Question

Fruits are dehydrated to preserve them.Here the fruit cells selevtively lose water without losing the other important components. On the other hand, meat is generally preserved in salt.Here, the salt solution is selectively taken up by the meat cells. In the examples discussed, there was a selective exchange of substances. Can you guess the cell components responsible for this selective exchange into and out of the cell?

Answer 1

The cell component that is responsible for the selective movement of material in and out of the cell, is known as the plasma membrane or the cell membrane. There are different process by which materials can move selectively in and out of the cell such as osmosis, active diffusion and active transport mechanism. To dehydrated fruits water molecules leave the fruit cells due to heating. For the salt molecules to be taken up by the cells of the meat, the process required is active transport.
The cell membrane is termed as a semipermeable membrane due to this selectivity.