Suppose that during a detailed anatomical study of a marine inver...

Question

Suppose that during a detailed anatomical study of a marine invertebrate, you found a small, previously undescribed structure. How would you test the hypothesis that the structure is a gland that releases one or more hormones?

Accepted Answer

Welcome back. Here's our next problem. A researcher removes a small structure from an organism of species X. And observes that its growth has been impeded. The experiment is then repeated with four additional members of the same species and the same outcome is obtained. She comes to the conclusion that this structure is most likely a blank that releases blank. So we have a situation here where a structure or a body part is actually removed from an organism. And the end result is as it says, its growth has been impeded. So growth slowed or stunted. Well, if we're trying to think about what might this structure be When we look at our answer choices, we have choices A. And B. Have organ as filling in his first length while choices C. And D. Have gland as the option. Well, a gland is a specialized group of cells or specialized cells that synthesize and secrete a substance. And we can notice that in our answer, it says the structure is most likely a blank that releases. So we're definitely talking about something that releases a substance. So that sounds a lot more like a gland. Especially when you consider that an organ removing a vital organ from an animal is likely to cause major damage and even kill the animal. Um So again, if we're saying what is this most likely um Here gland is much more likely to be our answer. Since the only effect we see is an overall stunting of growth. The removal of the gland will probably cause some disorders but not be as detrimental to organism as a removal of an entire organ. So we're going to focus on choices C. And D. And rule out organ as our most likely answer. We also know that it has a small structure Now there can be small organs. But again if we're going back and forth organ or gland glands are usually small and then our second blank that we need to fill in is if we say it's a gland that releases, well we see the effect was that growth was slowed and our two choices for that second blank our growth hormone or progesterone. Well growth hormone does control the growth of an animal. So that looks like a good answer here. Somebody who's read there, we can guess that that would be our likely answer. Choice C. And we can confirm that by looking at choice D. Which suggests progesterone and progesterone is responsible for the maintenance of the uterus during pregnancy. It's not involved in the growth of the organism. So progesterone, we can definitely rule out and therefore rule out choice D. So again, we see this removal of a small structure that causes the growth to be impeded. And the experimenter comes the conclusion that this structure is most likely a will say choice C. Gland that releases growth hormone. See you in the next video

Suppose that during a detailed anatomical study of a marine invertebrate, you found a small, previously undescribed structure. How would you test the hypothesis that the structure is a gland that releases one or more hormones?

Watch next