What is Water Potential?

• Water potential is a measure of the tendency of water

to move from one place to another.
• A dilute solution has more water molecules per unit
volume than a concentrated solution, thus it has a
higher water potential
What is Water Potential?
• When a partially permeable membrane separates 2 solutions of different water
potentials, a water potential gradient is established.
• Water always moves down a water potential gradient.
partially permeable
membrane
Osmosis Experiments
Immersing plant cells in solutions of different
concentrations
 The most common osmosis practical involves
cutting cylinders of root vegetables such as potato or
radish and placing them into distilled
water and sucrose solutions of increasing
concentration
 The cylinders are weighed before placing into the
solutions
 They are left in the solutions for 20 - 30 minutes and
then removed, dried to remove excess liquid and
 Potatoes are usually used in osmosis experiments to show how the concentration of a
solution affects the movement of water, but radishes can be used too
 If the plant tissue gains mass:
o Water must have moved into the plant tissue from the solution surrounding it by osmosis
o The solution surrounding the tissue is more dilute than the plant tissue (which is more
concentrated)
 If plant tissue loses mass:
o Water must have moved out of the plant tissue into the solution surrounding it by osmosis
o The solution surrounding the tissue is more concentrated than the plant tissue (which is
more dilute)
 If there is no overall change in mass:
o There has been no net movement of water as the concentration in both the plant tissue
and the solution surrounding it must be equal
o Remember that water will still be moving into and out of the plant tissue, but there
wouldn’t be any net movement in this case
•Investigating osmosis using dialysis tubing
 Dialysis tubing (sometimes referred to as visking tubing) is a non-
living partially permeable membrane made from cellulose
 Pores in this membrane are small enough to prevent the passage of
large molecules (such as sucrose) but allow smaller molecules (such
as glucose and water) to pass through by diffusion and osmosis
 This can be demonstrated by:
o Filling a section of dialysis tubing with concentrated sucrose solution
o Suspending the tubing in a boiling tube of water for a set period of time
o Noting whether the water level outside the tubing decreases as water
moves into the tubing via osmosis
 Water moves from a region of higher water potential (dilute solution)
to a region of lower water potential (concentrated solution), through
a partially permeable membrane
 • Osmosis in Plant Tissues
 When water moves into a plant cell, the vacuole gets
bigger, pushing the cell membrane against the cell wall
 Water entering the cell by osmosis makes the cell rigid and
firm
 This is important for plants as the effect of all the cells in a
plant being firm is to provide support and strength for the
plant - making the plant stand upright with its leaves held out
to catch sunlight
 The pressure created by the cell wall stops too much water
entering and prevents the cell from bursting
 If plants do not receive enough water the cells cannot remain
•Plant cells in solutions of different concentrations
 When plant cells are placed in a solution that has a higher
water potential (dilute solution) than inside the cells (e.g.
distilled water) then water moves into the plant cells via
osmosis
 These water molecules push the cell membrane against the
cell wall, increasing the turgor pressure in the cells which
makes them turgid
•
 When plant cells are placed in
a concentrated solution (with a lower water
potential than inside the cells) water molecules will
move out of the plant cells by osmosis, making
them flaccid
oIf plant cells become flaccid it can negatively
affect the plant's ability to support itself
 If looked at underneath the microscope, the plant
cells might be plasmolysed, meaning the cell
membrane has pulled away from the cell wall
•Animal cells in solutions of different concentrations
 Animal cells also lose and gain water as a result of
osmosis
 As animal cells do not have a supporting cell wall, the
results on the cell are more severe
 If an animal cell is placed into a strong sugar
solution (with a lower water potential than the cell), it will
lose water by osmosis and become crenated (shrivelled up)
 If an animal cell is placed into distilled water (with a higher
water potential than the cell), it will gain water by osmosis
and, as it has no cell wall to create turgor pressure, will
continue to do so until the cell membrane is stretched too far
 • Active Transport
 Active transport is the movement of particles through a cell membrane from
a region of lower concentration to a region of higher
concentration using energy from respiration
• Importance of Active Transport: Extended
• Energy is needed because particles are being moved
against a concentration gradient, in the opposite
direction from which they would naturally move (by
diffusion)
• Active transport is vital process for the movement of
molecules or ions across membranes
• Including:
1. uptake of glucose by epithelial cells in the villi of the
small intestine and by kidney tubules in the nephron
2. uptake of ions from soil water by root
hair cells in plants
Protein Carriers: Extended
• Active transport works by using carrier proteins embedded
in the cell membrane to pick up specific molecules and take
them through the cell membrane against their
concentration gradient:
1. Substance combines with carrier protein molecule in the
cell membrane
2. Carrier transports substances across membrane using
energy from respiration to give them the kinetic energy
needed to change shape and move the substance through
the cell membrane
3. Substance released into cell