The Duties of a Parent are Never-Ending, Just Like Our Baby's Stomata!

{Stomata and Guard Cells, explained}

Unlike most parents, we want our cutie pie to have a 'big mouth.' 

Our baby boy needs a way to take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to perform photosynthesis, and we would be in some real trouble! Thankfully, his stomata come to the rescue!

Stomata allow carbon dioxide to enter tissue that is photosynthetically active. Stomata consist of two specialized guard cells, which change their shape to open or close pores - openings in the epidermis. 

When our little guy's stomata open, many gasses, like carbon dioxide, oxygen, water vapor, and others can freely move between the outside atmosphere and his interior, by a process of diffusion. Stomata will open when carbon dioxide is needed, and close when it is not. Stomata will also close when transpiration is really in high gear, and large amounts of water are lost. 

Stomata function by opening the pore in conjunction with the changing shape of the guard cell. Guard cells are extremely important too, regulating the opening and closing of the stomata. When water is flowing out of the cell, particularly in large droves due to transpiration, guard cells will become flaccid, and as a result close the stomata. When pores are closed like this, it is because our little man wants to retain as much water as possible, and limit the amount lost to the outside atmosphere. However, when water is flowing inward and our baby boy is 'drinking' away,' guard cells become turgid, and pores are open. When pores open, excess oxygen will diffuse out, and actively photosynthesizing cells on the interior of the leaves and stems will receive the carbon dioxide needed to continue photosynthesis.

It's hard to believe that at such an age he is already doing so much. As parents, we couldn't be more proud!!

A Hungry and Thirsty Baby is a Happy and Healthy Baby!

{Nutrient and water delivery, described and explained}

As parents, it's important to remember that good things don't happen all the time!

Our little guy needs to be continually supported. But often times, things can happen that may not be preferable, especially in our eyes. However, some of these occurrences are necessary in our baby's life. We'll just have to get used to it!

One such occurrence is transpiration. Transpiration is the loss of water from our baby boy via evaporation the aerial parts of his little plant body. Transpiration will occur when his stomata are open, and when the air around his leaves is drier than the air inside his leaves. During the day is usually when his stomata are open. And whenever atmospheric humidity is less than 100%, air around the leaves will be drier. Thankfully, our little man will replace the water lost via transpiration with water he absorbs from his roots (that his loving parents provided!). 

This uptake of water, however, would not be possible if we did not understand water potential. Water potential is the potential energy that water has in a particular environment. This energy is compared to the potential energy of pure water at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Differences in water potential ultimately determines the direction of water movement. Water will always flow from and area of high water potential to an area of low water potential. Solute potential and osmotic potential are all factors that affect water potential, among other things like pressure, temperature, and the environment in general. 

Pressure plays a very important role. If our little baby was an animal (he really can be sometimes!), his cells would burst if we placed him in a hypotonic solution where water was entering his cells continually via osmosis. Thankfully, this does not happen to our little munchkin, because he is a plant! Silly! 

Our little guys cells often swell in response to incoming water. But instead of swelling to the point of bursting, the plasma membranes push against the cell wall, which is rather rigid. Because of this rigidity, the cell wall resists expanding of the volume by pushing back. Thus, as water moves into the cell, the turgor pressure, or pressure inside the cell, increases until the force, or pressure, from the wall is induced. Turgor pressure is extremely important in pressure potential, and overall potential of the cells as well. Proper turgidity leads to healthy looking cells, which leads to a healthy looking baby boy!

But in order for our sweetie pie to utilize the water it takes in, and further transport necessary nutrients to make sure it is healthy and thriving, vascular tissue is necessary. The vascular tissue system is a supportive, long-distance transporter of water and dissolved nutrients. Ground tissue makes and stores the products, and vascular tissue moves them to wherever our little guy needs! 

But these vascular tissue are complex, and made up of two complex tissues: xylem, and phloem. (Poppa Jack should be talking about phloem in food delivery later, so we'll stick with xylem).

Xylem conducts water and dissolved ions in ONE direction: from roots to shoots (xylem can be so stubborn!). Xylem consists of many important cell types, two of which are tracheids and vessel elements. The tracheids are the water-conducting cells, and the vessel elements are other conducting cells present in angiosperms. Both tracheids and vessel elements have thick, lignin-containing secondary walls that often are set in spiral-like patterns. When we heard both are dead upon maturity, let's just say we almost died! But we soon realized this is perfectly natural, for it results in their filling with fluid that they conduct. Tracheids are long, slender, tapered-ended cells. Tracheids have pits, or gaps in the secondary cell wall where only the primary cell wall is present. Vessel elements are shorter and wider, and have perforations in addition to pits, which are openings that lack both primary and secondary cell walls. 

Who's Responsive to His Environment? You!

{Hormone and tropism growth, explained}

Just like his parents, our little guy is extremely responsive!

Whether it be to light, gravity, wind, touch, or a variety of other factors, our baby boy will respond in a variety of ways. On of these responses is the gravitropic response, moving in response to gravity. 

Root caps are the regions responsible for gravitropism, for cells in the center of each root cap regulate the gravitropic response by respond to gravity, and ultimately initiating gravitropism. 

We still aren't quite sure how our big guy senses gravity, but we think it is probably explained via the statolith hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that amyloplasts -  dense, starch-storing molecules - are pulled to the bottom of root cap cells in response to gravity. As these amyloplasts move, tug, and tumble, the weight of where they are pulled activates sensory protein that are located in the plasma membrane. These sensory proteins are responsible for initiation of the gravitropic response. 

This process happens in our baby's root cap cells. Why, just the other day Paul was playing with our little guy, and he got so excited that he tried to jump up, and just tipped right over. It was the cutest thing! When this happened, the amyloplasts in our little guy fell and settled onto the cell walls of the sensory cells. This weight activated a whole new set of receptors, signal the roots of our baby that he wasn't facing upright anymore.

Now of course Paul picked him up right away, and they both went back to playing! But if our little man were to stay lying on the ground, a change in the distribution of auxin would have occurred in the root. Auxin is typically responsible for acting as a signal to bend in the phototropic response. Auxin promotes cell elongation in the shoot, and in the case of gravitropism auxin [normally] flows down the middle of the root and then toward the outside. But when our little guy fell, his sensory receptors caused a change in multiple transport proteins, redistributing auxin. When auxin is redistributed, the lower part of the afflicted root gets more auxin than the other parts of the root, particularly the upper region. In response to these differences, cells in the lower part of the root grow slower than cells in the upper part of the root, which grow rather quickly. High auxin concentrations inhibit growth, and thus bending occurs. But we would never want our sweetheart's beautiful roots to bend! 

But auxin isn't the only major hormone that is crucial to our baby's development; Cytokinins are also very important to our little guy!

Cytokinins are a group of hormones that, unlike auxin, promote cell division. These cytokinins are synthesized in root tips, growing buds, and developing organs in our baby. Active cytokinin is synthesized in the apical meristems of roots and transported all the way up to the shoot system via the xylem. 

But as our baby boy gets so big, we - the loving, doting, slightly paranoid parents - wanted to know all we could about how cytokinins actually stimulate cellular division in our baby. 

It turns out that receptors in the plasma membranes of target cells, made up of a group of closely related proteins, acts as the binding sight for cytokinin. When cytokinin binds, the receptors activate genes that regulate cellular division. More specifically, however, cytokinins affect molecules that regulate the cell cycle. Cytokinins regulate growth in our baby by activating genes that keep the cell cycle going. If the cell cycle is perpetuated, cells will continue to divide. 

Our little man needs both auxin and cytokinins to make sure he can respond to his environment, grow in a way that is most beneficial to his development, and continually promote cellular division for growth in general. 

It Seems Like He's Gotten a Foot Bigger!

{Growth - shoot and root - explained}

Unlike many babies out there, our little angel grows continuously! 

This is because of his meristems. These populations of undifferentiated cells can continually undergo mitosis and produce new cells. However, our baby needs to make sure that some of these cells become specialized so they can perform specific functions that he needs. Thus, when his meristematic cells divide, some of the daughter cells remain in the meristem, and some differentiate. This allows the meristem to continually produce undifferentiated cells via mitosis, and for some of the newly-produced cells to become specialized for distinct structures and functions. 

Our sweetheart has two types of meristems: apical and lateral. His apical meristems are located at each root and shoot tip. Thus, when our little guy's apical meristematic cells divide and become differentiated to a specific function, our baby himself will enlarge, and his root and shoot tips will extend outward from the body. It is just so cute when he discovers something new! Lateral meristems (also called cambium) are cylindrical, running the entire length of a root or stem. Only one layer of meristematic tissue makeup the lateral meristems, and from that tissues cell will divide in a way that makes our little baby grow wider in both his roots and shoots. Two different types of lateral meristematic tissue can be found in our baby: vascular cambium and cork cambium. 

All of this is extremely important in how our little guy continues to grow. And as he gets bigger, we can attribute certain meristematic functions to certain types of growth. Apical meristematic growth represents the process of primary growth. As apical meristematic cells continually divide and become specialized, the length of the root and shoot systems will continually increase. Furthermore, it is important to remember that when considering the entire structure of the plant, those cells that formed from the apical meristem makeup the primary plant body, the foundation of our little man. As roots and shoots increase in length from apical meristematic tissue, our boy's reach will increase as well, allowing him to have an increased ability to absorb photons and acquire carbon dioxide, water, and ions. Without such increased ability, our little angel wouldn't be a healthy young whipper-snapper as he is now!

As for our sweetheart's lateral meristematic tissue, or cambium, secondary growth is represented. Vascular cambium - a ring of meristematic cells located between the secondary xylem and phloem in the stems - and cork cambium - another ring of meristematic cells located near the perimeter of the stem - in our baby both function to make our boy's body wider. This secondary growth increases the amount of conducting tissue available, and provides a level of structural support that is necessary for primary growth to continue. 

Primary and secondary growth work together, just like us, the loving parents of our sweetheart!

Open Up the Tunnel, Here Comes the Sucrose!

{Food Delivery, described and explained}

Our baby's gotta eat!!

Our little darling needs the proper amount of food, water, and love in order to survive, thrive, and grown big and strong like his parents! He does this through translocation. Translocation is the movement of sugars throughout the plant. Translocation operates through a complex system devised of sources and sinks. 

Sources are where the sugar enters the phloem. Sinks are tissues where sugar exits the phloem. 

But wait just a second! Phloem is a big word for a little guy who can barely say "plant." Lets slow it down and talk through this so our little einstein can better understand: Phloem is the main structure that operates within the sugar delivery and reception system. 

The phloem operates in conjunction with xylem. This is because at each source the amount of sucrose is at such a high concentration that water flows from the xylem into the phloem, moving the sucrose into areas with less sucrose concentrations (AKA the sink).  

We are Family!

{Family Relationships - Between Monocots and Dicots}

It's a Dicot!

If you look back on the section where we talk about seed structure, there is a diagram of both a monocot and a dicot seed. Our baby falls into the category of  dicot, so we will go over their characteristics first.

Dicots are embryos that have two cotyledons, which are the food source for an embryo before it can go through photosynthesis. They also have roots that develop form a radicle and secondary growth is present in these plants.

Monocots, on the other hand, have one cotyledon, which is how these two plant groups got their names. "Mono" meaning one or "Di" meaning two, and the ending "-cot" refers to the cotyledon. Along with this, monocots have roots that are adventitious and secondary growth is often absent in this category of plants.

There are also many common plants varieties that are seen everyday. Some example of monocots are peas, beans, daisies, and mint; some examples of dicots are corn, daffodils, sugarcane, and bamboo. These are all common plants, and some even grow near each other in a home garden, but their categories based on their embryonic phases build their differences.

Time Flies When Your Baby is Growing!

{The Life Cycle of our Baby Boy!}

It seems like just yesterday he was germinating!

Being a parent is so nerve wracking!

All we have been doing is reading book after book so we can know everything about how our baby will develop. One of our favorite books, "Your Inner Plant," has given us a lot of insight into the life cycle of our baby.

First off, there are typically three steps in the life cycle of our radish baby: germination (conception), plant development  and reproduction (the birds and the bees). We will probably wait a little while to talk about the last stage with our baby...

When our seed is first planted, it has a embryo, a food source, and a protective coat on the outside, all to help our baby through germination. At this first stage in their life cycle the embryo starts to absorb enough nutrients and water so that the seed coat can open and a tiny root will start to grow, the radicle. This root will be the main thing that anchors our baby into the ground to allow for more growth.

Soon after this radicle exist the seed, the cotyledons will begin to grow up and we will finally see our baby poking its head out!

Now starts the development and grow of our young child. The cotyledons are the food source for our young baby, and soon between them a terminal bud will begin to grow. The plant will respond to a phototropism and will grow upwards towards the sun that provides it will energy. Once our baby has found a place to receive sunlight, it will begin to photosynthesize and the cotyledons will begin to shrivel and fall off.

As our baby grows up it will eventually go through a reproductive phase in its life. In this stage, our baby will produce a flower which has both  male and female reproductive parts. The pollen from the flower will disperse and land onto the stigma, double fertilization will occur, and a fruit will appear. This fruit contains small seeds that will be dispersed and then hopefully our baby will have its own baby! In this case, we can also see that our baby is a gametophyte because it requires both male sperm and female egg to reproduce and make a seed, compared to a sphorophyte which creates clones.

All these stages can be seen in the diagram that was posted above all the text, and it shows in steps the various stages of our baby's life cycle.

We're On Our Way!

{Structure and Function of our Young Man, explained}

He's so big already! It was only just yesterday that he sprouted!

Where has the time gone?!

Our little boy is already so big, and he's not even a mature young plant yet! As he gets older and continues to grow, we want to keep an eye on his development. At the very tip we see that adorable, peeking terminal bud. The terminal bud propagates the primary growth (vertically, that is) of the plant itself, due to the apical meristematic tissue in the bud. As he grows taller, his internodes, or the part of the stem between the nodes, will increase in length. Between each internode is a node - the location on the primary stem where the lateral shoot buds. In order for our little guy to grow larger, his buds will be hard at work developing. The buds are where meristematic tissue is present, giving rise to growth that extends the length of the stem, or branch. 

Possibly the cutest of all are high little cotyledons. Theses are his adorable first leaves, which propagate the initial plant structure. But these little leaves are fragile, and we are very protective parents. Thankfully, his coleoptiles will help keep him safe. The coleoptiles are modified leaves that form a sheath, protecting the emerging shoots of young grasses. But while the coleoptiles protect what's above, we can't forget our little guy's growth underneath the soil: his roots!

It is extremely important as parents to keep a look out for his primary root. This root is the first to develop, and extends the longest downward in the soil, taking up water so our baby boy can grown big and strong. In order to grow to a beautiful mature plant, lateral roots will also develop from the primary root. These lateral roots extend horizontally from the primary root, and function primarily in stabilizing our guy in the soil (we wouldn't him to fall over or get shaken up by some mean old wind!).

Interestingly enough, it is normally so exciting for parents to take their baby to their first hair cut! But for our baby, we would never want to make the mistake of cutting his hair! That's because his root hairs are extremely important. Root hairs allow our baby to significantly increase water absorption. These root hairs extend from all roots, and are an integral part in his health. Same goes for his adorable leaves. His leaves absorb light wavelengths for photosynthesis. Without his leaves he wouldn't have any way to eat, and would surely die! Luckily though, his leaves have cuticles - waxy protective coatings around the leaf. These cuticles help protect one of his most important "appendages." What makes this all possible is his dermal tissue. This tissue secretes the cuticle that protects his leaves, and is a small layer of cells lining the exterior of the leaf.

All told, our baby boy is so beautiful and unique! We can't wait to see him mature into a strong and handsome young man!

Our First Born! Table 5's Baby Book

{Seed Structure, Function, and Germination Explained}

Our little boy! Look at that adorable embryo!

I can’t believe it, we’re expecting! 

We found seeds the other day and we’re going to plant them soon. It’s weird picturing a mini plant inside the seed coat, but trust me, it’s there. The plant embryo has a root, called the radicle, and leaves, called cotyledons. This seed is a dicot, we assume, which means that its two cotyledons take up most of the space inside the seed coat and have absorbed most of the endosperm, a triploid tissue containing nutrients for the embryo to survive until it can start making its own food If it were a monocot, the single cotyledon is called a coleoptile, and there is more endosperm left over inside the seed coat. The cotyledons are there to start photosynthesis until true leaves start to form. I’m tearing up just thinking about it! Good thing they haven’t even germinated yet. 

I think they've already started to germinate. It was literally yesterday that they were still dormant seeds. Seeds can stay dormant for a really long time. Germination doesn't happen until conditions optimal for the seed are met such as water in the soil, presence of light, or temperature. This is so that the plant can fix itself (forever) in a spot where it has a good chance of surviving. Some seeds have such tough seed coats that they need scarification, or the abrasion of the seed coat, before they will germinate. This is sometimes achieved by passing through the digestive tract of an animal who ate fruit. Ick! The seed absorbs water and the seed coat breaks, allowing the radicle to emerge and start taking up more water. Metabolism of the endosperm sugars begins as the seed starts to grow. I can't wait until the hypocotyl emerges!