How Does Your Garden Grow?

1.Our kale plant would not be able to grow without photosynthesis, cell division, and cellular respiration. Photosynthesis provides our plant with the ATP (this ATP is a product of cellular respiration) necessary for almost all other cellular functions. In a way, photosynthesis and cellular respiration help each other out.  During photosynthesis, the plant needs carbon dioxide and water-- both of which are released into the air during respiration. And during respiration, the plant needs oxygen and glucose, which are both produced through photosynthesis. Because of the ATP, the cells are able to go through mitosis over and over and over and over again until our plant is much larger. This is why our plants continues to grow larger and larger in biomass. 

2.  Rubisco an enzyme that catalyses the carbon fixing step at the beginning of the Calvin cycle. So, if more of it was produced,  the Calvin Cycle would be able to happen faster. The enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) utilizes bicarbonate to catalyze the β-carboxylation of PEP, to form the four-carbon acid oxaloacetate. In higher plants, PEPC plays the role of replenishing the citric acid cycle intermediates, oxaloacetate and malate, which are required for nitrogen assimilation and amino acid biosynthesis. If more PEPC was produced, more four-carbon acid oxaloacetate would be produced, as well as citric acid cycle intermediates, oxaloacetate and malate in higher plants. 

Below are pictures of our plants and what they look like as of January 17, 2017.