffly and waxing leaves. This can also be know as artificial breeding since the baby plant was not naturally made. And some plants go through mutations to get the desired offspring. Also some traits you see in the offspring of the children plants are seen because of descent with modification. from the parent plant traits and genes are passed down. In nature natural variation can be seen in plants with different characteristics because of the need to survive in the "real world"

I think the characteristics in our plants that is the most similar is the stem. The stem most likely stayed similar through out its life time, because it has no need to change since its main job is to transport nutrients and to bring water to the flower. In the beginning the stem was .3 ft and now it is 1.2 ft. This also is seen because they have not changed in shape or texture.

Plant breeders would have to grab a plant that is the same species and can inter breed. Then they would have to find a plant with specific traits then grab the child plant and see which had the biggest change, after they would breed those two plants. After a while they would have a very good plant chain that would create the desired plant the breeders wanted.