My AP Biology Thoughts  Unit 2 Cell Structure and Function

Welcome to My AP Biology Thoughts podcast, my name is Arthur Kim and I am your host for episode #62 called Unit 2 Cell Structure and Function: Osmotic Pressure of Plant Cells. Today we will be discussing osmosis and turgor pressure in plant cells and their effects.

Segment 1: Introduction to osmotic pressure of plant cells.

•  Osmotic and Turgor pressure are what allow plant cells to maintain their shape and form.
• Key terms:
• Osmotic Pressure: Pressure on the cell from the inside out as a result of water entering the cell via osmosis.
• Turgor pressure: The pressure of the cell membrane pressing against the cell wall as a result of the cell being full of water.  
• Plasmolysis: A plant cell collapsing as a result of losing too much water.  
• Isotonic solution: When there’s an equal concentration of solute on both sides of a membrane.
• Hypotonic solution: When the concentration of solutes inside the cell is greater than on the outside.
• Hypertonic solution: When the concentration of solutes outside the cell is greater than on the inside.  

Segment 2: More About Osmotic Pressure of plant cells

•  The rigidity of the cell wall allows plant cells to survive in both isotonic and hypotonic solutions.
• In hypotonic solutions, the excess water results in Turgor pressure against the cell wall, but the cell wall does not give.  
• This enables the plant cell to become extremely rigid, giving the plant its structure.  
• In hypertonic solutions however, plant cells would lose water and therefore plasmolyze, killing the cells.
• Turgor pressure from osmosis prevents the cell from collapsing in on itself.  

Segment 3: Connection to the Course

•  The fact that cell walls are able to withhold Turgor pressure allows plant cells to store excess amounts of water. This poses a major evolutionary advantage because the plants that can survive through droughts will more likely produce offspring.  

Thank you for listening to this episode of My AP Biology Thoughts. For more student-ran podcasts and digital content, make sure that you visit www.hvspn.com. See you next time!

Music Credits:

• “Ice Flow” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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