Here are some resources for growing and working with Fast Plants

Purple stem/yellow green leaf stock document

Fast Plants Growing Instructions from Carolina

Fast Plants Care

UWisc fast plants tips

Fast Plants life cycle

Seed to seed in 48 days (video)

Fast Plants Day 1 (week of 9/18/23):

(See also Yeast genetics 2)

Students plant seeds of F1 Non-Purple Stem, Yellow-Green Leaf (anl/ANL, ygr/YGR)

These are the offspring of two P1 strains:
Non-Purple Stem, Hairless (anl/anl) X Yellow-Green Leaf (ygr,ygr)

We plant at least 6 pots of non-purple stem parents (P1: anl/anl) for a demo, and ask students to puzzle out the genetics of the other parent "Who's the parent?" One pot per table.

• 1 pot per student
• place an inner "mesh" tray into the sink
• place bucket of soil and an empty tray with mesh insert on cart next to sink

• place a filled bucket of water by the sink

• per pair:

  • 15 mL tube of fertilizer pellets (fill tube to ~2ml)
  • microfuge tube of F1 seeds (up to 10 seeds/pair)
  • little paint brush
  • weigh boat
  • labeling tape and marker

According to Carolina,
"F1 generation seed will express dominant traits (purple stems, dark green leaves, standard height) and can be used to produce F2 seed that will show the typical monohybrid (3:1) or dihybrid (9:3:3:1) phenotypic ratios. F2 seed will express the appropriate phenotypic ratios."

Rose pots 4x9 in a flat, Instructions to students:

• Use tape to label pots (Section #, Student Pair #, Date, Name)
• Fill 1/3 with potting soil (contain activity inside soil bucket)
• add 8 fertilizer pellets, do not mix
• fill to the top with soil (work inside soil bucket, do not mix)
• push down soil
• put pot in mesh tray in sink, hold down
• add water from a cup to settle the soil
• put up to 5 seeds on soil surface (hoping for min 1 plant/pot)
• cover with dusting of soil
• put in new tray that contains a mesh insert

Instruction to TAs:

• keep (or place) mesh tray of all collected pots in the sink
• water gently, carefully ensuring seeds remain at the top surface of the soil
• ensure soil is packed and moist enough for seeds to germinate
• when different seed genotypes are used, take care not to transfer any seeds between pots
• after excess drains into sink, move into a tray and cover with clear dome lid
• carry tray to growth chamber

Grow in growth chamber in ISB373: 24 hour light, 24C

Water from the bottom (into the tray, not into the pots), as needed

Wisconsin Fast Plants

Fast Plants Labs week of 9/23/23

(See also micropipetting and yeast DNA extraction)

See the stock document about observations

Transfer inner slotted tray to a dry flat before transport to classroom

All plants should all be purple stem, green leaves

See P1 we planted earlier

Make a prediction about P2

Moodle doc "Fast Plants Observations After One Week" has questions for students while they look at plants.

Fast Plant Labs week of 10/2/23

See also

• yeast DNA sequencing
• Dog DNA extraction

F1 x F1 pollination

Remove the rare non-purples before class!

(Not the parents we planted!)

Everyone pollinates every plant. (Staff repeats afterward for complete mixing of pollen)

Non-sterile cotton swab.

No Labs - indigenous peoples day

Lab makeups as needed

Fast Plant Labs weeks of 10/16 and 10/23 2023

(See also Yeast DNA sequencing, )

Observe F2 seedlings

Enter F2 data by pair

Fast Plant Labs week of 10/30/23

See planting instructions

See also Dog DNA quantification

Each person does 2 pots

Fast Plants labs week of 11/6

Plant Data Entry Sheet

See also Prep MC1R for sequencing; gel

Fast Plant labs week of 11/13/23

(See also dog TRYP1 locus, analysis of MC1R genotype & sequence, cap3 sequence assembly)

Compile & analyze data

11/20 - week of Thanksgiving

Turn in Fast Plants report week of 11/27/23

Turn in report on Fast Plant genetics experiment

See also Dog genes bioinformatics