Question

The central vacuoles of some plant cells you are studying fill with water and press the cell contents against their cell walls because of osmosis. What can you predict about the concentration of solutes in the solution that bathes the turgid plant cells?

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answers to the question are:

• The concentration of solute bathing the inner side of the plant cell membrane should be high.
• The concentration of solute bathing the outer side of the plant cell membrane should be low.

Explanation:

• Turgidity can be defined as a condition in which the cell membrane of the plants cells becomes completely extended as a result of which it pushes tightly against the cell wall.
• This happens when the cell takes up water from its environment and stores it in the vacuoles.
• Water enters to the inside of the cell by the process of Osmosis.
• Osmosis can be defined as the process by which molecules tend to move or diffuse from a region where its concentration is high to another region where its concentration is low, provided the two regions are separated by a semi-permeable membrane.
• In any region, the concentration of solute and and concentration of solvent  bears an inverse relationship. This means that the region where the solute concentration is high, the solvent concentration is low and where the solute concentration is low, the solvent concentration is high.
• In the given question, as the cell takes up water from the surrounding into its vacuole to become turgid, so by the concept of osmosis, the concentration of water must have been high outside the cell and low inside the cell.
• Again by the inverse concentration concept of solute and solvent, the concentration of solute inside the cell should be more than the concentration of solute outside the cell.