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    Core Practical - Daphnia

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    Alan Taylor
    This document outlines an experiment to study the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia magna (water fleas). Daphnia are used as a model organism because they are easy to culture and inexpensive. The method involves measuring the heart rate of Daphnia in various concentrations of caffeine solution, from 0% to 0.5%, and observing whether caffeine increases the heart rate by mimicking adrenaline. Safety precautions are needed as caffeine is harmful if swallowed. The experiment raises some ethical considerations as Daphnia have a simple nervous system so may feel less pain, they are invertebrates, and are commonly used as fish food.

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    Core Practical - Daphnia

    Uploaded by

    Alan Taylor
    405 views2 pages
    This document outlines an experiment to study the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia magna (water fleas). Daphnia are used as a model organism because they are easy to culture and inexpensive. The method involves measuring the heart rate of Daphnia in various concentrations of caffeine solution, from 0% to 0.5%, and observing whether caffeine increases the heart rate by mimicking adrenaline. Safety precautions are needed as caffeine is harmful if swallowed. The experiment raises some ethical considerations as Daphnia have a simple nervous system so may feel less pain, they are invertebrates, and are commonly used as fish food.

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    Core Practical.daphnia

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    This document outlines an experiment to study the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia magna (water fleas). Daphnia are used as a model organism because they are easy to culture and inexpensive. The method involves measuring the heart rate of Daphnia in various concentrations of caffeine solution, from 0% to 0.5%, and observing whether caffeine increases the heart rate by mimicking adrenaline. Safety precautions are needed as caffeine is harmful if swallowed. The experiment raises some ethical considerations as Daphnia have a simple nervous system so may feel less pain, they are invertebrates, and are commonly used as fish food.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    405 views2 pages

    Core Practical - Daphnia

    Uploaded by

    Alan Taylor
    This document outlines an experiment to study the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia magna (water fleas). Daphnia are used as a model organism because they are easy to culture and inexpensive. The method involves measuring the heart rate of Daphnia in various concentrations of caffeine solution, from 0% to 0.5%, and observing whether caffeine increases the heart rate by mimicking adrenaline. Safety precautions are needed as caffeine is harmful if swallowed. The experiment raises some ethical considerations as Daphnia have a simple nervous system so may feel less pain, they are invertebrates, and are commonly used as fish food.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Core Practical.

    UNIT 1- Effect of caffeine on heart-beat rate


    in Daphnia.

    * Daphnia magna –Water fleas- are semi-transparent fresh water crustacean. They are filter feeders
    and can survive in culture by eating algae, bacteria or yeast.

    They are used in experiments as a model system in that they are a simpler way at looking at a
    scientific problem; in this case looking at the effect of caffeine on heart beat rate.

    * Advantages of using Daphnia; easy to culture/keep, study and inexpensive.

    * Disadvantage of using Daphnia; not closely related to humans so results may not be relevant. Since
    the water fleas are easy to stress, results again may be misleading.

    * Effect of caffeine. Plants produce caffeine as an insecticide. Cocoa, coffee and tea have been used for
    100’s of years to produce ‘pick me up drinks’. These days it is used as a flavour enhancer in a wide
    range of soft drinks. In addition it is used in medicinal uses in aspirin preparations and is found in
    weight loss drinks and as a stimulant in Pro-Plus and Red Bull. Low doses stimulate the central
    nervous system, high doses produce restlessness, tremors, headache and insomnia.

    Caffeine mimics some of the effects of the adrenaline and noradrenaline on the heart. It can increase
    the rate of contraction of the ventricles, leading to an increase in cardiac output.

    * Culture of Daphnia; it may be killed by chlorine in tap water and therefore pond water is
    recommended to culture the water fleas in.

    * Outline Method;

    1. Place Daphnia on cavity/depression slide with pond water/zero caffeine.

    2. Focus on heart using microscope.

    3. Use a stopwatch to time 20s and count the number of heart beats in several periods of 20s. The rate
    is generally very high so count the beats by making dots on a piece of paper in the shape of the letter
    S. Count the dots and express heart rate as number of beats/minute.

    4. Repeats.
    5. Place Daphnia on new cavity slide with lowest caffeine concentration; repeat steps 2-4.

    6. Range of caffeine concentration s used. 0.1%-0.5%.

    7. Variables; Temperature, genotype, age, size and gender.

    8. Good idea to carry out a pilot xperiment first, in order to judge the right range of caffeine
    concentrations to use.

    * Safety aspects

    With Daphnia culured in the laboratory, there are little hazard associated with its culture. However,
    care is needed when using caffeine as it is harmful if swallowed

    *Ethical considerations;

    For;

    1. As an invertebrate it will have a simple nervous system-therefore reduced amount of pain.

    2. As an Invertebrate is used, we do not have to use mammals.

    3. Transparent- therefore heart visible without need for dissection.

    4. Bred for fish food- therefore will die anyway.

    5. Abundant in nature- therefore little threat of extinction if taking some samples for these experiments.

    Against;

    1. use of any animal is wrong.

    2. The water flea may feel pain.

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