Describe the concentration of the solution outside the cell as...

Question

Describe the concentration of the solution outside the cell as hypertonic or hypotonic if that solute is being transported across the cell membrane by

(b) facilitated transport.

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question is asking us is the following description, true or false if false corrected in a facilitated transport. If the solute is being transported across the cell membrane, the concentration of the solution outside of the cell would be described as hypotonic. So first and foremost, what is this problem or what is this statement trying to convey to us? First, let's talk about the difference between hypotonic solutions and hypertonic solutions. So for this example, let's imagine that we have a cell inside of some kind of container containing some kind of fluid. This fluid outside of the cell is the solution that will be described as either hypotonic or hypertonic. For this example, the concentration of the cell inside of the cell does not change, we're only interested in the environment surrounding the cell. So when it comes to a hypertonic solution, hypertonic, right, what does that mean? Well, if we have a hypertonic solution, that means that the concentration of solutes is going to be outside of the cell. So if you have a higher concentration of solutes inside of the cell, sorry outside of the cell relative to the inside what happens? Well, the water that's inside of that cell is going to move outside. This is because water is going to move towards areas of higher solid concentration basically to dilute it right? And make both environments isotonic with the same concentration. So how does this compare now to a hypotonic solution? Well, a hypotonic solution is the opposite, right in which now you have a lower concentration of sos outside of the cell relative to the inside. So now what happens to the water as a result? Well, if you have a lower concentration of solutes outside of the cell, what happens is that water is going to move to the inside of the cell again to dilute it. So very briefly. Now what is facilitated transport? Well, recall that facilitated transport is going to involve the movement of molecules across a cell membrane through its regular concentration gradient. Now because it's moving down its concentration gradient, no energy is required for this to happen. The reason why it's called facilitated is because some kind of carrier protein is required for the substance to move across the membrane. This is most likely because the molecule in question is polar and cannot pass through the membrane on its own. So let's talk about that gradient again, when it comes to a concentration gradient, what that means to say is that a given substance will tend to move from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. This is in an attempt to make both environments isotonic having the same concentration. So how does this movement of Solus affect the tonicity of both solutions? Right. In comparison, well, when it comes to the movement of Solus along its concentration gradient through this facilitated transport solute is moving away from the high concentration environment. It's moving away from this high concentration environment and towards this low concentration environment. So what does that mean? Right, because the salute is moving away, this first solution will become hypotonic because initially it was hypertonic and now you have solu moving away through its concentration grading. Now because the environment with low solute concentration is now receiving an influx of this solute along its concentration gradient. The second solution is now going to be hypertonic. So now let's go back to the statement in question. It says in facilitated transport, if the solute is being transported across the cell membrane, the concentration of the solution outside the cell would be described as hypotonic. And this statement right here is going to be false. Why? Because if the solute is being transported across the cell membrane, the concentration of the solution outside of the cell would now become hypertonic. If the solute is moving away from the cell and towards the outside environment, the outside environment is now hypertonic which makes the statement false. And now we've arrived at our final answer. So I can scroll down. So you can see where I had it prewritten. So once again, the statement given is false for facilitated transport. If the solute is being transported across the cell membrane, the concentration of the solution outside the cell would be described as hypertonic and there you have it. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.

Describe the concentration of the solution outside the cell as hypertonic or hypotonic if that solute is being transported across the cell membrane by
(b) facilitated transport.

Key Concepts

Hypertonic Solution

Hypotonic Solution

Facilitated Transport

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