Friday, May 14, 2010

Difference between hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic?

Osmosis: The movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.

All cells are permiable thus allowing the movement of water from the outside of the cell to the inside.


Hypotonic Solution: the cell has a higher concentration in it than in the area surrounding it. Water moves into the cell to equal out concentration.

Isotonic Solution: The cell has a equal proportion of concentration with the area surrounding. Water continually flows in and out to keep concentration even.

Hypertonic Solution: Concentration of the cell is less than outside of the cell. Water moves out of the cell to try to even out the concentration.

21 comments:

  1. Think of tonicity from the standpoint of the water... In a hypertonic solution, water is drawn out of the cell because there is a lower concentration of water outside the cell... Since water moves from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration (Osmosis), this explanation supports the osmotic movement of water.
    The opposite is true for a hypotonic solution. Water is drawn into a cell because there is less water inside the cell than outside.. Cellular breakage through lysis will occur.
    An interesting side-note about lysis... When you perform a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), you can agitate the cells and lysis then through mechanical means.

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  2. where did you find these information? is there any resources?

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  3. What the mean of "fresh water fish have body fluid that are hypertonic to their environment" ? It means the body fluid will go out then the fish become flaccid?

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  4. I am quite worried about the definition of "Osmosis" written here! The definition I know is that " The flow of solvent molecules(water) from a place of LOWER concentration to HIGHER concentration is known as osmosis". Abbe first observed the phenomenon by Abbe's test where water moved inside the sugar solution ie, movement from lower concentration to higher!
    please check!

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  5. iam very confuse about the osmosis, plz tell me what is it?

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  6. my question is that han eggs kis stage mai deti hy?

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  7. the right definition of osmosis is that, it is the movement of water molecules from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration through a semi-permeable membrane.if you say lower to higher concentration,meaning it is an active transport already.

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  8. Osmosis is the net movement of molecules from high water concentration to low water concentration until a stable form of equilibrium has been reached through a semi-permeable membrane. It's going down the concentration gradient hence it's a passive process therefore requires no energy (ATP). Think of it as the diffusion of water.

    Water itself diffuses through proteins in the membrane called aquaporins, which are folded in such a way as to expose hydrophilic/polar regions (amino acids) in it's interior pore (therefore letting wee polar water molecules go through) and the exterior having non-polar/hydrophobic amino acids facing the non-polar/hydrophobic fatty acid chains, hence everything's peach.

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  9. ay like real talk shut up

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  10. Holy shit, the only person who knows what osmosis is is the guy who posted on October 9th. I seriously hope not all of you intend on taking the MCAT.

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  11. I know what osmosis it! The net movement of water molecules from a high concentration down a concentration gradient to a lower concentration.

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  12. y'all are like freaking nerds... y'all confuse me already... I feel tired by just looking at how much y'all wrote... uff! and I haven't even started to read... ugh!

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  13. i'm preparing for my upcoming bio test wish me luck "nerds".

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  14. osmosis is the movement of water molecules from the region of higher concentration to a region lower concentration through a semi permeable membrane

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  16. You all are fucking nerd's holy shit tatty

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  17. Think of a ballon:
    hypotonic- you blow air into an EMPTY ballon, but too much and it pops.
    Hypertonic- if you have a ballon full of air, you let it go, it whizzes around letting all the air up and it shriveled up again.
    Isotonic: You blow a reasonable amount of air into the ballon so that its firm/turgid, but doesn't burst, and tie it, so now it stays (this one's a little harder to illustrate sorry)

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  18. Thanks, wanted this for a quick reference. Sorted my query. :)

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  19. hello you can all go suck a big fat hairy mutherfucking fat chode

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