How Do Our Collards Grow?

Our plants are getting bigger and adding biomass because the number of cells they have is increasing. In the beginning, they didn’t have as many cells, but as time went on, they grew. When plants have all the water, sun, nutrients and other things they need, they are able to go through photosynthesis, which takes that sunlight and converts it into glucose for the plant. During respiration, the glucose is used as energy for processes the plant will go through, such as mitosis. During mitosis, one cell divides to create two identical daughter cells, and when each of those cells then goes through mitosis itself, it creates a lot of cells. The cells are increasing all the time, so all the time the plant is growing.

    Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) are two enzymes that are used in photosynthesis. Enzymes are in the protein category of biomolecules, so when the nucleus gets the signal for more production of that enzyme, that message would be sent to the ribosomes. The ribosomes produce proteins, which eventually lead to enzymes. The enzymes are then sent from the endoplasmic reticulum to the golgi apparatus and vesicles, which ship the enzymes out to where they are needed.