The effect of light intensity on the hypocotyl length of Arabidopsis thaliana

Authors

  • Christina Bell
  • Mandy Choi
  • Audrey Lam
  • Kimberley Xiao

Abstract

The amount of light a plant receives during germination can greatly affect its growth and morphology. In this study, seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana were used to investigate the effects of light intensity on hypocotyl growth and length. Seeds of both the wild type and the mutant cer10 of Arabidopsis thaliana were grown in petri dishes for a period of eleven days, under three varying light intensities. These were marked no light, low light and high light, averaging at 3 lux, 141 lux, and 6969 lux, respectively. It was found that for both the mutant and the wild type, seeds grown in a no light environment had a significantly longer hypocotyl (embryonic stem) length than those grown at high light intensity. For the wild type, at the end of the 11th day, those grown in the high light treatment had a mean hypocotyl length of 0.7±0.05mm, those grown in the low light treatment had a mean hypocotyl length of 4.0±0.8mm, and those grown in the no light treatment had a mean hypocotyl length of 10.5±1.3mm. For the mutant cer10, the high light treatment had a mean hypocotyl length of 1.0±0.2mm, the low light treatment had a mean hypocotyl length of 4.0±0.8mm, and the no light treatment had a mean hypocotyl length of 11.8±0.6mm. The results agree with current literature on the subject; however we fail to reject our initial null hypothesis for both the mutant and wild type.

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Published

2014-02-20

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Articles