fairfolio
Saved Projects

Investigating the Effect of Magnetism on Pollen Germination and Pollen Tube Directionality

CSEF · 2015 Plant Biology

Virginia F. Hsiao · Aragon High School, San Mateo, San Mateo County

Overview

Objectives/Goals Pollen germination, which results in pollen tube growth, facilitates fertilization in angiosperms. While modern technology has increased magnetic exposure to plants, current research about the effects remains inconclusive. The goal of this project is to investigate the effects of magnetism on pollen germination and pollen tube directionality. Methods/Materials Lily pollen was tapped onto glass slides with 90 µL of water and placed in petri dishes lined with coffee filters soaked in 5 mL of water. A control group received no further treatment and was isolated from other groups. Two treatment groups of neodymium magnets with either 1.27 cm (large) or 0.635 cm (small) diameters were set up. Two respective magnets, one facing toward north and the other south, were placed 1.5 cm away from each edge of the slides. After 24 hours, the number of pollen tubes and the directionality were recorded. Results The large magnet conferred the highest pollen germination rate, followed by the small magnet, then by the control. For directionality, pollen tubes exposed to the small magnet showed a preference towards the north end. The pollen tubes exposed to the large magnet showed no preference. Conclusions/Discussion This study indicates that magnetism has an effect on pollen germination and pollen tube directionality. T-tests found that the large magnet group's germination rate was statistically significant compared to the control and found that the small magnet group's germination rate was insignificant compared to the control. T-tests also confirmed that the small magnet's tendency to the north end was statistically significant compared to the south end. Further research on the large magnet's effects of directionality is suggested.

Summary statement

I investigated the effect of magnetism on pollen germination and tube directionality and found that increased magnetic exposure increased pollen germination and that pollen tube directionality was only affected by certain magnetic strengths

Help received

Katherine Ward, for generously providing lab space and experimental support; Lynn, for helping me collect anthers every week; Ah Sam Florist, for graciously providing anthers for project

Competition history

  • CSEF 2015 Plant Biology · Entry S1804

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google