CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt
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🕑 Added 2024-09-13 21:19:20 +0000 UTCA rant about West Texas Pines and the sand blazing star. At the 40 minute mark we begin our dive into the convoluted, confusing but utterly cool phenomenon of Alternation of Generations we talk mostly about Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) and Lycophytes ("spikemosses" and "clubmosses"), and the ferns, but not gymnosperms or angiosperms). This turns into more of a "lesson" on the subject than a podcast episode.
Key terms to remember :
Gametophyte (haploid), Sporophyte (diploid)
Haploid - 1 set of chromosomes aka 1 copy of the genome
Diploid - 2 sets of chromosomes aka 2 copies of the genome (one as a backup copy)
Meiosis (takes a diploid cell and produces haploid daughter cells, two of which later come together to form a diploid zygote/sporophyte)
Mitosis (Cell divides and produces cells identical to whatever the parent cell was, whether that parent cell was haploid or diploid. Mitosis doesn't reduce the chromosome number by half). Meiosis is synonymous with sex/reproduction/the production of haploid cells).
Evolutionary lineages referenced in this episode and their phylogenetic classification:
Bryophytes (An informal paraphyletic classification used to refer to the non-vascular Phyla Anthocerotophyta (hornworts), Marchantiophyta (liverworts), and Bryophyta (mosses)
Lycophytes : Class Lycopodiopsida, contains 3 orders: Lycopodiales (1 Family : Lycopodiaceae; 3 Subfamilies : Huperzioideae, Lycopodielloideae, Lycopoideae), Selaginellales (1 family : Selaginellaceae), & Isoetales (1 family : Isoetaceae).
Ferns : Class Polypodiopsida.
Contains 4 Subclasses : Equisetidae (Horsetails), Marattiadae (Marratioid Bastards including Angiopteris evecta with 20' long fronds), Ophioglossidae (Whisk Ferns, Grape Ferns, Moonworts), and Polypodiidae (Leptosporangiate Ferns, aka the "classic" ferns including the majority of what people think of when they think of ferns including Maidenhairs, Cinnamon Ferns, Sensitive Ferns, Filmy Ferns, Forked Ferns, Cheilanthoid "Desert" Ferns, Mosquito Ferns, Tree Ferns, Aspleniums, etc.
Comments
Zeebes
Hopefully, I’m either correct or so wrong it’s funny.
Zeebes
The little people analogy really brings a new level to go fuck yourself. So the little person would be the haploid gametophyte and someone else’s little person gametophyte would have to shoot our little buddy with some fern juice, 🥤 then the diploid sporophyte would grow out of our little buddies, belly button or something?
Lise Fracalossi
This was some INTENSE learning. Listening to it, I still felt like I had a lot of questions and that some stuff was missed (like... what's the "alternation" part; when do they alternate? Where in the plant does the sporophyte/gametophyte live?) But then I went to the Wikipedia article and it was even MORE confusing. So, I have to conclude this is just *really hard to explain*, and given that, you did a phenomenal job, reiterating the stuff that was most difficult to grasp the first time. If nothing else you definitely put a seed (haha) in my brain to think about later. I know there's nothing truly analogous in animals, but it did make me think of mitochondrial DNA in humans, where there's basically a second (different) genome in all of our cells -- which is hypothesized to be due to a separate organism that once infiltrated our cells in our evolutionary history.
Ana Rita
Have to hear again😅...to put questions...
WillTwo
Wow! You did a great job explaining such a difficult subject. I wish you could have been my high school biology teacher. I was driving home when you were at the point in the pod cast trying to explain how humans would reproduce sexually if our species used AOG, using midgets as analogs to gametophytes. I laughed so hard I almost drove the car into the salt marsh. The frequent "fucks" and "shits" are a nice flourish. Very entertaining while also being very informative.
