a. A human cell is placed in a container of sugar water. Explain what would occur, if the cell membrane is impermeable to sugar.
I know that the water in the cell is the high concentration and will go to the sugar water which is the low concentration.
b. Another cell is placed into a container of sugar water. However, this cell has the capability to allow large molecules such as sugar to pass through. What will occur in this cell when it is placed into the container of sugar water?
a. If the cell membrane is impermeable to sugar, it means that sugar molecules cannot freely pass through the membrane and enter the cell. In this scenario, when the human cell is placed in a container of sugar water, the water inside the cell will have a higher concentration of water molecules compared to the sugar water outside the cell. As a result, osmosis will occur.
Osmosis is the process by which water molecules move across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of higher water concentration to an area of lower water concentration. In this case, water molecules will move out of the human cell, through the cell membrane, and into the sugar water outside.
As water leaves the cell, it will cause the cell to shrink or become dehydrated, as the concentration of solute (sugar) inside the cell remains the same while the amount of water decreases. This process is known as a hypertonic solution, where the concentration of solute outside the cell is higher than inside the cell.
b. If the cell has the capability to allow large molecules such as sugar to pass through its membrane, it means the cell membrane is permeable to sugar. In the scenario where this cell is placed into a container of sugar water, the sugar molecules will be able to freely pass through the cell membrane and enter the cell.
In this case, since the sugar water outside the cell has a higher concentration of sugar molecules than the inside of the cell, there will be a net movement of sugar molecules from the higher concentration outside to the lower concentration inside the cell. This process is known as diffusion, which is the movement of molecules from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration.
As the sugar molecules enter the cell, the concentration of sugar inside the cell will increase. This can potentially cause water molecules to move into the cell in order to balance out the concentration of solute (sugar). This process is known as osmosis. The net movement of water into the cell can lead to the swelling or expansion of the cell, as the concentration of solute inside the cell increases while the amount of water also increases. This is referred to as a hypotonic solution, where the concentration of solute outside the cell is lower than inside the cell.
a. If the cell membrane is impermeable to sugar, the water will move out of the cell and into the sugar water through a process called osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water from an area of high water concentration (inside the cell) to an area of low water concentration (in the sugar water), across a selectively permeable membrane. The cell will shrink and become dehydrated as water leaves the cell, but the sugar molecules won't be able to cross the cell membrane due to its impermeability to sugar.
b. If the cell has the capability to allow large molecules such as sugar to pass through, it will undergo a different process. In this case, when the cell is placed into the container of sugar water, both water and sugar molecules will move across the cell membrane. Again, water will move from an area of high concentration (inside the cell) to an area of low concentration (in the sugar water) through osmosis. But since the cell membrane is permeable to sugar, sugar molecules will also move from the sugar water into the cell, down their concentration gradient (from high concentration outside the cell to low concentration inside the cell). This process is known as diffusion. As a result, both water and sugar will enter the cell, leading to an increase in its volume.