Drafts

120 tomato plants will be used in the study. 100 of the plants will receive a form of damage to their leaves by caterpillars eating bits of leaves off of each plant, the remaining 20 will serve as a baseline. The caterpillars will be left on the plants for enough time to do a measurable/visible amount of damage to the plant. 75 tomato plants will receive JA, there will be three groups receiving treatment and one group will receive no treatment (this will be our control). 25 will receive five sprays of JA, 25 will receive three sprays of JA, 25 will receive one spray of JA, and 25 will receive no treatment of JA (this way, we can see if too much JA hurts the plants, if any amount of JA hurts the plants, or if more JA applied to plants then the plants will repair themselves faster or better than they would have without the extra spray). The responses could be measured by weighing the plants before and after to see if there is a change in biomass. They could also be measured visually by analyzing the plants to see which ones look healthier or if their leaves grew back entirely and then some.

Plant defense mediate tri-trophic interactions. A plant’s response to a threat can influence herbivore mutations and eventually predator mutations. Plant defenses directly reduce herbivore performance, but they can also indirectly benefit herbivores because they can acquire new traits from the new chemicals made by the plant they are consuming. Since pollinators are herbivores (they consume nectar and pollen from plants), they also can acquire new traits from the nectar and pollen containing new plant defenses.

Since 1990, there has been a 25% decline in the United States in vertebrate pollinators and 200 vertebrate pollinator species are near extinction . The majority of our staple crops are wind-pollinated and don’t require vertebrate pollinators, but roughly a third of our crops would not exist without vertebrate pollinators (many types of berries, nuts, vegetables, cotton, coffee, around 90 major crops). Vertebrate pollinators provide 30 billion USD of pollination services in the United States alone, and 200 billion USD globally. The impact of the loss of pollinators to the global agricultural system would be great as well as the to plant species that we do not cultivate.

DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, is a colorless and tasteless chemical compound developed as an insecticide and its use was banned because of its role in the increased risk of serious health conditions in humans and animals alike. DDT was at the height of its popularity during the second World War. During this time, DDT was used to prevent diseases such as malaria and typhus. Though it was an effective insecticide, it was cause for concern when the chemical would also kill beneficial insects as well as birds and fish. Not only did DDT kill birds, but it also caused egg-shell thinning in Perregrine Falcons. This egg-shell thinning would make it much more difficult for the falcons' young to be born. The egg-shell thinning was not the extent of the damage done by DDT. This harmful compound is thought to be a carcinogen as well as an endocrine disruptor. An endocrine disruptor is a chemical that interupts an endocrine system. In this case, a chemical called DDE is formed from DDE when it loses hydrogen chloride. DDE is an androgen receptor antagonist, meaning it will bind to the same receptor that male sex hormones bind to, decreasing the effect of certain hormones such as testosterone. The deleterious human and animal effects caused by DDT were far too prevalent to allow it to continue being used and it was banned in the United States in 1972.

We will be doing an experiment which involves spraying jasmonic acid onto damaged tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum). This tomato plant species belongs to the Solanacaefamily, which includes eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes. The reason this species of tomato will be used is because it has well characterized chemical defenses. However, the nectar-less flowers will require pollination by bees. In order to provide the mechanical damage we want to apply to the plants, we will use the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta). This worm is native to New England and is a well-known crop pest on tobacco and tomato plants.

Once I took my 3 photographs, I pasted them on a word document in the order I took them on a Mac laptop. I clicked on each picture and changed the text wrap layot to square by clicking layout>arrange>warp text> square. I made each photo a width of 2.13" and a height of 2.84" and had the edges overlapping to form a smooth rectangular edge. Then I made 3 textboxes and filled them all in black. I centered the text and changed the font to calibri (body) size 16 and color to white for all 3 textboxes. I wrote a in one box and dragged it to the top left corner of the first photograph. Then I wrote b in another box and dragged it to the top left corner of the second picture, and then I wrote c in the last text box and dragged it to the top left corner of the last picture. Then I took a screenshot of the figure by pressing comand, shift, and 4 at the same time. 

A correlational study was conducted in attempt to see if blood pressure and brain volume are correlated. Using a MRI the volume of the brain was calculated along with the blood pressure. It showed that there is lower brain volume that is present in young healthy individuals. The findings were concerning due to the fact that the participants were healthy. Was there any other indications that could lead to a lower brain volume. It is a correlational study and we have to keep in mind that correlation does not cause causation. Though the brain is important to the body because all functions are based off the brain. The brain is part of the central nervous system and the CNS is important for integrating information that is obtained and use it. The gray matter that is developed in the brain is where the neurons are housed and if having less of the gray matter could affect daily functions.

The differences between polypeptides and proteins are incredibly significant. Polypeptides are covalently bound amino acids via a phosphate bond. This phosphate bond is always the same between amino acids regardless of the amino acid. The bond is the same because all amino acids have an identical alpha amino group and an alpha carboxyl group. The peptide bond forms via dehydration, you can break the bond with the use of hydrolysis. The peptide bond forms between the alpha carboxyl group of the “old” amino acid and the alpha amino group of the “new” amino acid. When multiple amino acids are bound together in this fashion they form a polypeptide chain. Proteins are made up of one or more of these polypeptide chains which are referred to as subunits. Proteins employ different types of bonding, they use noncovalent bonding. Noncovalent bonds don’t share electrons rather they are electrostatic interactions. This means that atoms interact based off of charge differences. Proteins fold based off of the charge of certain R groups of amino acids and the noncovalent interactions that they form. Proteins can even make disulfide bonds if two cysteine amino acid R groups interact in the polypeptide chain. So the main difference between proteins and polypeptides is that proteins are made up of polypeptides, not vice versa.