Lawrence, a student in biology class, was conducting an experiment to see if different types of plant foods would affect the growth of bean plants. One day when Lawrence was feeding the plants, he accidentally spilled salt in the soil around the roots of one of the bean plants. The next day he noticed that the plant had slowed dramatically. Lawrence decides to prepare two slides: one from a plant not exposed to the salt and one from the plant exposed to the salt. The following is what he observed. Using excellent biology vocabulary, describe what happened to make the plant wilt in this situation.

an individual’s sex (i.e., whether they are a male or female) is determined by the sex chromosomes. most people have two sex chromosomes, one that is inherited from their mother and one that is inherited from their father. typically, females have two x chromosomes (xx) and males have one x chromosome and one y chromosome (xy). conditions caused by changes (“mutations”) in genes located on the x chromosome are considered x-linked.

x-linked recessive inheritance

most x-linked conditions are recessive. this means that in a person with two x chromosomes (most females), both copies of a gene (i.e., one on each x chromosome) must have a change or mutation whereas in a person with one x chromosome (most males), only one copy of a gene must have a mutation. a female with a mutation in one copy of a gene on the x chromosome is said to be a “carrier” for an x-linked condition. a male with a mutation in a gene on the x chromosome is typically affected with the condition. because females have two copies of the x chromosome and males have only one x chromosome, x-linked recessive diseases are more common among males than females. however, x-linked recessive diseases can occur in both males and females.

for x-linked recessive disorders, an unaffected carrier mother who has a mutation in a gene on the x chromosome can transmit either the x chromosome with this mutation or a “normal” x chromosome to her children. if the father is unaffected, none of her daughters will be affected and all of her daughters will be unaffected—since they will inherit at least one normal x chromosome from their father. however, each daughter will have a 50% chance of being an unaffected carrier like her mother and a 50% chance of both x chromosomes being normal.

when you breathe in, or inhale, your diaphragm contracts (tightens) and moves downward. this increases the space in your chest cavity, into which your lungs expand. the intercostal muscles between your ribs also enlarge the chest cavity. they contract to pull your rib cage both upward and outward when you inhale.

blood enters the heart through two large veins, the inferior and superior vena cava, emptying oxygen-poor blood from the body into the right atrium of the heart. as the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the pulmonic valve, into the pulmonary artery and to the lungs where it is oxygenated.