Class Group: S15

Lab Group’s No: 4

CENTRE OF FOUNDATION STUDIES

FOUNDATION BIOLGY I
LABORATORY REPORT

Experiment
Cell Staining And Measuring Cell Size

Name Nor Izzrul Ameer Bin Mohd Zainy

Student ID 2020617402
Lab Instructor’s Name Puan Ainul Hafiza Abdul Hair
Date of Experiment 12 August 2020
Member 1 Nor Izzrul Ameer Bin Mohd Zainy
Member 2 Amir Faiz Bin Mokhtar
Member 3 Muhammad Danial Aqeel Bin Abdullah
Member 4 Muhamad Aiman Haziq Bin Mohd Nurisham

Marks

Comment
BIO 091 Cell Staining And Measuring Cell Size

Cell Staining And Measuring Cell Size

26 August 2020

i. Amir Faiz Bin Mokhtar

ii. Muhammad Danial Aqeel Bin Abdullah

iii. Nor Izzrul Ameer Bin Mohd Zainy

iv. Muhamad Aiman Haziq Bin Mohd Nurisham

Abstract:

Microscopy imaging is an essential tool for medical diagnosis and molecular biology. It is
particularly useful for extracting information about disease states, tissue heterogeneity and cell
specific parameters such as cell type or cell size from biological specimens. However, the
information obtained from the images is likely to be subjected to sampling and observational
bias with respect to the underlying cell size/type distributions.

Introduction :

Both plant and animal cells are eukaryotic, so they contain membrane-bound organelles like the
nucleus and mitochondria.
However, plant cells and animal cells do not look exactly the same or have all of the same
organelles, since they each have different needs. For example, plant cells contain chloroplasts
since they need to perform photosynthesis, but animal cells do not.
The purpose of this lab is to learn how to prepare a wet mound, to learn proper staining
techniques and to examine human cheek cells and onion skin cells.It is predicted that all cells,
no matter if it be plant or animal, will be in beside each other in large groups, that most of the
major organelles will be visible through the microscope at 400X total magnification, the individual
cells will be approximately 0.05mm in length/diameter..
Diagram of a typical animal cell:

Diagram of a typical plant cell:

Materials :

• Microscope
• Microscope Slides
• Cover slips
• Medicine dropper
• Iodine Stain
• Cheek cells
• Toothpick
• Methylene blue stain
• Onion Skin
• Sudan IV solution
• Water

Procedures : Onion Wet Amount

We get a clean glass slide and cover slip and obtained a piece of onion. We used our fingers
(nails work well), or forceps, to carefully peel off a small pieceof skin from the inner or concave
side of the onion chunk. This piece should bethin and translucent, looking much like a piece of
scotch tape.
To prepare a wet mount of the onion with distilled water, we lay the onion skin flat
on a glass slide. We make sure the skin doesn’t fold over on itself (this can be
tricky). We added one or two drops of water from the dropper bottle on top of the
onion epidermis.

Next, we placed one side of the coverslip just to the edge of the water at a 45-degree angle.
Gently lower the coverslip onto the drop (*Hint—you may want to use a forceps to position the
coverslip). Using this procedure helps prevent air bubbles from being trapped under the
coverslip.
We cleaned and adjusted our slide: If water runs out from the edges of the coverslip, we have
added too much water. If there is an air space under the coverslip, we have not added enough
water, or you may have placed the coverslip on the slide improperly. We use a piece of paper
towel to soak up extra water, or add a drop of water to the edge of the coverslip to displace air
bubbles. We also gently tap the coverslip with a pencil tip or forceps to drive some air bubbles
out. We observed the onion under low (100x) power.
Procedures : Cheek cells

We took a clean toothpick and gently scraped the inside of your cheek. Next, we
prepared a wet mount like in steps 2-6. Instead, we used the methylene blue
solution as the dye. Lastly, we observed the onion under low (100x) power.

Results:

Animal cell
Plant cell
Discussion :

When observing the onion skin cell, we noticed that the cells took on a brick-like structure and
within the cells, small dots (the nuclei) can be seen. When we first looked into the microscope,
the microscope’s total magnification was 40X so there were about a hundred rows of
rectangular cells (see diagram provided), but as we changed magnifications, the number of
cells in the field of view decreased.

When we viewed the onion skin cells at 400X total magnification, we noticed the nuclei of the
cells looked clearer and larger and we were able to study the cell with more understanding
than when we used the first magnification. The organelles that we were able to see in this
type of cell were the nucleus, the cytoplasm and the cell wall. Unlike the onion skin cells, the
cheek cells were more spread out from each other and they all had a round shape. When we
viewed the cheek cells at 40X total magnification, we noticed that the cells were secluded and
spread out (see diagram provided). At 400X total magnification, we were only able to view one
cell at a time, due to the fact that the cells were separated from each other. The organelles
that were visible in this type of cell were the nucleus, the cytoplasm and the cell membrane.
Aside from the actual cells, we were able to see air bubbles within both the onion skin cell
slide and the cheek cell slide.

The cheek cell, an example of an animal cell, generally has a circular, oval shape. Due to the
fact that the cheek cell was not in groups or clumps, the arrangement of this type of cell is
unknown. From previous labs, I remember that the cells were pushed together completely;
each cell fitted beside another cell perfectly and so on. The animal cell structure is the most
prominent in human cheek cells. The onion skin cell, an example of a plant cell, generally has
a rigid, rectangular shape. The onion skin cells were positioned beside each other (length
touching length, width touching width) and formed a checkered pattern. Also, like the cheek
cell, the onion skin cells were pushed together so that no spaces were in between. Two
differences between a cheek cell and an onion skin cell are that the onion skin cells has the
chloroplast and cell wall organelles while the cheek cell doesn’t and the general shape of the
onion skin cell is a rectangle and the general shape of the cheek cell is an oval.
Conclusion :

Only the plant cells were together in a large group, most of the important organelles are
visible through the microscope. The important organelles that can be seen are the cell
wall (for the plant cells), the cell membrane, the nucleus, and the cytoplasm. We can see
those organelles due to the fact that they are the largest organelles in the cell and also
due to the dye which brought them out. The overall image will not be clear enough for
further detail. This statement was correct because, other than the nucleus, the
cytoplasm and the cell membrane/cell wall (for plants only), we cannot see any other
organelle; the microscope simply didn’t have enough magnification to see them. Overall,
I have learned that onion skin cells (plant cells) are rectangular and are always with
other plant cells and cheek cells (animal cells) are circular and are secluded from each
other, and that the smaller organelles cannot be seen with just our school microscope.
References :

• Laboratory Manual for Introductory Biology, Second Edition. Pearson

Custom Publishing.
• Foundation Biology I Workbook And Lab Manual, Biology unit, Centre of
Foundation Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
• https://www.wlwv.k12.or.us/cms/lib8/OR01001812/Centricity/
Domain/1318/PlantvAnimalCellsMicroscopeLab.pdf