Cellular membranes play a major role in everyday life. In the this experiment, “Cellular Membranes; Effects of Physical and Chemical Stress”, there were several objectives. One of them was to learn the structures and function of cellular membranes. This experiment also required students to critically think of and predict the effect of a particular organic solutions on the cellular membrane. Lastly, the students conducting this experiment will relate the effects recorded on beet cell membranes to the general structure of cellular membranes. In regards to this group, this experiment was based on the effects of the inorganic compound, NaCl. Sodium Chloride, along with other solutes, have the potential to cause a change in the concentration gradient, further inducing the process of osmosis. As stated in the lab book, osmosis is the movement of water from a high concentration gradient to a low concentration gradient. This process does not require the input of energy and is therefore considered a passive process. Because NaCl separates into two charged ions, Na+ and Cl-, …show more content…
The vacuole of a plant is a very large organelle that contains mainly water for the cell and plays the major role in turgor pressure. More specific to beet cells, their vacuole contains a reddish pigment called betacyanin, found in the tonoplasts. The tonoplast is the membrane that surrounds the central vacuole, also known as the vacuolar membrane. Because the betacyanin is found in this membrane, when osmosis occurs, the red pigment is taken with the outward movement of the water. Due to this quality of beet cells, we can observe the effect of different NaCl concentrated solutions and record amounts of betacyanin removed from the cells. The amount of betacyanin can be measured by utilizing a spectrophotometer. This will allow us to identify any relationship