Understanding the Plant Anatomy
Today's lab work was very interesting, because I finally got to work with the Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Frankly, initially I presumed I was going to be able to study the plant production of the antibodies, but instead I was able to work on something more straightforward. I got to feed the plants and "groom" them. I do admit the term "groom" is the wrong diction, but frankly that is what I did today. First, before I started "grooming" and feeding the plants I learned more about the plant anatomy. For instance, in today's lab work I learned that the test plants produce a lot of structures called suckers. These suckers are what give rise to the formation of a plant's stem. The reason why I had to remove these suckers is to control the height of the plants. Without the suckers the plants wouldn't be able to form a longer stem, hence the plants can't become taller. In my case, removing these suckers was really annoying because there were too many to remove on 60 plants! I swear even though these structures are miniscule, however I had to carefully remove them. Not only are they tightly connected to the plants, but I simply kept on removing the leaves with them. It was so annoying, but finally I got the job done with minimal damage to the plants. 
Here is a picture of a Nicotiana benthamiana plant with its stem extending upwards
Here is an example of a sucker.
After all of that trouble, I finally was able to feed the plants or simply pour a mixed water and fertilizer solution onto each plant. The process was very easy but yet messy at times. I don't remember exactly how many times I got splashed by the water, but I'm telling all of you my shirt was drenched by the time I finished. It was really extraordinary to see how much water we needed to water all of the plants. It took around eight to nine buckets filled with the mixed solution in order to water all of the plants! Those plants definitely receive more than enough water. Frankly, the whole process was really simple but too repetitive. I do have to admit plant biologists and researchers have a lot of work to do other than studying the plants themselves. Hopefully, more people come to realize that studying plants and their structures have more work than they think.
Here is a picture of a Nicotiana benthamiana plant with its stem extending upwards
Here is an example of a sucker.
Hi Armando, its really cool that you’re getting to work with different plants in the lab! Is there a way to prevent the plant sucker from growing rather than going through the whole removal process? Would it be more effective in any way?
ReplyDeleteAh currently I don't know if there is a way to cause the suckers to stop growing. To be honest they are really easy to pluck off so it wouldn't matter if we stop the production of the suckers. Also the suckers I mentioned can help lengthen the stem of the plant, which is a biotic advantage for the plant to continue to grow and produce even more leaves. The leaves we need in order to infiltrate and harvest the necessary proteins, that can be used to produce the antibodies. So to be honest I don't see it very effective.
DeleteWhat is the purpose of keeping the plants short? Does that just make them easier to study?
ReplyDeleteYes, that is correct. The room that we store the plants is pretty small and cramped, so it would be easier to control the size of the plants in order to harvest the leaves that we need. The leaves are very important because that is where the proteins for the production of the antibodies are stored at.
DeleteArmando, does the lab have its own greenhouse for these plants specifically?
ReplyDeleteYes, the lab does. The greenhouses are found across from each other and separate between the wild-type and transgenic plants.
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