Beet Monoplast Experiment

The objective of the experiment that the class and myself conducted dealt with the solubility and stress of the beet tonoplast implemented by the solvent chosen. When conducting this experiment, one of the objectives was to learn the different areas of the cell we are dealing within the beet and where to observe the damage done to the beet tissue, if any is done at all. In this case, many of the different areas we were testing and observing were found inside the cellular membrane.

The membrane’s function is to separate and organize the myriad of reactions within cells as well as allow communication with the outer-surrounding environment of the membrane (Texas A&M International Univ Biology Lab Manual). The membrane also has a selective permeability

According to the Texas A&M International Univ Biology Lab Manual, acetone, otherwise known as C3H6O, is an organic solvent that has the capacity of damaging and stressing hydrophobic specimen, (ChemSpider). The beet cell, for instance, contains phospholipids, which contains hydrophobic specimen (specimen resistant to water)(Carroll, Melanie). Knowing all this before the experiment gave a sense of direction on which way to formulate a hypothesis. The hypothesis on this experiment was that out of the various concentrations of acetone that we used, (5%,15%,30%), the 30% acetone would cause the most stress/damage to the healthy beet tissue. To further explain how the concentration of acetone differs by parentage, I will explain how much g/l are contained with different percentages. The 5% contains 2.904g/l, the 10% contains 5.808g/l, the 20% contains 11.66g/l, the 30% contains 17.42g/l; we can see there is a positive relationship between percentage of concentration and g/l of acetone, (i.e. the higher the percentage, the more g/l is contained in solvent). The hypothesis states that the high concentration of acetone would be more effective and efficient in breaking down the phospholipids inside of the beet tissue. Up next was the null hypothesis for the experiment. It was predicted that if there is not of a concentration of the solvent we had chosen, (acetone) then there would

The 5% concentration gave off a very light shade of red from the beet slice, almost a pinkish color, which gave it a low color intensity score in the graph, (a score of 2/10). This means that the low concentration of acetone was just barely able to break down and stress some of the beet tissue and the phospholipid layer and solute the tonoplast. Although it was a very distinct color, the 5% proved that it was effective enough to do its job. The 15% acetone gave more of a darker color than the 5% and had a higher color intensity, (4/10). However, the oblique was still light as it did not give much of a darker color than the 5% concentration did, yet it was able to break down the beet tissue much more effectively. Lastly, we go to the 30% concentration of acetone, which distinguished itself from the other two concentrations. The 30% concentration of acetone gave it a much darker red color, unlike the other two, which explains that it was the most effective in breaking down the phospholipid layer in the beet tissue. The 30% concentration scored an 8/10 in color intensity, which indicated that it gave off a clear red color, almost a dark red. This can be justified by explaining that the darker the color, or the more betacyanin released from the tonoplast of the membrane, the