It stabilizes the internal environment of the cell so that water and intracellular fluids are balanced. Osmosis is a vital biological process in living cells helping in the absorption and transport of water. Exosmosis is a condition in which movement of water moves out of the cell and gets shrunk. The tonicity of the solution is hypotonic. Endosmosis is a condition in which water moves in the cell. Based on the water imbibition, osmosis can be either endosmosis or exosmosis. Forward osmosis is the process in which the role of osmotic pressure gradient comes into action to separate the solutes. Reverse osmosis is a process in which the solute molecule is forced by hydraulic pressure on one side and solvent molecules on the other side of the semi-permeable membrane. A hypertonic solution has more solute outside the cell, and cells in this condition are called plasmolyzed cells.īased on the direction of the movement of solvent molecules, it can be reverse osmosis and forward osmosis. In this solution, the solvent enters the cell and equalizes the concentration. In a hypotonic solution, solute concentration is higher inside the cell. The net movement of the solvent is zero in this case. The concentration of solutes in and out of the cell is the same in isotonic solutions. Solutions are isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solutions. Solutions are based on the concentration of solute in it, which is called tonicity. This way pressure gradient is developed.įactors that affect osmosis are temperature, concentration gradient, water potential, the thickness of the membrane and pressure. Due to the interaction between solute and water particles, the pressure exerted by water gets reduced in solute solution. One important concept is the chemical potential of pure water that is different for different solutions. Solute movement is due to the concentration gradient and it is the driving force for osmosis. It also takes place in gases and supercritical liquids other than water in biological processes. Osmosis is a passive transport and aims for balancing the solute concentration across the cell membrane without any energy expenditure. Water gets transported in and out of the cells by osmosis and turgor pressure is also kept in check by this process. This permeability depends upon the size of the solute, charge on the ions, and solubility of the particle. They are permeable to lipids, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and nitric oxide. Biological membranes are generally impermeable to ions, proteins, and poly carbohydrates.
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