What will happen to the cell if the concentration of solutes inside is greater than that of the environment?

Osmosis Lab

Introduction: Human blood, at 0.9% salt concentration, is a little less salty than seawater, which has a salt concentration of about 35 parts per thousand (3.5%). If we take seawater as an example of a solution, the salt is called the solute (the particles that are dissolved) and the water is the solvent (the liquid that dissolves the particles). Osmosis is the movement of a solvent across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration. The water (the solvent) can move across the membrane but the dissolved solutes (the sodium and chloride ions that form salt) cannot. In such situations, water will move across the membrane to balance the concentration of the solutes on both sides. Cells tend to lose water (their solvent) in hypertonic environments (where there are more solutes outside than inside the cell) and gain water in hypotonic environments (where there are fewer solutes outside than inside the cell). When solute concentrations are the same on both sides of the cell, there is no net water movement, and the cell is said to be in an isotonic environment. In this lab we will test samples of potato tissue to see how much water they absorb or release in salt solutions of varying concentrations. This gives us an indirect way to measure the osmotic concentration within living cells.

Hypo=under, iso=equal, hyper=over

Compare initial and final states. Which way did the water move? Why?

Osmosis Lab Setup

electronic balance (0.01 g range)
metric ruler with mm scale
metric measuring cups
6 cereal bowls or shallow pans
a small piece of raw potato to cut into six ~5 mm cubes
(this square is 5 x 5 mm)
single edged razor or knife
paper towels
watch or clock
table salt, distilled or tap water
6 beakers (250 ml or larger) or cups

Methods:

Pre-mix 6 beakers of salt solutions (0%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 2.5%, 5%) in distilled water. You can use this solution calculator to help you make your solutions. Just enter the water volume of your container and the percentage of salt you want and it will tell you how many grams of salt to add. A 1% salt solution is 1 part salt to 100 parts water. To make a 1% salt solution, you could use a 100 ml bottle, add exactly 1 gram of salt (use your electronic balance) to your bottle, and bring the water volume up to 100 ml. To make a 0.1% solution, add 1 gram of salt to 1000 ml of water (or add 0.1 g salt to 100 ml of water). If you have more water than you need, just stir well and then discard the excess.
Prepare six small potato cubes with no skin that are all about equal in size (approximately 5 millimeters in length, width and height) and blot them dry on a paper towel. (Blot means just gently remove the surface water; no need to squeeze them!)
Mass (weigh) each to the nearest 0.01 grams, keeping them separate, and record each initial mass in Table 1. Don't wait too long before putting them into the solutions, as evaporation will occur.
Fill each bowl with one of the 6 stock solutions, keeping track of which is which! Label them. You won't be able to tell the salinity just by looking. Note which potato piece went into which bowl.
Leave one of the potato slices in each of the salt solutions for up to 24 hours so that they may gain (or lose) water by osmosis. (Keep them all in the salt water the same amount of time--leaving them overnight is likely to give the best results).
Remove the slices, blot them dry on a paper towel, carefully re-weigh them and record in the data table as final mass.

Click here to go to the calculator page, and thanks to the University of Oklahoma for this useful tool!

Results:1. Record your actual results in a table like this one:

Table 1	% Salt	Intitial Mass	Final Mass	Mass Change (g)
Sample 1	0.0%
Sample 2	0.1%
Sample 3	0.5%
Sample 4	1.0%
Sample 5	2.5%
Sample 6	5.0%

Table 1: Changes in potato mass as a result of immersion in salt solutions.

2. Prepare a graph showing change in mass as a function of % salt. Scale the x-axis of your graph in units of 0.5 percent. The y-axis has a zero line half way up, indicating whether the samples lost or gained weight. You will have to scale the y-axis according to your greatest and smallest changes in mass. Download this

Excel spreadsheet if you need help making a graph.

Figure 1: Change in mass of potato (g) due to water gain/loss as a function of salt concentration.

3. When completed, use a ruler to draw a straight line of best fit through your six data points, or use the computer to graph your data and calculate the line of best fit. Where the line of best fit crosses the horizontal zero line, draw a vertical line down to the x-axis. This is the point at which the potato is isotonic with its surroundings, and is therefore the estimated salt concentration of the potato.

Questions:

Why did some potato samples gain water and others lose water? Was there any pattern?
When you drew the best fit line through your data and dropped the vertical line to the x-axis, what salt concentration did you obtain (Estimate if it is between numbers)? What does this mean for the potato?
Why can't we use seawater to irrigate our crops?
What happens when a thirsty person drinks salt water to try to quench their thirst?
Why does salted popcorn dry your lips?
What happens to a cell's water when the exterior liquid is saltier than its interior?
What happens to water outside the cell when the interior is saltier than its surroundings?
When a cell gains water, what happens to its size and weight?
When a cell loses water, what happens to its size and weight?
When you put limp celery stalks in water, they firm up. Why?
Challenge question: Saltwater fish are hypotonic (less salty) to their surroundings while freshwater fish are hypertonic (more salty) to their surroundings. Assuming the salt can't move, what must each fish do with its fluids in order to compensate for the difference in salinity between the body and the surrounding environment?

Answer

Verified

Hint: -Osmosis is defined as the movement of a solvent across a semipermeable membrane from a higher concentration of solvent (lower concentration of solute) to a lower concentration of solvent (higher concentration of solute).

Complete answer-

Osmosis leads to the development of three types of solutions- isotonic solution, hypotonic solution and hypertonic solution. Isotonic solution is where the concentration of solutes on both sides of the cell is equal. Hypotonic solution is the one where the solute concentration is higher outside the cell than inside the cell and hypertonic solution is one where the solute concentration inside the cell is higher than outside. Osmosis can also be categorised in two types based on the type of solution- endosmosis and exosmosis. Endosmosis occurs when a substance is placed in a hypotonic solution that causes solvent molecules to enter into the swelling leading to its swelling and exosmosis occurs when a substance is placed in a hypertonic solution that causes the solvent molecules to move out of the cell causing shrinkage.

So the correct answer is option C) There is more solute outside the cell than inside the cell.

Note-

Osmosis is highly important in biological processes since it helps in the transport of nutrients and release of waste products, maintains turgidity of the cell, maintains the fluid levels of the cells, etc.

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Learning Outcomes

Define osmosis and diffusion.
Distinguish among hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic solutions.
Describe a semipermeable membrane.
Predict behavior of blood cells in different solution types.
Describe flow of solvent molecules across a membrane.
Identify the polar and nonpolar regions of a cell membrane.
Explain the components present in a phospholipid.

Fish cells, like all cells, have semipermeable membranes. Eventually, the concentration of "stuff" on either side of them will even out. A fish that lives in salt water will have somewhat salty water inside itself. Put it in freshwater, and the freshwater will, through osmosis, enter the fish, causing its cells to swell, and the fish will die. What will happen to a freshwater fish in the ocean?

Imagine you have a cup that has \(100 \: \text{mL}\) water, and you add \(15 \: \text{g}\) of table sugar to the water. The sugar dissolves and the mixture that is now in the cup is made up of a solute (the sugar) that is dissolved in the solvent (the water). The mixture of a solute in a solvent is called a solution.

Imagine now that you have a second cup with \(100 \: \text{mL}\) of water, and you add \(45 \: \text{g}\) of table sugar to the water. Just like the first cup, the sugar is the solute, and the water is the solvent. But now you have two mixtures of different solute concentrations. In comparing two solutions of unequal solute concentration, the solution with the higher solute concentration is hypertonic, and the solution with the lower solute concentration is hypotonic. Solutions of equal solute concentration are isotonic. The first sugar solution is hypotonic to the second solution. The second sugar solution is hypertonic to the first.

You now add the two solutions to a beaker that has been divided by a semipermeable membrane, with pores that are too small for the sugar molecules to pass through, but are big enough for the water molecules to pass through. The hypertonic solution is one one side of the membrane and the hypotonic solution on the other. The hypertonic solution has a lower water concentration than the hypotonic solution, so a concentration gradient of water now exists across the membrane. Water molecules will move from the side of higher water concentration to the side of lower concentration until both solutions are isotonic. At this point, equilibrium is reached.

Red blood cells behave the same way (see figure below). When red blood cells are in a hypertonic (higher concentration) solution, water flows out of the cell faster than it comes in. This results in crenation (shriveling) of the blood cell. On the other extreme, 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. In an isotonic solution, the flow of water in and out of the cell is happening at the same rate.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Red blood cells in hypertonic, isotonic, and hypotonic solutions.

Osmosis is the diffusion of water molecules across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower concentration solution (i.e., higher concentration of water) to an area of higher concentration solution (i.e., lower concentration of water). Water moves into and out of cells by osmosis.

If a cell is in a hypertonic solution, the solution has a lower water concentration than the cell cytosol, and water moves out of the cell until both solutions are isotonic.
Cells placed in a hypotonic solution will take in water across their membranes until both the external solution and the cytosol are isotonic.

A red blood cell will swell and undergo hemolysis (burst) when placed in a hypotonic solution. When placed in a hypertonic solution, a red blood cell will lose water and undergo crenation (shrivel). Animal cells tend to do best in an isotonic environment, where the flow of water in and out of the cell is occurring at equal rates.

Passive transport is a way that small molecules or ions move across the cell membrane without input of energy by the cell. The three main kinds of passive transport are diffusion (or simple diffusion), osmosis, and facilitated diffusion. Simple diffusion and osmosis do not involve transport proteins. Facilitated diffusion requires the assistance of proteins.

Diffusion is the movement of molecules from an area of high concentration of the molecules to an area with a lower concentration. For cell transport, diffusion is the movement of small molecules across the cell membrane. The difference in the concentrations of the molecules in the two areas is called the concentration gradient. The kinetic energy of the molecules results in random motion, causing diffusion. In simple diffusion, this process proceeds without the aid of a transport protein. It is the random motion of the molecules that causes them to move from an area of high concentration to an area with a lower concentration.

Diffusion will continue until the concentration gradient has been eliminated. Since diffusion moves materials from an area of higher concentration to the lower, it is described as moving solutes "down the concentration gradient". The end result is an equal concentration, or equilibrium, of molecules on both sides of the membrane. At equilibrium, movement of molecules does not stop. At equilibrium, there is equal movement of materials in both directions.

Not everything can make it into your cells. Your cells have a plasma membrane that helps to guard your cells from unwanted intruders.

If the outside environment of a cell is water-based, and the inside of the cell is also mostly water, something has to make sure the cell stays intact in this environment. What would happen if a cell dissolved in water, like sugar does? Obviously, the cell could not survive in such an environment. So something must protect the cell and allow it to survive in its water-based environment. All cells have a barrier around them that separates them from the environment and from other cells. This barrier is called the plasma membrane, or cell membrane.

The plasma membrane (see figure below) is made of a double layer of special lipids, known as phospholipids. The phospholipid is a lipid molecule with a hydrophilic ("water-loving") head and two hydrophobic ("water-hating") tails. Because of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic nature of the phospholipid, the molecule must be arranged in a specific pattern as only certain parts of the molecule can physically be in contact with water. Remember that there is water outside the cell, and the cytoplasm inside the cell is mostly water as well. So the phospholipids are arranged in a double layer (a bilayer) to keep the cell separate from its environment. Lipids do not mix with water (recall that oil is a lipid), so the phospholipid bilayer of the cell membrane acts as a barrier, keeping water out of the cell, and keeping the cytoplasm inside the cell. The cell membrane allows the cell to stay structurally intact in its water-based environment.

The function of the plasma membrane is to control what goes in and out of the cell. Some molecules can go through the cell membrane to enter and leave the cell, but some cannot. The cell is therefore not completely permeable. "Permeable" means that anything can cross a barrier. An open door is completely permeable to anything that wants to enter or exit through the door. The plasma membrane is semipermeable, meaning that some things can enter the cell, and some things cannot.

Molecules that cannot easily pass through the bilayer include ions and small hydrophilic molecules, such as glucose, and macromolecules, including proteins and RNA. Examples of molecules that can easily diffuse across the plasma membrane include carbon dioxide and oxygen gas. These molecules diffuse freely in and out of the cell, along their concentration gradient. Though water is a polar molecule, it can also diffuse through the plasma membrane.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Plasma membranes are primarily made up of phospholipids (orange). The hydrophilic ("water-loving") head and two hydrophobic ("water-hating") tails are shown. The phospholipids form a bilayer (two layers). The middle of the bilayer is an area without water. There can be water on either side of the bilayer. There are many proteins throughout the membrane.

The inside of all cells also contain a jelly-like substance called cytosol. Cytosol is composed of water and other molecules, including enzymes, which are proteins that speed up the cell's chemical reactions. Everything in the cell sits in the cytosol, like fruit in a Jell-o mold. The term cytoplasm refers to the cytosol and all of the organelles, the specialized compartments of the cell. The cytoplasm does not include the nucleus. As a prokaryotic cell does not have a nucleus, the DNA is in the cytoplasm.