Writing in Biology

The organism appears to be about an inch in length and had small rings circling its entire body. These rings protruded from its body. The organism tends to stick to moving around the perimeter of the container by digging one end of its body onto the surface and dragging the rest of its body forward. The end it uses to move contained a small tip where the width of the organism ended up thinning out. This tip was black and sensed the surrounding area before it continued moving. The other end of the organism is a lot thicker and contains two red dots that frame the end. The overall color of the organism is a light tan and it contains a translucent shiny layer around the cloudy interior. The organism appears to be a larva of some sort.

An unknown organism, most likely a larva, is off-white in color and measures approximately ¾ an inch long. The larva, when left unbothered, seems rather ordinary. Upon stimulation, such as flipping the container, the organism seems to react. The reaction was predictable as the organism seemed startled. However, a significant reaction occurred when a light was shined onto the organism. The larva ran away from the light every time it was put directly overtop it. This finding may shed light onto the typical environments the organism thrives in and lives in. An assumption can be made that the organism may be used to living underground such as in the soil because of this finding. Another minor observation that may further this prediction was that the unknown organism resembles that of a grub and may belong to the grub family. Because of this educated guess about its ancestors, it could further explain the type of environment the organism usually lives in.

The organism is approximately the length of a nail and has thick segments running down its body. It crawls slowly around the perimeter of the container. The movement starts at one end of the organism, where red dots are located, and oscillates toward the other end to bring its entire body forward. At this other end, there is a brown tip, which moves rapidly as if the organism is getting a sense of its external environment. After it encounters debris, the organism crawls faster exerting more force as it tries to get out of the way. After moving the container to disrupt its movements, the creature becomes perfectly still for a few minutes before starting to crawl forward again. This appears to be a natural response to stress from the environment. Moving the container upside-down so that the organism crawls on the ridges of the container does not appear to change its rate of movement. This suggests that the organism applies a greater force of contraction to overcome the tension of the rough surface. Overall, the motion patterns of the organism in response to various stimuli give insight to its behavior.  

The transition from Gap 1 phase (G₁) to the Synthesis (S) phase in the cell cycle involves two important checkpoints.  The first checkpoint assesses DNA for damage.  p53, when active, is a transcription factor for p21, which inhibits G₁ and S cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), leading to cell cycle arrest or apoptosis.  To pass the checkpoint, Mdm2 adds a ubiquitin tag to p53, targeting it to the lysosome for degradation.  The “Restriction Checkpoint” is perhaps the most vital checkpoint involved in the G₁ to S phase transition.  The two main proteins involved are the retinoblastoma protein (Rb) and E2F.  The null state involves Rb sequestering E2F in an inhibitory manner.  When favorable conditions for cell division are met, G₁ CDKs hyperphosphorylate Rb, inhibiting its ability to bind E2F.  E2F is a transcription factor, so when active, it is able to go into the nucleus and promote transcription of S-phase cyclins.  At this point, the cell has committed to undergoing mitosis.  Mutations in either of these checkpoint pathways are quite common in cancer.  Common mutations leading to a cancerous phenotype include a loss of function in p53, or a gain of function in E2F.

           Today in class, we were given a round plastic clear cup with a larvea worm I believe. It was smaller than normal size worm, with a yellowish color except the head was darker than the rest of the body. It also had two brown eyes at the back of it, with a round circle that has a whiteish color surrounded the circle. There were also woodships inside the cup. The enitre body of the worm was divided into segments, some were bigger and longer than others. It did not have any feet, tail, or hair on its body. It moves in a very distinct way, also it keeps on moving around the cup but did not go in the middle of the cup unless I flip the cup upside down or sideways. When it moves, it pulls the rest of its body closer to the head and repeats the same movement slowly. There was a long brownish color line inside the worm and when it moves, the line either gets smaller or longer, I believe it might be its spine.

Observations of the Spike-Worm

As the object was placed upon the desk for observation, initially the object has a worm, caterpillar-like resemblance. It is alive and attempts to escape its slippery, plastic chamber by carefully crawling its way around the outer ring of the clear plastic cup, keeping to the very edges. It’s solid body is segmented into several sections (twelve approximately), and is a faint brown in color. On the anterior end of the organism. the head appears more rigid and is darker than the rest of the body. There also appear to be several black spots as well as black hair-like structures along the side of the body. The body is materialized into a diamond-like shape, laterally symmetrical. The organism has several legs; the anterior legs are pointed in shape while the posterior legs flatter, stubbier, and have the appearance of suction cups. Perhaps this is to better grip surfaces for climbing branches or leaves in its natural environment. On the opposing hand, its worm-like appearance may also suggest that it burrows underground.    

Upon closer observation of the behavior of the organism, the body moves very fluidly, each of the segments moving in a wave-like fashion to propel itself forward, as well as if it needs to move backwards. The anterior side continues to rear up on its hind legs, perhaps to gain a better glimpse of its surroundings. Similarly, it has large eyes in the front of the head, which most likely suggest it uses its visual sense primarily. Judging by its body movements, the organism does not move quickly, meaning it must serve as easy prey for predators. The organism also has field markings on the posterior side of its head, as to ward off predators. The body does not respond to stimuli well. The anterior head and posterior segment of the organism appear to move independently of one another. It only moves along the outer ring of the cup.

This creature is around 1  inch long and is a pale yellow color that is has some reddish brown marking one one end. Its body is divided into roughly 15 segments of differing sizes. The segments on the ends are the smallest and increase with size untill that largest segment in the middle of the body. Each segment has 2 small, brown dots on either side of it. On the side with the reddish brown coloration, there are small pointed legs compared to the rest of the body which has flat and very short "legs". Using the longer pointed legs, this creature uses moves the top half of its body around as if it observing the nearby area and then by contracting its body and using the flats legs it pushes itself forward. The creatuere would generally take a bit of time exploring with the red side and then switch and move around to a different location in the cup. While it did make a couple trips around the cup, The creature always stayed along the cups walls and never ventured into the center. One possibility for this might have bbe nthat the center of the cup was slightly more elevated than the outside resulting in most of the food to be scattered along the walls. At one moment the creature contracted just the last couple of segments of the non reddish end a deposited a small piece of some substance. Based on the behavior of the Reddish end, where its appears to be obsering the enviorment I would assume that The reddish brown end would include the mouth and sensory organs while the other side would be resposible for waste deposition.

The creature in the container appears to be some sort of caterpillar or larva. It has a body that is overall creamy yellow in color, with a head that is darker brown. The tail-end is a darker color than the main body, although it is not as dark as the head, and the lightest part of the body is the middle between the head and the tail. There is a line running down the center of the body from the head to the tail that is darker than the surrounding areas and appears to be a structure inside the body. The larva's body is segmented into approximately 13 different segments, including the head, and is approximately 2-3cm in length. Each segment has a small spot at the bottom of it, and these spots are found on both sides of the body. The body's overall shape is oblong, and it tapers slightly at the head and tail areas. There are no immediately obvious limbs, however closer inspection reveals short, stubby legs along the length of the body and more prominent legs at the front of the body near the head. There is a small, thorn-like protrusion at the tail-end. The larva moves around by moving its body in a wave-like motion from the back end to the ead.

Inside of a small plastic container is a single beige larva about one centimeter in length. Its body is a mixture of light beige and darker shades of brown interspersed through out with a distinct brown line running the length of the back of its abdomen. At the front the body narrows to from what appear to be a small pair of mandibles. The rear of the larva is much wider and flatter than the head and has two dark brown spots that look remarkably like a pair of eyes. The animals body is broken into individual segments, 12 in total, each of which is defined by a ring around the animal.

Superficially, the specimen appears to be a light brownish color. The specimen has a segmented body, with about 10 segments in total. The specimen is bilaterally symmetrical along the anterior-posterior axis, meaning that if the specimen were to be folded along just this axis, two similar sides will be observed. The anterior end is the side that leads during forward motion; the posterior side is on the opposite end. Posteriorly, there are two dot-like structures called spiracles. They constitute the respiratory apparatus of the specimen. The ends of the specimen appear to be darker that the more medial segments. As such, the medial parts are more translucent. The specimen is responsive to visual stimulus (flashes of light), indicating the presence of visual-sensory structures. Relative to its surrounding, the specimen appears to move in a transverse wave-like manner while also employing some elements of longitudinal wave motion along its anterior-posterior axis. The internal organs of the specimen appear to be surrounded by exoskeleton. I presume that this gives the specimen a level of protection from predators, when in its natural habitat, and mechanical injury.
Along the abdominal region, there are hair-like structures. Perhaps these render sensory functions to the specimen.