Plant Cell Experiment

Nada ElMoussa

17701179

-Title: Examination of plant and animal cells under the microscope.

-Aim: To investigate plant and animal cells using light microscopy.

-Introduction:

A plant cell is the structural and functional basic unit of life in kingdom plantae. Plant cells are eukaryotic cells, where their DNA is housed within a nucleus, as well as other specialized structures called organelles including: the cell wall, central vacuole, chloroplasts, cell membrane, cytoplasm, mitochondria, Golgi apparatus, and endoplasmic reticulum (1). Fig (1): A plant cell under the microscope (2).

-In this experiment onion skin was utilized, with onion having several thin layers that portray its cells of plant type that can be viewed under the microscope.

Plant and animal cells have several similarities including: cell membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes, mitochondrion, and endoplasmic reticulum both rough and smooth, Golgi apparatus, microtubules, peroxisomes, and most importantly the nucleus, with both of them being eukaryotic cells.

-After finishing the experiment, it’s possible to say that some errors could’ve occurred, such as dysfunctionality when it comes to extracting the sample, for instance, one can cut his tongue in a shallow manner which will cause blood to mix up with the sample thus blocking the possible result that’s intended to be seen. Another error may occur is that the air bubbles that occur when putting the cover slip on the

For instance, when it comes to the sample, onion skin can be replaced with cork, which is a light brown substance that is extracted from the outer layer of the oak tree, a thin slice of cork may be cut, then a small drop of water is put on the slide using a pipette, the drop must be larger than the cork sample, after that, the slide is covered with the cover slip being very careful with the process in order to prevent any possible air bubbles. Taking into consideration that cork cells were discovered by Robert Hooke when he viewed them under the microscope first in the late 17th century.

As for the animal cell, instead of extracting the sample from the tongue, the sample might be extracted from the cheeks, with a twist of change of the materials used, where the sample might be extracted by wiping a cotton bud along the inner corners of the cheeks which prevents any harm of the tongue and the vision under the microscope would be clearer, after the scraping of the cheeks, the sample is wiped to the center of the slide, then the sample is smeared which means making a specimen thin enough to view clearly, after leaving the cells to dry, after the drying of the cells, add using a pipette a drop of methylene blue stain, which makes the sample easier to view, by adding contrast to the nuclei, these steps should be followed by lowering the cover slip, and placing it on the microscope in order to view starting with the lowest