Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
Day 1: What’s a Flower For?
Warm Up
1. When have you ever given or received flowers?
2. What is your favorite flower, and why?
Class Discussion Notes
Floral occasions?
Pair Share
Discuss this quote with your
partner, being sure to circle
any words you do not know.
How does this quote
connect to what we have
already discussed about
flowers?
Favorite flowers?
“The flower is the poetry of reproduction.
It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.”
-Jean Giraudoux
Pair Share Take Home Points:
What are flowers for?
As we have seen, flowers are a way for us to show loved ones we care about them. But why do plants
make flowers in the first place? Oddly, the answer has a lot to do with our use of flowers.
Written Purpose
Anatomy of a flower
Watch the video of Jalen dissecting a flower.
Check out the flower diagram here
Visual Purpose
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
and label the male and female parts of the flower.
Why are flowers important?
One reason that flowers are very important is because their offspring comprise many of the foods that
we eat. Once a flower is pollinated, the plant can go on to develop a fruit.
Sketch and/or write the name of the fruit that results from the flowers shown below.
Video observations
Write or draw observations of each plant. How are they similar? How are they different?
Plant on the left
Plant on the right
Both Plants
What do you think is the difference between these two plants?
Introducing Arabidopsis thaliana
Warm Up
What are the players in the image on the board doing, and why?
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
Yesterday we watched some time-lapse footage of plants growing. But what exactly was that plant?
In this video, we will learn more about the plant that you saw: Arabidopsis thaliana.
Video
Notes
What are two reasons scientists use Arabidopsis in
their research? Why is it a good model?
1.
2.
How big is the Arabidopsis genome compared to
other plants?
What is the difference between a mutant and a
wildtype plant?
Recall our plants from yesterday:
Label the wildtype
plant and the
mutant plant in the
image to the left.
What is the gene mutation that caused
the differences between these two
plants?
Now that we know the mutation in the gene, how can we find out more about it?
Hint: What might you normally do when you want to learn more about something?
is like
for Arabidopsis!
Compare Google and Araport in their uses, number, and types of hits.
Google
Used for…
Araport
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
# of hits for “flower”
Example category and
the type of results it
gives
Now let’s use Araport to look up constans, the gene that was mutated in the time-lapse
vide
o.
Genomics
Function
Expression
1.
Go
to
ww
w.ar
apor
t.org and enter constans in the
search bar.
2. When we enter constans into
Araport, we get results of many
categories. All we want is the gene, so click on the gene category to get only gene results.
3. Click on the top result, which you’ll notice has the gene name constans.
4. Take a deep breath…
There is a lot of information on the page that comes up! Let’s focus on three main pieces of
information on the gene page. Find the following items on the menu at the top of the page:
Date ____________
Question
Analogy
Name ____________________________________________________________
actual
gene.
Can
which
Genomics: Where is
this gene “written” in the
genome?
When you look in the Genomics section, you will find a window that shows a small portion of
the Arabidopsis genome.
If you click on the
gene, another
window will pop up
that shows you the
DNA sequence for the
you figure out
chromosome
constans is on from
the window that
pops up?
You can also scroll left and right within this
part of the genome in the Genomics section.
Can you find the names of any nearby genes?
Gene Function: What does this gene
do?
If you scroll down to the gene function section of
the gene page, you will find a list called Gene
Ontology. The items in the list are Gene
Ontology Terms, or GO Terms for short, and
they describe things about a protein’s job in the
cell, where it does that job, and what affect that
job has on the whole organism.
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
Some of these terms may look familiar, while others may not. Can you find any GO terms in the
list that match with the affect that changing this gene has on the plant?
Look under “cellular component.” Where can you find this gene doing its job?
Gene Expression: Where and when is this gene doing its job?
What does it mean to “express yourself?”
Gene expression describes when, where, and how much a gene is used in an organism. To
illustrate why this is important, think about a marching band. What would the band’s playing sound
like if each player decided to “express” him or herself musically without listening to each other or
playing together?
Furthermore, what would the band’s formations look like if some of the players forgot where they
were supposed to march or stand?
Just like each player in a marching band, each gene has a specific time and place
to “play” in
order to help a
plant or a
person grow
and develop
properly. If a
gene is
expressed at the wrong time and
place, it can have drastic effects.
Take, for instance, this fly that has
legs growing out of its head instead
of antennae.
When you scroll to the Expression
part of the gene page, you will see a
map of an Arabidopsis plant. Some
structures may be familiar, while
others may look new.
Name ____________________________________________________________
What are some plant structures that you recognize?
Date ____________
What do the colors on the chart mean?
What are three areas with high expression of constans? Circle them on your diagram and
name them below.
One of the areas with highest expression is the shoot apex. Here are our plants from the video again
with arrows pointing to the shoot apex on each plant:
The shoot apex is where the plant is most actively
growing, and it transitions from growing just leaves
(vegetative growth) to growing a long stem with
flowers, or an inflorescence.
Shoot apex
What do you think that the constans gene is doing in the
shoot apex, and why?
Day 3: Exploring genes that help a plant to flower
Warm Up
1. When do plants normally flower?
2. What are some factors that you think plants use to decide that it is time to flower?
Let’s share out our warm up answers and summarize them in the box below.
Class Summary of the factors that help a plant decide to flower
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
In the last few days, we have learned about flowers and how to find information about plant
genes. Today, we are going to look at how we can find more information about plant genes
that help a plant to flower.
Broader
More specific
FLOR-ID URL: http://www.phytosystems.ulg.ac.be/florid
Take about 5 minutes to explore FLOR-ID on your own and record your thoughts,
observations, drawings, and questions below.
FLOR-ID
FLOR-ID: Flowering Interactive Database
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
Here is a diagram that shows some of the genes that are involved in flowering and how they are
affected by various factors.
Legend Let’s break down some key parts of the legend in order to better understand this diagram.
Legend Name/Symbol
My Group’s Hypothesis
Class Consensus
Genes/Proteins
Symbol:
Integrator genes
Symbol:
Positive regulations
Symbol:
Negative regulations
Symbol:
Questions/Comments about other parts of the legend?
Icons In addition to the legend, we will need to understand what the colorful symbols in the diagram
mean. You will receive cards representing each symbol to sort into piles. Put familiar terms together,
familiar pictures together, and totally unfamiliar cards together.
Flowering
The name hints that this
The image hints that this
This connects back to what we
Name ____________________________________________________________
Factors
factor has to do with…
factor has to do with…
Date ____________
know about plants because…
(Alternately, it surprised me that
this factor was connected to
plants because…)
Research Proposal
Your group will have the opportunity to do more extensive research on one of the above flowering
factors. However, you will need to decide which factor you would like to study and convince your
funding organization (i.e., your teacher!) that your group is the right one to tackle this research.
Decide with your group on the top three factors that you would like to study and list them below:
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
1. _______________________________________
2. _______________________________________
3. _______________________________________
Write a proposal on why you have selected your top flowering factor using the frame below.
Why should your group study this flowering factor?
We have chosen to study ____________________________________________________________ as a
flowering signal because _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________.
What do you hope to learn by studying this flowering factor?
We think that studying _______________________________________________________________
will give us insight into _______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________.
How will you research your flowering factor?
We intend to complete this work by using research and bioinformatics tools such as ________
___________________________________________________________________________________.
How can your research be applied to a real world problem?
By studying the flowering factor ______________________________________________________, we
hope to apply our knowledge to the problem of _____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________.
Extension
For this project, we are working mainly by researching the genes and flowering pathways that are
already available on Arabidopsis through experiments that people have completed and published.
However, based on your proposal, can you design an experiment that would test how your flowering
factor works?
Name ____________________________________________________________
Gene Report
Flowering Factor:
Gene Name:
Gene Symbol:
Genomics
Position (Chromosome):
Length (bases):
Gene Function
Gene Ontology Term 1:
Description of GO term:
Gene Ontology Term 2:
Description of GO term:
Gene Ontology Term 3:
Description of GO term:
Gene Expression
Shade in and label the areas with
the most gene expression.
Date ____________
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
Does this expression pattern tell you make sense given what you already know about what this gene
does? Why or why not?
What might happen if this gene is not expressed properly in a plant?
Gene Summary
Based on the information above, complete the summary statement below.
This gene, _________________________________________, is related to the flowering factor
___________________________________. It is located on the _________ chromosome of the
Arabidopsis genome. Some important Gene Ontology terms for this gene are ___________
________________________________________________________________________________,
which imply that the gene does the following things in Arabidopsis: ____________________
_________________________________________________________________________________.
Other genes that this gene works with are ___________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________. If
this gene were not working properly in Arabidopsis, this might lead to ________________
_________________________________________________________________________________.
Understanding how this gene and flowering factor is important because _________________
_________________________________________________________________________________.
Is there anything else interesting that you found while researching your gene?
Do you have any questions after having done this research?
Presentation Notes
Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ____________
Use this organizer to keep track of your peers’ presentations. Record the presenters for each flowering
factor presentation, take a few notes as they seem interesting to you, and rate each presentation for
clarity and quality.
Flowering
Factors
Presenters
Notes/Questions
Presentation
Clarity (1-4)
Presentation
Quality (1-4)