Water potential is the measure of potential energy in water and drives the movement of

water through plants. Water potential, also determines whether a solution is hypotonic,
hypertonic, or isotonic. Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from an area of
higher water potential to lower water potential through a partially permeable membrane.
A hypotonic solution is one in which the concentration of the solute in the solution is less
than that of the cell; in these solutions the plant cell will gain water by osmosis to become
turgid. This turgidity is as a result of the cytoplasm and the vacuole increasing in volume.
The cytoplasm consists mainly of water and contains enzymes, salts, organelles, and
various organic molecules. A cell’s vacuole can occupy a large proportion of the total
volume of the cell-e.g 90% of the volume of some mature plant cells. The vacuole helps
to maintain turgor pressure (turgidity) inside the cell. This pressure pushes the plasma
membrane against the cell wall. Plants need turgidity to maintain rigidity. On the other
hand, a hypertonic solution is one where the concentration of solutes is greater outside
the cell than inside it. This solution results in the cell having a higher water potential than
its surrounding solution. The plant cell wills therefore lose water by osmosis; causing the
vacuole to decrease in volume and the plasma membrane to shrink from the cell wall. The
plasma membrane is selectively permeable, it controls the movement of solutes in and out
of the cell. The plasma membrane is flexible enough to move closer to or away from the
cell wall-according to changes in the water content of the cytoplasm within the cell.
Lastly, an isotonic solution means that the concentration of the solute outside of the cell is
the same as inside the cell. In these solution no changes occur to the cell.

In this experiment sucrose solution of varying concentrations (0.2M, 0.4M, 0.6M, 0.8M
and 1M) were used to determine the effect of water potential on the cells of a irish potato.
It is expected that the cells in the sucrose solution with high concentration (0.8M and 1M)
will shrink and those that are in sucrose solution with low concentration (0.2M, 0.4M)
will become turgid. When the potato strips were observed the above expectations were
obtained. The strips in the concentrated sucrose solution had shrunk. This is so because
when a plant cell is placed in a highly concentrated solution (hypertonic), water diffuses
out of the cell, and turgor pressure is lost causing the cell to become flaccid. This is
because the solute concentration outside the cell was greater than inside the cell. Hence,
water left from the plant cell, which had the higher water potential to the sucrose solution
which had the lower water potential. However, when the cells were place in sucrose
solution with low concentration they became turgid. This is because when a plant cell
stores ions, sugars and other solutes in its vacuole, it results in an influx of water. This is
due to the fact that there is a greater concentration of ions inside the cell than outside the
cell. Hence, there is a greater water potential outside of the cell, which results in the
movement of water inside the cell. So because the distilled water had a higher water
potential than the plant cell, water moved from outside and into the plant cell; resulting in
a large turgor pressure being exerted on the cell wall. This caused the plant cells to
become turgid. The graph plotted also showed that as the concentration of the solution
outside the potato strips increased the magnitude by which the strips decreased also
increased. This is as expected because as concentration increases the solutions become
more hypertonic and so cells would lose more water causing them to decrease in length
more.

Conclusion: A plant cell will shrink when placed in a hypertonic solution (lower
water potential than the cell) and become turgid when placed in a hypotonic solution
(higher water potential than the cell) by the process of osmosis.