Hypertonic

Information about Hypertonic

Effect of different solutions on blood cells

Plant cell under different environments

In biology, a hypertonic cell environment has a higher concentration of solutes than inside the animal body or plant cell. The ability of a solution to change the shape or tone of cells by altering their internal water volume is called tonicity (tono = tension). In a hypertonic environment, osmotic pressure causes water to flow out of the cell. If enough water is removed in this way, the cytoplasm will have such a small concentration of water that the cell has difficulty functioning.

A cell that is in a hypertonic environment has a higher concentration of solute in the environment than in the inside of the cell, making the net flow of water out of the cell. A cell in a hypotonic environment has a lower concentration of solute in the environment than in the inside of the cell, making the net flow of water into the cell and eventually causing cell lysis.

In animal cells, being in a hypertonic environment results in crenation, where the shape of the cell becomes distorted and wrinkled as water leaves the cell.

In plant cells, the effect is more dramatic. The cell membrane pulls away from the cell wall, but the cell remains joined to the adjacent cells at points called plasmodesmata. Thus, the cell takes on the appearance of a pincushion, with the plasmodesmata almost ceasing to function because they have become so constricted. This condition is known as plasmolysis.

Saltwater is hypertonic to the fish that live in it. The fish cannot isolate themselves from osmotic water loss, because they need a large surface area in their gills for gas exchange. They respond by drinking large amounts of water, and excreting the salt. This process is called osmoregulation.

The opposite of a hypertonic environment is a hypotonic one, where the net movement of water is into the cell; the intermediate state is called isotonic, where there is no net movement of water. This does not mean, however, that water is not moving; it means that water is moving both ways but with equal velocity, which equals zero net change.

Hyperosmotic

"...a term describing organisms with body fluids with a lower concentration of water and higher solute concentration than the external environment." Taken from Ecology by Manuel C. Molles Jr.

This means that if a cell is hyperosmotic, it absorbs water from the surroundings to dilute the higher solute concentration, thus making the cell isotonic to the environment.

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In chemistry, concentration is the measure of how much of a given substance there is mixed with another substance. This can apply to any sort of chemical mixture, but most frequently the concept is limited to homogeneous solutions, where it refers to the amount of
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This article is about chemical solutions. For other uses, see Solution (disambiguation).

In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances.
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Osmotic pressure is the hydrostatic pressure produced by a solution in a space divided by a semipermeable membrane due to a differential in the concentrations of solute.

Osmotic potential
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Cytoplasm is a gelatinous, semi-transparent fluid that fills most cells. Eukaryotic cells contain a nucleus that is kept separate from the cytoplasm by a double membrane layer. The cytoplasm has three major elements; the cytosol, organelles and inclusions.
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hypotonic solution has the lower osmotic pressure of two fluids and also describes a cell environment with a lower concentration of solutes than the cytoplasm of the cell. Given a cell placed in a hypotonic environment, osmosis causes a net flow of water into the cell, causing
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For other meanings, see Lysis (disambiguation).

Lysis (Greek λύσις, lusis from luein
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Crenation is the contraction or formation of abnormal notchings around the edges of a cell after exposure to a hypertonic solution, due to the loss of water through osmosis.
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866^[1]

Divisions

Green algae

Chlorophyta
Charophyta

Land plants (embryophytes)

Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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cell wall is a fairly rigid layer surrounding a cell, located external to the cell membrane, which provides the cell with structural support, protection, and acts as a filtering mechanism. The cell wall also prevents over-expansion when water enters the cell.
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Plasmodesmata (singular, plasmodesma) are microscopic channels of plants traversing the cell walls and middle lamella between pairs of plant cells and facilitating transport and communication between them.
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A pincushion (or less commonly pin cushion) is a small cushion, typically 3-5 cm across, which is used in sewing to store pins or needles with their heads protruding so as to take hold of them easily.
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Plasmolysis is an effect of osmosis in plants. Osmosis is the net diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane, such as a cell membrane, from an area of higher water concentration to an area of lower water concentration.
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Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of ~3.5%, or 35 parts per thousand. This means that every 1 kg of seawater has approximately 35 grams of dissolved salts (mostly, but not entirely, the ions of sodium chloride: Na
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A gill is a respiration organ that functions for the extraction of oxygen from water and the excretion of carbon dioxide. Unlike many small aquatic animals, which can absorb oxygen through the entire surface of their bodies, more complex aquatic organisms have gills specially
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Gas exchange or respiration takes place at a respiratory surface - a boundary between the external environment and the interior of the body. For unicellular organisms the respiratory surface is simply the cell membrane, but for large organisms it usually is carried out in
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Excretion is the process of eliminating waste products of metabolism and other non-useful materials.^[1] It is an essential process in all forms of life.

In single-celled organisms, waste products are discharged directly through the surface of the cell.
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Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of bodily fluids to maintain the homeostasis of the body's water content; that is it keeps the body's fluids from becoming too dilute or too concentrated.
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This article is about the physical mechanism of diffusion. For alternative meanings, see diffusion (disambiguation).

Diffusion is the net movement of particles from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.
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Osmosis is the net movement of water across a partially permeable membrane from a region of high solvent potential to an area of low solvent potential, up a solute concentration gradient.
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Hypertonic

Information about Hypertonic

Hyperosmotic

See also