What happens to animal and plant cells in the following envioroment ?

Question

What happens to both plant and animal cells in hypertonic, hypotonic and isotonic solutions.

Answer 1

In an isotonic solution, the solute concentration and water concentration inside and outside the cell are equal. Therefore, there is no net gain or loss of water. Typically, intravenous solutions are isotonic. Cells are not affected, meaning they do not swell or shrink.

In a hypotonic solution, the solute concentration outside the cell is lower than inside the cell, meaning that the water concentration is higher. If you place a cell inside a hyptonic solution, water enters the cell, causing the cell to swell up, or even burst. This is called cytolysis (lysis) in animal cells or hemolysis in red blood cells.

In a plant cell, the swelling causes turgor pressure. The large central vacuole gets more water and the plasma membrane pushes against the cell wall, causing the plant cell to expand. Since the cell wall does not yield to this pressure, it does not burst, as animal cells do, if the pressure gets too high.

In a hypertonic solution, the solute concentration outside the cell is higher than inside the cell, meaning that the water concentration is lower. If you place a cell inside a hypertonic solution, water leaves the cell, causing the cell to shrink or shrivel. In red blood cells, the shrinking or shriveling is called crenation. In plant cells, the plasma membrane pulls away from the cell wall because the large central vacuole loses water. In plant cells, this is called plasmolysis, which is the shrinking of cells due to osmosis.

Another useful fact: an isotonic solution for red blood cells is a 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. A solution lower than 0.9% is hypotonic and a solution higher than 0.9% is hypertonic.