Mitosis Root Tips

• Suggest why the student soaked the root tips in hydrochloric acid.

  • prevents mitosis
  • allows the stain to diffuse into cells
  • allows cells to be more easily squashed
  • to hydrolyse the cell wall
• Pressing the coverslip downwards enabled the student to observe the stages of mitosis clearly. Explain why.

  • separated the cells into a layer one cell thick
  • so that light could pass through
• Why might another student follow the same method but calculate a different mitotic index?

  • their sample was dividing at a different rate
  • their sample was taken from another part of the root