Microscopic Organism Analysis

Amoeba: We were able to identify the nucleus, the cell membrane, and the pseudopods. This was examining while the power was at 400x. What was unique about the cell was that it had two nuclei and an observation we made was that it was very pink and skinny. The cell is eukaryotic.

Cyanobacteria: We were able to identify the occurrences of a single cell.

Euglena: We were able to identify the nucleus and chloroplasts. The power on the microscope we were using was at 400x. Unlike the circular cell that most of us are used to, the shape of this one was more like a dash, which made it pretty unique. Some observations we made included that it was light blue with dark blue dots which were probably the nuclei. The cell is eukaryotic, as it has a nucleus.

Bacteria cell: We were able to identify the coccus, bacillus, and spirilum.

Ligustrum: We were able to identify the chloroplasts, the epidermis cell, and the vein. This was with the microscope power at 400x. What is unique about this cell is that there are many circles seemingly chained together, giving it an almost artistic design. We observed that there was no nucleus, meaning it is a prokaryotic cell, and therefore, an autotroph.

Muscle Cell: We were able to identify the Striations and the Nucleus. This was with the microscope power at 400x. What is unique about the cell is that there seem to be many organelles clumped together. We observed that it even looks like real muscles, which is pretty intuitive. The muscle cell is eukaryotic and is heterotrophic.

Spirogyra: We were able to identify the cell wall, the chloroplasts, and the pyronoid. This picture was taken with the power on the microscope at 400x. What's unique about this cell is that it is very, very green. Also, it looks kind of like a caterpillar. This plant cell is eukaryotic and is autrophic because it provides for itself its own energy using photosynthesis.

Questions:

In this lab, we examined many different types of cells under the microscope and compared and contrasted the differences between the characteristics that cells belonging to different groups had. We compared and contrasted those which were eukaryotic or prokaryotic and those that were autotrophic of heterotrophic. Some common characteristics among the autotrophs included that they were mostly green and were plant cells. Some characteristics of the heterotrophs were that they were not green, and were usually animal cells with nuclei. They were mainly eukaryotic. The eukaryotic cells were usually the cells in which we were able to identify the nucleus. This is most likely because of the fact that all eukaryotic cells have a nucleus, while prokaryotic cells don't. The prokaryotic cells usually had pretty odd shapes that were very different from the eukaryotic cells. For example, the ligustrum was made of many multicolored rings and the bacteria cells had many floaty squiggly things known as spirillum.