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Water Potential question

Hello there. I wonder if anyone could help me with this question?

An artificial cell containing a solution of sucrose and glucose was suspended in a solution of four different sugars in a beaker. There is a diagram that shows that in a beaker, there are four sugars with different concentrations in moldm-3. They are sucrose (0.2) glucose (0.005) fructose (0.01) and maltose (0.01) Inside the artificial cell, there is sucrose (0.5) and glucose (0.02) (n.b. the artificial cell is inside the beaker containing the solution of four sugars.

The membrane of this cell is permeable to water and to monosaccharides; it is not permeable to disaccharrides.

a. At the start of the experiment, which solution would have the lower water potential and why?

b. How would you expect the volume of the cell to change? Why?

c. As the experiment proceeds, for which solute or solutes will there tend to be net diffusion:

i/ Out of the cell
ii/ Into the cell

Does the information given about the permeability count for anything? Because a) mentions only water potential, so it is concerned with the movement of water only, not the sugars themselves?

We didn't cover this in the our lesson today, so any help would be appreciated.

Thankyou.

Reply 1

Revenged

a) sucrose as it has the highest concentration ('lowest' - i'm assuming means 'most negative'... thought it isn't very clear)

b) water will enter, water potential becomes less negative, cell volume increases

c)
i) Glucose and fructose solutions... (more fructose leaves the cell than glucose enters)
ii) Maltose and sucrose solutions... in both cases glucose will diffuse into cells (remember that disaccharides cannot pass through membrane)

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