Sharks living in the ocean are isotonic to their environments, that is, the conc

Question

Sharks living in the ocean are isotonic to their environments, that is, the concentration of solutes inside their cells is the same as the concentration of solutes in their external environment. How will osmosis affect shark cells in their natural environment?

a. Osmosis will not affect shark cells, because there will be no net movement of water into or out of the cells.

b. Osmosis will cause water to enter the cells, making them larger.

c. Osmosis will cause water to leave the cells, causing the cells to get smaller.

d. Osmosis will make the shark cells hypertonic to their environment.

e. Osmosis will make the shark cells hypotonic to their environment.

Explanation / Answer

A) osmosis will not affect shark cell,because there will be no net movement of water into or out of the cell

This is the right answer because the given data says that shark skin cells are isotonic in nature with respect to the water present in ocean that means the concentration of solut present in ocean is equal to the concentration solute present into the shark skin cells

In case B) and D) both condition are similar because when the concentration of solute into shark skin cells are greater then concentration of solute in ocean then water( in this question water is solvent) will move towards the low concentrations of solut to high concentration of solute ( or high concentration of water to low concentrations of water) to equalise the concentration at both side. This movement of water into the shark cell causes increase in size .But the concentration at both side are not same so this option is eliminated

Now in case c) and e) both occur when the concentration of solute into shark skin cells are lower then the concentration of solute in ocean so that water( of solvent)will move out of the cell and results in shrinkage of cell as water (which is solvent here in comparison with osmosis) move lower concentrations of solute to higher concentration of solute ( or higher concentration of water to low concentrations of water)

The questioners ask the concentration of solute

For eg .

ifsolution x is higher concentration then of solution y

Then solvent moves from solution y to x i.e solution x is hypertonic to solution y

At the same time solution y is hypotonic to solution x

But when the concentration of solution x and y would be same at that time there is no movement of solvent

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