Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am a 10th grade student and I am thinking of doing a sci project this year at the local science fair.
Right now, i am vacillating between two project ideas.
1. testing tobacco mosaic virus on house plants
- I found out that this virus is found in small quantitiies in almost every cigarrete
- I want to test the effect of this virus onplant growth
--> and maybe as a follow up, if I have time-- i could test ways to prevent this virus (i am not sure at all about how I would do that)

2. I am thinking of doing a project using x rays and testing them on plant growth. According to my reasearch, x rays have a stimulating effect on plant growth. I was wondering what type of plant I should use and how I can actually test the x rays. I was thinking of doing it at different times during the plant growth: for example, on a dry seed, during germination, or after the plant is fully grown.

Can you help me develop my procedure?
Also, can you give me feedback on my project idea. -- which one would be more effective?

priyanka222 wrote:I am a 10th grade student and I am thinking of doing a sci project this year at the local science fair.
Right now, i am vacillating between two project ideas.
1. testing tobacco mosaic virus on house plants
- I found out that this virus is found in small quantitiies in almost every cigarrete
- I want to test the effect of this virus onplant growth
--> and maybe as a follow up, if I have time-- i could test ways to prevent this virus (i am not sure at all about how I would do that)

2. I am thinking of doing a project using x rays and testing them on plant growth. According to my reasearch, x rays have a stimulating effect on plant growth. I was wondering what type of plant I should use and how I can actually test the x rays. I was thinking of doing it at different times during the plant growth: for example, on a dry seed, during germination, or after the plant is fully grown.

Can you help me develop my procedure?
Also, can you give me feedback on my project idea. -- which one would be more effective?

Hi Priyanka!
I did some research online about the tobacco mosaic virus- check out this link
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distributi ... G1168.html
It seems like studies have already been done with tobacco mosaic viruses on plants. It might be interesting to look into preventative measures of this virus instead.
As for the effect of x-rays on plant growth, here's an article about the stimulative effect of x-rays
http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/8/2/287
I would recommend checking with a teacher to see if such a procedure would be feasible. If yes, perhaps you could test the effect of x-rays on a certain plant species and observe the effects at every stage of plant growth. Both topics are extremely interesting, good luck with your project!

Thank you so much!
I was doing some further research but I still can't figure out what method can be used to prevent TMV virus. I was thinking that maybe human drugs that prevent smoking, could work on plants? I don't really know. Do you have any ideas?

Hi Priyanka!
Glad I could help. You might want to look into the properties of the virus itself. Applying heat to the infected plant might be a possible solution. Keep in mind that drugs typically will not work on viruses, usually they work on bacteria only. Since tmv is usually transferred through unsanitary conditions, perhaps other mosaic viruses might be interesting to look into as well b/c tmv is usually prevented through cleanliness. Here's a link that gives a brief intro to some other viruses...Good luck!
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/ ... s/vg15.htm