A Matter Of Selection- Abel Spackman

1. Out of all of the parts of the Brassica Olracea, the leaves seemed to exhibit the most variation. Although all of the leaves were mostly similar, each plant still had a different style leaf. Some were wide and wrinkled and others were small and shaped differently. However, although the leaves of the plat showed the most variation, the heights of the different plants showed the greatest range of variation. Some of thee plants were very tall and skinny while others were very small but wide. The plant with the lowest height was 10 inches and the plant with that largest height was an impressive 37 inches.

2. In order to get specific traits in a plant, plant breeders might have bred different kinds of Brassica Olracea. This old have been done for a number of reasons. Perhaps they wanted larger crops. Maybe they wanted higher quality produce (fruits, vegetables,...). This process by which humans specifically breed certain plants to develop particular phenotypic traits is known as artificial selection, also known as selective breeding. As the species evolves over time, the Brassica Olracea plants have passed down their genes, generation after generation. This is called descent with modification which was a fundamental ideas when it comes to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. As the genes are passed from parent to offspring, it is quite possible that a genetic mutation can occur in the plant’s DNA slightly and sometimes drastically changing the resulting plant. These mutations can lead to natural variation within a species.

3. The Brassica Olraccea plants in the garden are all very different, but they do have similarities. The biggest similarity is the plants’ stems. They are all of similar color and diameter (most being around 0.5-1 inch in diameter). There are many possibilities of why they are similar. First off, no matter what type of Brassica Olracea plant it is, the stem will still have the same function. It will transport water and food to all parts of the plant. Changing the look of stem would have absolutely no effect on its function therefor they were all similar. Of course the stems were not exactly alike, but it was the part of the plants that was the most similar between them.

4. If one were trying to change the stem of a Brassica Olracea to a stem not similar to the ones on the plants in the garden, it would not be trivial. However, it is not impossible. The stem’s main purpose is to transport water and food throughout the plant. If a plant was skinny, then the ste wold also be quite skinny because it would not need to transport as much food nor water. On the other hand, if the plant was wide and not very tall, the stem would logically be bigger because there would be more food and water to transport outwards rather than up and down. So, if plant breeders wanted to drastically change the stem, then they would have to find a way to make the plant grow more outward rather than upwards which in turn would increase the diameter of the stem.