The Effects of Water Stresses on the Growth and Development of Arabidopsis thaliana Wild type versus Val1 Mutant

In today’s changing world there are many different abiotic factors that are affecting crops plants. This is due in part to the Earth’s change in climate over time. This change in climate has led to an increase of abiotic stresses such as flooding. When looking at Arabidopsis thaliana col-o (Wild-type) and Val 1 (mutant) under flooded conditions, it was seen that the Wild-type outcompetes Val 1. When looking at the flooded environment it was seen that val1 is farther behind than that of the Wt. Not only was it behind the Wt in stressful conditions, val1 also took longer to bolt in the stressful environments. This led us to conclude that val1, in fact, does have a negative effect on that of the initial bolt. These results also led us to conclude that val1 is hypersensitive to flooding, which was seen in both the flooded and extreme flood environment. This in turn means that when val1 is introduced to stressful water conditions it takes longer to get to 15cm than that of the Wt