Given below is a figure of a process that takes place in living cells. Answer the questions that follow
a)Plants cells swell up when in a particular condition (figure 1). However, they do not burst. Explain this feature.
b) Animal cells swell up and burst when placed in hypotonic solutions. Name this process of cell bursting.
c) What happens to plant cells when placed for prolonged periods in a salt solution? How can this process be used in a real-life situation?
Answers
Answer:
a) When a plant cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, the water inside the cells is drawn out by osmosis. The vacuoles decrease in size. The cytoplasm also shrinks away from the cellulose cell wall and plasmolysis occurs. This causes a lack of structure for the plant and causes it to wilt, or become flaccid.
A hypertonic solution is a particular type of solution that has a greater concentration of solutes on the outside of a cell when compared with the inside of a cell.
b)a red blood cell that is hypotonic (lower concentration outside the cell) will result in more water flowing into the cell than out. This results in swelling of the cell and potential hemolysis (bursting) of the cell. Cytolysis, or osmotic lysis, occurs when a cell bursts due to an osmotic imbalance that has caused excess water to diffuse into the cell.
c) Salts in the soil can absorb water. This results in less water being available for uptake by the plants, increasing water stress and root dehydration. This is referred to as physiological drought, which, if not corrected, can lead to reduced plant growth. When plant cells are put in really salty water, water diffuses/moves out of the cell and the central vacuole shrinks. When animal cells are put in salty water, water diffuses/moves out of the cell and the cell shrivels up. Plant cells don't burst if a lot of water diffuses/moves into them because of their cell wall.
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