Senescence in Plant Development - Essay Example

ARTICLE EVALUATION The article under consideration is called “Senescence in plant Development”. It is dedicated to such notion in plant growing as senescence. The author goes deeply into the above mentioned term and explains it to a reader on the examples of human and plants senescence curve. It is also stated that senescence is also met among animals that is called either by metabolic disorder in their bodies or by mental disorder that is caused by the wrong hormonal state. The same can be applied to plants but here the signs of senescence are rather different: pigment spots, slow growth, drying, low ability to bring harvest and others. In the main body of the article the author considers the signals that come from flowers, trees and plants about their coming death. The article has a vivid example of such signs coming from the leaves, those signals being recorded coming from the stem apex. During the experiment it turned out that many forces are involved by a plant to demonstrate signs of its senescence. The described experiment was carried out with the help of kinetin that colored the signaling spots of the leaves. The main goal of the article is to make one more step in answering the question what makes plants senescence? As an editor of the journal I should say that the problem of senescence has always been an acute one. People always wanted to live forever without having their body aged. The process that makes human body older are still under investigation and I’m sure it will take a century or even more to create the remedy to prolong our lives. The article on application also has to do with senescence, though it refers to plants: flowers and trees. The author of the article investigates the problem of plant senescence and has dedicated this article to the signs that plants demonstrate with the death approaching. I am convinced that our scientific journal does not need such pseudoscientific articles to be published in. The thing is that plants are rather easy to grow and plant and they usually do not have a long life cycle compared to the one of a man or an animal. The science has to cope with more relevant and important information as the improvement of harvest or soil fertility. In other words, the article is too theorized to be understood by non-professionals. It will be interesting to a very restricted circle of readers. I believe that the attempt to prove that trees and flowers are afraid of death is just ridiculous. That is why I recommend to deny publishing the article. The second article that was considered is called “Auxin Gradients Are Associated with Polarity Changes in Trees”. It tells about the wood grain pattern that is determined by the initial cells in the vascular cambium. The orientation of the grain can stay relatively stable during the whole life of a plant, though it can change direction when it is made by some environmental reasons. The orientation of the grain is of great importance since it determines the water supply and fertilizers provision. The article signifies that an auxin element exists in the grain tissue and it predetermines its orientation. The article describes two experiments conducted on the mature quaking aspen trees. The patterns of cambial elements were taken before and after cutting the cambium of the root. The scientists measured the level of auxin with the help of some chemical reagents. The level of auxin was even higher below the injection than above – it can be explained by the fact that this element travels downward at a pace of about 4mm/hour. The further investigation (the incision of tremuloides knots) showed that the grain changed its orientation by 0,5 degree per day and in general it led to the grain rotation by 45 degrees. Not so fast reorientation was noticed in the places above the wound on a step. The conducted experiment proves that the content of auxin in a grain conforms to the computer model results. Though, the computer needed much more time to identify the grain orientation taking into account the level of auxin. The researches showed directly that the grain orientation that is the tree polarity depends in direct proportion to the level of auxin that a plant gets. The article under consideration has several pictures that illustrate the given material on the experiments. The first picture demonstrates the wound state in the time of incision, in 4 hours and in 24 hours. It is clearly seen that the color scale grades from the dark blue to the bright red referring to the level of auxin in the region of wound. The wound in the moment of incision demonstrates the average concentration of auxin, while in 4 hours the level of it below the wound is critically low and in 24 hours there is no auxin at all below the wound. And picture B shows the movement of auxin in the region of wound. Giving my evaluation of this article I must say that it is performed according to all requirements for a scientific article. The title outlines the theme of the article – the polarity of trees in its connection with the level of auxin. The article has 11 sources that is quite enough for such a small article. Despite the fact that the article is not very big, the material is stated in a clear way. There is no irrelevant facts in the article, each sentence is logically developed and is closely attached to the main topic of the article. I think that this article can be published in our journal though it needs some transformations. The volume of it must be at least two pages preserving the print. In my opinion, the experiment must be depicted with more details, since the pictures only do not provide sufficient information. The next thing that must be done is to write a small introduction and conclusion in order to follow the format of a scientific article. The topic of grain orientation is rather important nowadays since it is closely connected with the notion of harvest. The more the grain is rotated the more difficult it is to provide water and nutrition for a plant. The results of this research can be efficiently applied in agriculture and gardening. Though this article is just the initial step towards the final goal, it has an unquestionable scientific value. Bibliography 1. Kramer, Eric. (2008). Auxin Gradients are Associated with Polarity changes in Trees. Science Magazine. 20 June, vol. 320 2. Leopold A. (1961)Senescence in Plant Development. Current Problems in Research. 1 Dec. Read More