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Related Concept Videos

Tonicity in Animals01:16

Tonicity in Animals

Tonicity describes the amount of solute in a solution. The measure of the tonicity of a solution, or the total amount of solutes dissolved in a specific amount of solution, is called its osmolarity. Three terms—hypotonic, isotonic, and hypertonic—are used to relate the osmolarity of a cell to the osmolarity of the extracellular fluid that contains the cells. In a hypotonic solution, such as tap water, the extracellular fluid has a lower concentration of solutes than the fluid inside the cell,...
Tonicity in Animals00:59

Tonicity in Animals

The tonicity of a solution determines if a cell gains or loses water in that solution. The tonicity depends on the permeability of the cell membrane for different solutes and the concentration of nonpenetrating solutes in the solution within and outside of the cell. If a semipermeable membrane hinders the passage of some solutes but allows water to follow its concentration gradient, water moves from the side with low osmolarity (i.e., less solute) to the side with higher osmolarity (i.e.,...
Osmosis and Osmotic Pressure of Solutions02:40

Osmosis and Osmotic Pressure of Solutions

A number of natural and synthetic materials exhibit selective permeation, meaning that only molecules or ions of a certain size, shape, polarity, charge, and so forth, are capable of passing through (permeating) the material. Biological cell membranes provide elegant examples of selective permeation in nature, while dialysis tubing used to remove metabolic wastes from blood is a more simplistic technological example. Regardless of how they may be fabricated, these materials are generally...
Osmosis01:30

Osmosis

Osmosis is the movement of free water molecules through a semipermeable membrane.  The water's concentration gradient across the membrane is inversely proportional to the solutes' concentration. Whereas diffusion transports material across membranes and within cells, osmosis transports only water across a membrane, and the membrane limits the diffusion of solutes in the water. Osmosis is a special case of diffusion.
Water, like other substances, moves from a high concentration of free water...
Osmosis00:47

Osmosis

Approximately 60% to 95% of the weight of living organisms is attributed to water. Therefore, maintaining appropriate water balance within cells is of paramount importance. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane, such as a cell’s plasma membrane. In living organisms, water plays a crucial role as a solvent—a molecule that dissolves other molecules.Diffusion Versus OsmosisBoth diffusion and osmosis are types of passive transport—cellular transport that does not require...
Osmoregulation in Insects01:47

Osmoregulation in Insects

Malpighian tubules are specialized structures found in the digestive systems of many arthropods, including most insects, that handle excretion and osmoregulation. The tubules are typically arranged in pairs and have a convoluted structure that increases their surface area.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Measuring the Osmotic Water Permeability Coefficient (Pf) of Spherical Cells: Isolated Plant Protoplasts as an Example
14:20

Measuring the Osmotic Water Permeability Coefficient (Pf) of Spherical Cells: Isolated Plant Protoplasts as an Example

Published on: October 8, 2014

THE OSMOTIC PROPERTIES OF LIVING CELLS (EGGS OF ARBACIA PUNCTULATA).

M McCutcheon1, B Lucké, H K Hartline

  • 1Laboratory of Pathology, School of Medicine, the Johnson foundation for Medical Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole.

The Journal of General Physiology
|October 30, 2009
PubMed
Summary

The unfertilized Arbacia egg functions as an excellent osmometer, with its semipermeable membrane nearly perfect. A small percentage of osmotically inactive material exists within the cell.

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Area of Science:

  • Cell biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Understanding cell membrane properties is crucial for cell physiology.
  • The Arbacia egg is a model organism for studying osmotic behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the unfertilized Arbacia egg as an osmometer.
  • To quantify the osmotically inactive portion of the egg's volume.

Main Methods:

  • Measuring egg volumes under varying hydrostatic pressures.
  • Analyzing the relationship between pressure and volume, accounting for inactive solutes.

Main Results:

  • Egg volume measurements were accurate due to the cell's spherical shape.
  • The product of pressure and volume remained constant, indicating near-ideal osmometric behavior.
  • Osmotically inactive material constitutes 7-14% of the egg's volume.
  • The cell membrane demonstrated high semipermeability in hypotonic solutions.

Conclusions:

  • The unfertilized Arbacia egg serves as a highly accurate osmometer.
  • The cell membrane exhibits near-perfect semipermeability under non-injurious conditions.
  • Osmotic pressure is the dominant force influencing cell volume in these experiments.