Cells - D 2.

3 SL Water potential

Guiding Questions

“What factors affect the movement of water into or out of cells?”

“How do plant and animal cells differ in their regulation of water movement?”

Syllabus objectives

Solvation with water as the Include hydrogen bond formation between solute and water molecules, and attractions
D2.3.1 between both positively and negatively charged ions and polar water molecules.
solvent
Water movement from less Students should express the direction of movement in terms of solute concentration, not
D2.3.2 concentrated to more water concentration. Students should use the terms “hypertonic”, “hypotonic” and
“isotonic” to compare concentration of solutions.
concentrated solutions
Students should be able to predict the direction of net movement of water if the
Water movement by osmosis environment of a cell is hypotonic or hypertonic. They should understand that in an
D2.3.3
into or out of cells isotonic environment there is dynamic equilibrium rather than no movement of water.
Students should be able to measure changes in tissue length and mass, and analyse
Changes due to water data to deduce isotonic solute concentration. Students should also be able to use
movement in plant tissue standard deviation and standard error to help in the analysis of data. Students are not
D2.3.4 bathed in hypotonic and required to memorize formulae for calculating these statistics. Standard deviation and
those bathed in hypertonic standard error could be determined for the results of this experiment if there are repeats
solutions for each concentration. This would allow the reliability of length and mass measurements
to be compared. Standard error could be shown graphically as error bars.
Include swelling and bursting in a hypotonic medium, and shrinkage and crenation in a
Effects of water movement hypertonic medium. Also include the need for removal of water by contractile vacuoles in
D2.3.5 freshwater unicellular organisms and the need to maintain isotonic tissue fluid in
on cells that lack a cell wall
multicellular organisms to prevent harmful changes.

Effects of water movement Include the development of turgor pressure in a hypotonic medium and plasmolysis in a
D2.3.6 hypertonic medium.
on cells with a cell wall

Medical applications of Include intravenous fluids given as part of medical treatment and bathing of organs
D2.3.7 ready for transplantation as examples.
isotonic solutions

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Solvation with water as the solvent:

The process of polar or charged substances dissolving

in water is referred to as solvation.

It involves the interaction between the solute and

solvent molecules, which typically establish a chemical
interaction (hydrogen bonds, dipole dipole forces etc).

Write down a definition for each of these substances:

Solute Solvent Solution
Description
Example
s

Example: Sodium chloride (NaCl) dissolving in water:

Water is a good solvent because it is a polar molecule, and it will

therefore dissolve polar solutes easily. An ionic solid such as Sodium
chloride (NaCl) will break into its ions in water since polar attractions
cause the water molecules to surround and isolate the solute molecules.

Solvation in water works well with polar solutes, because the partial
charges of the water molecule can interact with charges or partial
charges of the solute.

• Positively charged ions are attracted to the partial

negative oxygen pole of water.
• Negatively charged ions are attracted to the partial
positive hydrogen pole of water.
• Water molecules form shells (hydration shells)
around many types of ion and charged molecules,
preventing them to join together.

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Example: Glucose dissolving in water

The diagram below shows a molecule of glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar (carbohydrate) and a very polar
molecule due to the hydroxyl groups (OH) groups. Each -OH group has a partial positive and partial negative
area, based on its electronegativity. Draw water molecules to show how they would interact with glucose:

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Water movement from less concentrated to more concentrated solutions:

Look at the diagram on the right. Explain what

is happening:

The movement of water molecules due to osmosis depends on the

concentration of the solute in its solution. Solutes such as sodium,
potassium and chloride ions and glucose are said to be osmotically
active because the dissolve in water and change the concentration of
the solution.
What is concentration? Write down a definition:

Depending on the number of molecules per volume we can distinguish between different solutions. Write
down an explanation for these terms and examples in the table below:
Explanation
Examples

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“Osmosis is the movement of water from an area of low solute concentration to an area of high solute
concentration through a semi-permeable membrane”

Can you explain why the water level changes?

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Changes due to water movement in plant tissue bathed in hypotonic and those bathed in hypertonic
solutions:

Animal cells, including most unicellular eukaryotes

(protista, e.g. Ameoba proteus or Paramecium)but also
cells from multicellular organism have a plasma
membrane but no cell wall. If an animal cell is bathed in
a hypotonic solution e.g. distilled water, water enters
the cell by osmosis making it swell. Because it lacks the
support of a cell wall the cell wall eventually bursts.

Explain what is happening to the red blood cells by referring to the image on the right:

Effects of water movement on cells that lack a cell wall:

Plant cells, including most unicellular eukaryotes such

as chlorella, but also cells from multicellular organism
have a plasma membrane and a rigid cellulose cell
wall. If a plant cell is bathed in a hypertonic solution
e.g. salt water, water leaves the cell by osmosis.
Because of the decrease in pressure the cell
membrane pulls away from the cell wall, reduces the
volume of the cytoplpasm and plasmolyses.

Explain what is happening to the plant cells by referring to the image on the below:

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Medical applications of isotonic solutions:

Hypo- and hypertonic solutions can cause a lot

of damage to cells. Therefore, isotonic find
many medical applications because these
solutions have the same concentration as
tissue fluid. Water can therefore move in and
out of cells at equal rates.

Give examples of isotonic solutions used in medicine:

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