Osmosis in Plant Cells

What factors determine the water potential in plant cells?

Water potential depends on solute concentration and pressure potential generated by the cell wall.

What is the equation that describes the relationship between water potential, solute potential, and pressure potential in plant cells?

Ψw = Ψs + Ψp

What happens when plant cells are placed in a solution with a higher water potential?

Water enters the cells by osmosis, causing the cytoplasm and vacuole to expand and the cells become turgid.

What occurs at the point where the water potential of the cell is 0?

The solute potential and pressure potential cancel each other out.

What is plasmolysis?

Plasmolysis is the phenomenon where plant cells shrink and cytoplasm pulls away from the cell wall due to loss of water.

What does it mean if a cell is described as plasmolysed?

The cell has lost water and the cytoplasm has shrunk away from the cell wall.

What is incipient plasmolysis?

The point where 50% of the cells are plasmolysed, meaning the water potentials of the solution and tissue are equal.

What happens to cells when immersed in solutions with lower water potential?

Water leaves the cells by osmosis, causing them to shrink and resulting in visible gaps between cell membrane and cell wall.

What is the pressure potential of plasmolysed cells?

0 kPa, indicating that the water potential and solute potential are equal.