A Matter of Selection blog post #8 - Maya Lewis

1.  The leaves seemed to exhibit the most variation. Each brassica oleracea had mostly similar leaves to one another, except for these differences. Some were wrinkled and some weren't.  They also varied in size. However, although the leaves of the plant showed the most variation, the heights of the different plants showed the greatest range of variation. Some of these plants were very thin and tall, while others were very small but wide. The plant with the lowest height was 10 inches and the plant with the largest height was 37 inches.

2. Plant breeders bred their plants so that the outcome plants will acquire some traits over others.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 each generation continued to pass on their traits from the last, the plant evolved to fit its environment ( taller plants to capture more sunlight, etc) As the genes are passed from parent the plant 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, leading to natural variation within a species.

3. The Brassica Oleracea plants in the garden are all vary, but they also have multiple similarities. The most prominent difference are the plants’ stems. They are all of similar color( a light green) and had a consistency of diameter (most being around 0.5-1 inch in diameter). There are many possible reasons as to why they are similar. First off, no matter what type of Brassica Oleracea plant it is, the stem will still have the same function The primary functions of the stem are to support the leaves, to conduct water and minerals to the leaves, where they can then be converted into usable products by photosynthesis, and to transport these products from the leaves to other parts of the plant including the roots. Changing the look of stem would have absolutely no effect on its function. There were still some variation between each stem, but this part of the plant still had the most similarities among each other.

4. If one were trying to change the stem of a Brassica Oleracea, the change would not be substantial, and would probably take many generations to fully complete the process to get the desired plant. However, doing this is not impossible. The stem’s main purpose is to transport water and minerals throughout the plant. If a plant was thin, then the stem would also be quite skinny because it wouldn't need to transport as much as a larger plant. Comparitively, if the plant was short and wide, the stem would also be larger in size because there would be more minerals and water to transport in different directions. 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. To do this breeders would most likely use the thicker plants to get a wider stem diameter.