What is plasmolysis?

Question

Please give me a simple definition...Thank you!

Answer 1

Plasmolysis is the contraction of the protoplasm of cells within plants due to the loss of water through osmosis. It is when the cell membrane peels off of the cell wall and the vacuole collapses when placed in a hypertonic environment.

Answer 2

cells.....
Now there's a word for ya. Here's what we did:

We made a wet-mount of an elodea leaf which looked like this under the microscope. Notice the cell that has been outlined in black. The next few pictures are of the same cell.


We added a 5% salt solution to the slide and watched what happened to the cell outlined in black. Look at the next couple of pictures to see the rest of the process.


What seems to be happening?


The cell shrank away from the cell wall and is now a little ball. The next thing we did was replace the salt solution with distilled water. Any guesses as to what happened? If you guessed that the cell swelled back up you were right. Do you know why changing the salt concentration around a cell causes these things to take place? Open any biology book and look up the terms osmosis and plasmolysis to find out.

Here's another look at plasmolysis in some onion skin cells.

Answer 3

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Plasmolysis is the contraction of a cell due to the loss of water through osmosis in plants and bacteria. Osmosis is the net diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane, such as a cell membrane, from an area with a high water potential to an area with a low water potential. If a plant cell is placed in a more concentrated salt (hypertonic) solution, the plant cell loses water and hence turgor pressure, making the plant cell flaccid. Plants with cells in this condition wilt. Further water loss causes plasmolysis: pressure decreases to the point where the protoplasm of the cell peels away from the cell wall, leaving gaps between the cell wall and the membrane. Eventually cytorrhysis – the complete collapse of the cell wall – can occur. There is no mechanism in plants to prevent excess water loss in the same way as excess water gain, but plasmolysis can be reversed if the cell is placed in a weaker solution (hypotonic solution). The equivalent process in animal cells is called crenation. The liquid content of the cell leaks out due to diffusion. The cell collapse and cell membrane pulls away from the cell wall(in plants). Most all animal cells consist of only a phospholipid bilayer and just shrink up. Plasmolysis only occurs in extreme conditions and rarely happens in nature. It is induced in the laboratory by immersing cells in strong saline or sugar solutions to cause exosmosis, often using Elodea plants or onion epidermal cells, which have coloured cell sap so that the process is clearly visible. Plasmolysis can be of two types. It can be either concave plasmolysis or convex plasmolysis. Convex plasmolysis is always irreversible while concave plasmolysis is usually reversible.

Answer 4

Osmosis is when water travels from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. When a cell has a higher concentration than its surroundings, then the water travels out of the cell and into its surroundings. The shrinking of a cell due to osmosis is called plasmolysis. When a cell has a lower concentration than its surroundings, it takes in water until either the cell contains the same percentage of water as that of its surroundings, or the cell bursts (cytolosis).

A more scientific explanation: Plasmolysis is the contraction of the protoplasm of cells within plants due to the loss of water through osmosis. It is when the cell membrane peels off of the cell wall and the vacuole collapses when placed in a hypertonic environment.

This phenomenon occurs when water is drawn out of the cell and into the extracellular (outside the cell) fluid. The movement of water occurs across the membrane, moving from an area of high water potential to an area of lower water potential outside the cell until an equilibrium is reached; this is known as osmosis. It is unlikely to occur naturally except in severe conditions.

Plasmolysis is induced in the laboratory by immersing a plant cell in a strongly saline (salty) or sugary solution, so that water is lost by osmosis. If onion epidermal (outer) tissue is immersed in a solution of calcium nitrate, cells rapidly lose water by osmosis and the protoplasm of the cells shrinks. This occurs because the calcium and nitrate ions freely permeate the cell wall and encounter the selectively permeable plasma membrane. The large vacuole in the center of the cell originally contains a dilute solution with much lower osmotic pressure than that of the calcium nitrate solution on the other side of the membrane. The vacuole thus loses water and becomes smaller. The space between the cell membrane and the cell wall enlarges and the plasma membrane and the protoplasm within it contract to the center of the cell. Strands of cytoplasm extend to the cell wall because of plasma membrane-cell wall attachment points. If plasmolysed cells are not transferred quickly from the salt or sugar solution to water so their vacuole may be refilled, cytorrhysis will begin.

Crenation is the contraction of cells within animals due to the loss of water through osmosis.

Answer 5

Plasmolysis Definition

Answer 6

Shrinkage or contraction of the protoplasm away from the wall of a living plant or bacterial cell, caused by loss of water through osmosis.

Answer 7

Shrinkage or contraction of the protoplasm away from the wall of a living plant or bacterial cell, caused by loss of water through osmosis.

Answer 8

Define Plasmolysis

Answer 9

It is essentially the shrinkage of the protoplasm away from the wall of a living plant or bacterial cell, caused by loss of water through osmosis.

Answer 10

When cells brake usually because they are in an environment that there is more salt inside the cell than in the cell's environment (hypotonic). This usually happens to the animal cells that do not have the cell wall to protect them like the plant cells do!