what are the effects of water on a cell?

Question

what would happen if a cell got to much water? what would happen if it didn't have enough? how can i test this?

Answer 1

There will be a higher water potential outside the cell, due to the dissolved ions such as Na+ inside the cell, as a result, water will enter the cell through osmosis, like in a hypotonic solution, the cell will bloat up and burst if it is a animal cell, in the case of a plant cell, there is the cell wall to prevent bursting, the plant cell will become turgid.

Answer 2

That will have to depend on whether the cell is from an animal or plant.

If too much water enters into an animal cell, the cell will eventually burst. However, if a plant cell receives too much water, it will not burst as it has a plant cell wall. The plant cell becomes turgid.

If cells do not have enough water, and they keep "losing water" instead, the cell will eventually shrink in size.

Answer 3

Is this just a relation of salt and osmosis?

Water flows from a higher concentration to a lower concentration. Salty cells have less water. High amount of water outside will make the water flow in and bulge the cell. It sounds funky because, why would water flow in to a cell that has more stuff in it? Water just likes to equal itself out, just like removing a wall to a dam. The water will equalize out sometime.

If outside the cell the concentration of water is lower and the cell has a higher concentration the water will go out of the cell

Answer 4

Are you asking about hypotonic and hypertonic solutions?
A hypotonic solution will make more water go into the cell than out of the cell and the cell will swell up. A plant cell will become more rigid because more water pressure is on the inside. An animal cell may actually swell up enough to burst. Distilled water is hypotonic, so place a cell sample in distilled water on a slide to see this.

A hypertonic solution will cause more water to go out of the cell than into the cell. The cytoplasm loses more water than it gains. An animal cell shrinks. A plant cell shrinks on the inside (cytoplasm and plasma membrane), and the cell wall doesn't have much support. Concentrated salt solution is hypertonic for most cells.

An isotonic solution is the same water and solute concentration as inside the cell. It's just right. The same amount of water goes into and out of the cell.

Answer 5

Depends on what cell. Animal or plant.

In a strong solution (hypertonic):

*When an animal cell is immersed in a strong solution(such as glucose solution), it SHRINKS as water moves out of the cell because the strong solution is more concentrated relative to the cytoplasm.

*The protoplasm of plant cells also shrinks away from its cell wall. This process is called PLASMOLYSIS.


In an equally concentrated solution(isotonic):

*Since the water potential on both sides of the membrane is equal, there is no concentration gradient and hence no net movement of water.


In a weak solution(hypertonic):

*When an animal cell is immersed in a weak solution(such as water), it swells and bursts as water enters it through OSMOSIS.
Plant cell does not swell because the plant cell wall structure(strong and relatively inelastic) prevents the cell from over-expansion.

*The plant cell becomes turgid and firm in a weak solution. As water moves into the plant cells, the vacuole increases in volume. It presses the cytoplasm against the cell wall. This pressure is call TURGOR PRESSURE.

* Turgor pressure helps the plant;
-to keep stems upright
-to keep leaves flat(better to absorb sunlight)
-to control the opening and closing of the stomata.

If you want to test these out, place a few plant or animal cells into a petri dishes separate solutions of each hypertonic, isotonic and hypotonic solutions.

Answer 6

It depends on the cells type if it is animal cell or plant cell. Do research on Osmosis

Answer 7

You should research osmosis