BIOL 114: The Effect of Water Oversaturation on Arabidopsis thaliana Growth and Development
Location
Turner Gymnasium
Access Type
Campus Access Only
Presentation Type
Printed poster
Entry Number
11
Start Date
4-16-2026 12:00 PM
End Date
4-16-2026 1:15 PM
School
School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department
Biology
Keywords
Arabidopsis
Abstract
With climate change causing more evaporation in the atmosphere, rainfall has become more frequent and intense. Experiments can help scientists understand the varying effects of flooding on plants. In this case, the plant Arabidopsis thaliana was manipulated in both a wild type and a mutant form. The mutated gene, 66010, has an unknown effect on the plant. To test the effect, the A. thaliana underwent a simulation of flooding. The flooding was carried out by watering the experimental group for a full 24 hours longer than the control group. Out of three different variables, the average bolt height of the experimental and control groups seemed to provide the most obvious difference in the data comparison. The interaction between water levels and the plant types was insignificant (p-value=0.2642). While the amount of water appeared to play an insignificant role in the plant growth between the two types of plants (p-value=0.1957), this does not align with the fact that the wild type (WT) plants flourished in experimental flooding conditions. The WT plants were significantly taller in comparison to the mutant plants (p-value=1.157e-11). The plant growth experienced by the WT plants was significantly more than that of the mutant plants. The mutated gene appears to have diminished overall plant growth, leaving the mutant plants significantly smaller than the WT plants. Although flooding usually negatively impacts plants, this experiment showed otherwise. However, the mutated gene grew smaller relative to the wild type, indicating the need for further research.
Primary Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Erin Friedman
Primary Faculty Mentor(s) Department
Biology
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BIOL 114: The Effect of Water Oversaturation on Arabidopsis thaliana Growth and Development
Turner Gymnasium
With climate change causing more evaporation in the atmosphere, rainfall has become more frequent and intense. Experiments can help scientists understand the varying effects of flooding on plants. In this case, the plant Arabidopsis thaliana was manipulated in both a wild type and a mutant form. The mutated gene, 66010, has an unknown effect on the plant. To test the effect, the A. thaliana underwent a simulation of flooding. The flooding was carried out by watering the experimental group for a full 24 hours longer than the control group. Out of three different variables, the average bolt height of the experimental and control groups seemed to provide the most obvious difference in the data comparison. The interaction between water levels and the plant types was insignificant (p-value=0.2642). While the amount of water appeared to play an insignificant role in the plant growth between the two types of plants (p-value=0.1957), this does not align with the fact that the wild type (WT) plants flourished in experimental flooding conditions. The WT plants were significantly taller in comparison to the mutant plants (p-value=1.157e-11). The plant growth experienced by the WT plants was significantly more than that of the mutant plants. The mutated gene appears to have diminished overall plant growth, leaving the mutant plants significantly smaller than the WT plants. Although flooding usually negatively impacts plants, this experiment showed otherwise. However, the mutated gene grew smaller relative to the wild type, indicating the need for further research.