Potato Cell Osmosis Lab

Explain what happened to the blood cells at the various levels of concentration. Be sure to refer to the solutions as being hypotonic, hypertonic and isotonic.

The experiment of the lab was to demonstrate knowledge of the concepts of diffusion and osmosis. Diffusion is the movement of substances moving from a high concentration to a low concentration. For this lab the rate of osmosis was measured in concentration. The concentration stayed the same and increased through the experiment. At the beginning of the experiment the sacs were weighed to determine the tonicity of water throughout the experiment. Timing was also a factor each 15, 30, 45 minute interval the sacs were weighed and recorded. Each sac had a different amount of solution in them. The tonicity of the sacs was determined as well by the final weights and the final percent of gain or loss of water in the sacs.

When a cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, the cell will shrink due to the water moving from a high concentration to low concentration, but when a cell is placed in a hypotonic solution, the cell will swell due to the

The purpose of these experiments is to examine the driving force behind the movement of substances across a selective or semiperpeable plasma membrane. Experiment simulations examine substances that move passively through a semipermeable membrane, and those that require active transport. Those that move passively through the membrane will do so in these simulations by facilitated diffusion and filtration. The plasma membrane’s structure is composed in such a way that it can discriminate as to which substances can pass into the cell. This enables nutrients to enter the cell, while keeping unwanted substances out. Active

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to familiarize you with osmosis and, specifically, what happens to cells when they are exposed to solutions of differing tonicities.

Observe: Wait until the numbers are not changing very much. What do you notice about the solute concentrations inside and outside of the cell? _______________________________

Biological membranes must be semi-permeable to allow the passage of substances in and out of the cell. The semi-permeability allows the passage of substances such as proteins, nutrients, and more to be regulated. Only substances of a particular size can go into the cell and only these certain small substances will be allowed to exit the cell.

Finally, it could also be a hypertonic solution which is when there is a higher concentration of solute in the solution than in the cell and therefore the water leaves the cell. This make the cell plasmolyzed or “shrunken”. In our experiment this means that the potato cell would

The concentration of dissolved substances is less in the extracellular fluid than in the cytoplasm. Hypotonic Solution Concentration of dissolved substances (solute) Concentration of water (solvent) What happens to an animal cells? Inside the cell Greater Less Outside the cell Less Greater Membrane

Breaking down an organism leads scientists to identify cells. A group of cells create tissues, tissues combined are organs, and organs and their functions make up systems. Basically, cells make up living organisms. There are 2 kinds of cells: Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic. Within a prokaryotic, it doesn’t contain a DNA bounded nucleus; however, a eukaryotic cell does. Though the prokaryotic cell differs from a eukaryotic cell, they share a cell membrane. The cell membrane is composed of a phospholipid bilayer and proteins, which makes it selectively permeable. It is located outside of the cytoplasm and controls the movement of substances in and out of the cell. Its basic function is to protect the cell from its surroundings by selecting what can enter and exit the cell.

B. In biological systems if a cell is placed into a salt solution in which the salt concentration in thesolution is lower than in the cell, the solution is said to be hypotonic. Water will move from the solution into the cell, causing lysis of the cell. In other words, the cell will expand to the point where it bursts.

2. A hypertonic solution will cause the cell to shrink because more particles are in the solution and not in the cell.

Introduction: Cell membranes contain many different types of molecules which have different roles in the overall structure of the membrane. Phospholipids form a bilayer, which is the basic structure of the membrane. Their non-polar tails form a barrier to most water soluble substances. Membrane proteins serves as channels for transport of metabolites, some act as enzymes or carriers, while some are receptors. Lastly carbohydrate molecules of the membrane are relatively short-chain polysaccharides, which has multiple functions, for example, cell-cell recognition and acting as receptor sites for chemical signals.

The way to get the full results of this lab was through the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water across a membrane into a more concentrated solution to reach an equilibrium. When regarding cells osmosis has three different terms that are used to describe their concentration. The first of these words is isotonic. Cells in an isotonic solution show that the water has no net movement and the amount of water that goes in is the same that goes out. Isotonic comes from the root iso, which means equal. This makes sense because the definition of isotonic is: same concentration. The second out of three words is hypotonic. Cells in a hypotonic

In animal cells, the movement of water into and out of the cell is influenced by the relative concentration of solute