Single-celled Paramecium live in pond water (a hypotonic environment relative to the cytosol). They have a structural feature, a contractile vacuole, which enables them to osmoregulate. If sucrose or saline was added to the pond water in different concentrations (in millimolars, mM), under which conditions would you expect the contractile vacuole to be most active?

Question

Brady Hopkins

Biology

26 December, 03:43

Single-celled Paramecium live in pond water (a hypotonic environment relative to the cytosol). They have a structural feature, a contractile vacuole, which enables them to osmoregulate. If sucrose or saline was added to the pond water in different concentrations (in millimolars, mM), under which conditions would you expect the contractile vacuole to be most active?

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Moshe Mullins · Answer 1

The contractile vacuole will be most active when the concentration of sugar will be 0.0 mM sucrose.

Explanation:

A hypotonic solution can be described as a solution in which the concentration of the solutes is more inside the cell. So the addition of sucrose or saline will not effect such kind of cell.

But if such kind of cell is transferred into an isotonic solution where there is 0.0mM of sucrose, then the solutes will move out of the cell. The vacuole will become more active to take in solutes from the solution in such kind of condition.