Beet Permeability Lab

The cell membranes are the utmost essential organelle that surrounds all living cells. Its purpose is to control what goes in and out of the cells and is accountable for the various other properties of the cells as well. The nucleus and other organelles also have membranes that are practically indistinguishable. Membranes are organised in a mosaic arrangement, comprised of carbohydrates, proteins and phospholipids. This can be seen in Figure 1. The objective of this indirect examination is to study the causes of various solvents and conducts on live beetroot cells. The reason why beetroot cells have been selected for this experiment is because they have a big membrane-bound central vacuole, as seen in Figure 2. The red colour anthocyanin, which provides the beetroot its bright colour is located in the vacuole. The cell membrane encloses the whole beetroot cell. The anthocyanin cannot leak out if the membranes stay unharmed. The red colour can escape if the membranes are hassled or broken.

I know that osmosis will occur in the vegetables, but I am not sure of

Aim: To investigate how effect of Detergent Concentration (cont.) has on Membrane permeability of Beetroot cells. Hypothesis: I predict that as detergent concentration increases, the solution will become less clear, plus mass increases. The increases in mass will indicate that the water potential of the Beetroot cell is lower than that of the surrounding sucrose solution. The Beetroot discs will become flaccid and decrease in mass if the water potential of the surrounding solution is lower than the water potential inside the beetroot cell.

Hypothesis: To investigate the effect of different concentrations of ethanol on the permeability of beetroot cell membranes.

The cell membrane (Plasma membrane) functions to provide cell support, cell stability and control entry and exit of materials from the cell. This study was conducted to test the effects of environmental conditions such as the on beet root cell membrane (Beta vulgaris). Five trials using varied pH concentrations were tested and absorbance rates were monitored. The experimental results showed that the protein function decreased sequentially when the pH decreased. This allowed the betacyanin dye to leak out which created the color that was needed to determine the intensity and therefore the effect of the circumstances. This supported the hypothesis that the more acidic or basic the environmental condition around the beet cell, the more permeable the, membrane indicated by color intensity. Pigment leakage in the solution was analyzed by using a spectrophotometer.

The main purpose of the experiment was to test the idea that water would move from the higher concentration to the lower concentration. In order to test this theory, we placed potato slices in 7 different containers, each containing different concentrations of NaCl, to measure the weight change from osmosis. The containers ranged from 0M NaCl all the way to .6M NaCl. We measured the potato slices before and after placing the slices in the solutions and recorded the net change in weight to determine the tonicity of the potato cells. Our results showed that the potato slices put in a NaCl solution of .2M or higher lost weight and the potato slices put in a NaCl solution of .1M or lower gained weight. This shows that the osmolarity of the potato falls within the range of .1M to .2M, and it also proves the process of Osmosis by having the higher concentration move to the lower concentration. In addition to this, it can be concluded that the osmolarity of cells can be determined by observing the affects of osmosis.

The purpose of this experiment was to alter the cell membrane of the beets, in a given fashion, so that we can test how much betacyanin was able to cross the cell membrane of the beet through various treatment. In which after we would test the absorbance level of each treatment, run it through excel and observe which treatment was most effective at getting betacyanin through the cell membrane more.

The Effect of Temperature on the Permeability of Beetroot Membrane Analysis The graph shows the colorimeter readings increase as the temperature increases, they increase by the most at higher temperatures. This is shown by a smooth curve. This means that the beetroot samples release more dye at higher temperatures.

There are 3 potential states that the cell could be in depending on the type of solution:

The reasoning behind this experiment is the examine whether the rate of osmosis is changed due to a change in temperature. It was hypothesized that the rate of osmosis will increase as the temperature of the sucrose is increased. The rate of osmosis was tested by using the different jars full of different temperate water and testing how high the water rose on an osmometer over a span of 20 minutes. An osmometer is a tool used to measure rates of osmosis. The different temperatures tested on a sucrose solution were 5 degrees Celsius, 20 degrees Celsius, and 37 degrees Celsius. Rates of osmosis were higher in the hot water than in the cold water and control. The results showed that the rate of osmosis increased as the temperature increased, henceforth the hypothesis was supported. In conclusion, the experiment showed how changes in temperature affect the rate of osmosis.

Thus it forms holes, disrupting the membrane of the beetroot core which essentially prevents the betacyanin pigment from leaving the cell. Also, when exposed under heat, the cholesterol, glycolipids and phospholipids expand, putting pressure on the membrane from inside. The lipid part of the membrane will become liquid, making it open to leakage. The proteins in the membrane will denature, increasing the permeability in the surface. The combination of vibrating molecules and a denaturing membrane would disrupt the organized structure of the membrane. And eventually with a disrupted membrane, betacyanin pigment in the innermost compartment will leak out.

Osmosis is defined as the tendency of water to flow through a semipermeable membrane to the side with a lower solute concentration. Water potential can be explained by solutes in a solution. The more positive a number is more likely it will lose water. Therefore should water potential be negative the cell the less likely it will lose water. In using potatoes the effects of the molarity of sucrose on the turgidity of plant cells. According to Clemson University, the average molarity of a White potato is between .24 M and .31 M when submerged in a sorbitol solution. This experiment was conducted with the purpose of explaining the relationship found between the mass in plants when put into varying concentrations of sucrose solutions. Should the potatoes be placed in a solution that contains 0.2M or .4M of sucrose solution it will be hypotonic and gain mass or if placed in .6M< it will be hypertonic and lose mass instead. Controlled Variables in this lab were: Composition of plastic cups, Brand of Russet Potatoes, Brand of Sweet Potatoes and the Temperature of the room. For independent variable that caused the results recorded it was the different Sucrose concentrations (0.0M, 0.2M, 0.4M, 0.6M, 0.8M, 1M). The dependent variable was the percentage change from the initial weighs to the final. The cup with .4 molarity was the closest to an isotonic solution and was used as the control group for the lab. Water potential is the free energy per mole of water. It is

out the potato and dry it to ensure excess water is not added to the

Van’t Hoff’s Law suggests that the osmotic potential of a cell is proportional to the concentration of solute particles in a solution. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there are any differences between the osmolalities, the no-weight-changes of osmolalities, and the water potentials of potato cores in different solutions of different solutes. The percent weight change of the potato cores was calculated through a “change in weight” method. The potato core’s weight was measured before and after they were put into different concentrations of a solute for 1.5 hours. In our experiment, there were no significant differences from the osmotic potentials of our results and the osmotic potentials of other scientists work. Ending with chi square values of 2.17 and 2.71, and p values of 0.256 and 0.337, concluding that there is no difference in water potentials of potato cores in different solutions of different solutes at varying concentrations.

The aim of this investigation was to determine the effect of ethanol on the membrane permeability using Beta vulgaris. Beta vulgaris contains red pigments called betalain sequestered in vacuoles. The cell membrane is generally impermeable to betalain as this pigment is relatively large and cannot pass through the membrane by diffusion. (123HelpMe.com, 2015) However, by increasing the permeability of the cell membrane, betalain can leach out of the cell and colour the liquid red. The colour intensity of the solution due to leakage of betalain is proportional to the membrane permeability. To quantify the colour intensity, the light absorbance of the solutions containing a Beta vulgaris cube were measured by a spectrophotometer. These measurements were used to analyse the membrane permeability. (Flinders University, 2015)