Tonicity
- More scientifically, tonicity of a solution refers to the concentration of solutes in that solution
- An important consideration is concentration differences on either side of a membrane
- This governs the movement of water by osmosis
- Tonicity can be referred to as being
- hypertonic
- hypotonic
- isotonic
Osmosis and Osmolarity
- Osmosis was introduced in 2.6 Membrane Transport as a method of passive transport
- Osmosis can also be described as the net movement of water molecules from a region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential, through a selectively permeable membrane
- Water potential describes the tendency of water to move out of a solution
- The term osmolarity can be used to describe the solute concentration of a solution
- A solution with high osmolarity has a high solute concentration and a solution with low osmolarity has a low solute concentration.
- Water will move from a solution of low osmolarity to a solution of high osmolarity across a selectively permeable membrane
How Osmosis Works Diagram
How osmosis works. The water moves from the region of higher water potential (dilute solution) to the region of lower water potential (concentrated solution).
Hypertonic
- 'Hyper-' means more
- A hypertonic solution has a higher solute concentration than the solution on the other side of the membrane
- Therefore it has a higher osmolarity....
- ...and a lower water potential
- An example is an increase in salinity of a lake, which makes the lake water hypertonic
- This may cause the cells of organisms in the lake to lose water by osmosis, shrivel and die
Hypotonic
- 'Hypo-' means less
- A hypotonic solution has a lower solute concentration than the solution on the other side of the membrane
- Therefore it has a lower osmolarity
- ...and a higher water potential
- An example is the danger of injecting pure water into the blood
- The blood plasma becomes hypotonic, causing red blood cells to gain water by osmosis, to lyze (burst) and die
- Intravenous injections and drips are always carefully controlled to be isotonic
Isotonic
- 'Iso-' means the same
- An isotonic solution has the same solute concentration than the solution on the other side of the membrane
- Therefore it has an equal water potential and osmolarity
- An example is seawater, which is isotonic to the cell contents of many sea animals eg. marine invertebrates
The Effect of Tonicity on Animal Cells Diagram
The effect of hypertonic, hypotonic and isotonic surroundings on animal cells
The Effect of Tonicity on Plant Cells Diagram
The effect of hypertonic, hypotonic and isotonic surroundings on plant cells
Contributors to Water Potential
- There are two distinct drivers of the water potential in cells
- Water potential is given the symbol Ψ
- These are:
- Solute potential Ψs
- Pressure potential Ψp
- The relationship is given by this equation
Ψ = Ψp + Ψs
- Solute potential (Ψs) is caused by dissolved substances (solutes)
- Each solute molecule is bound by water molecules, effectively reducing the number of water molecules that can move around in the solution
- The more solute molecules are present, the lower the water potential
- For this reason, the water potential of a solution is always expressed as a negative number
- The water potential of pure water is zero
- Pressure potential (Ψp) is the physical pressure of a solution in an enclosed area such as the inside of a cell
- This value can be positive or negative
- Positive Ψp occurs in most plant cells due to osmotic uptake of water
- This is sometimes called turgor pressure
- Negative Ψp occurs in the hollow xylem vessels during transpiration as water and minerals are drawn up the plant's stem during transpiration
- Positive Ψp occurs in most plant cells due to osmotic uptake of water
- Water always moves from areas of high water potential to areas of low water potential
Exam Tip
A way to remember the prefixes hyper-, hypo- and iso-
Hyper- in everyday language, refers to something happening in excess (that child is hyperactive, the hunter was in a hyperalert state).
Hypo- has fewer nonmedical uses but a good one to remember is hypothermia, which is exposure to cold, or a lack of enough heat to sustain cellular reactions
Iso- think of the isobars on a weather chart; these are lines that join areas of equal atmospheric pressure