Potato Cells Lab Report

Introduction Potato cores are made of countless cells. A semi-permeable layer called the cell membrane surrounds each potato cell. The cell membrane acts as a barrier between the cytoplasm and its environment. It also gives the cell its structure. The reason why the cell membrane is semi-permeable is because it is mainly composed of a phospholipid bilayer that only allows non-polar and small molecules to pass through it. Fortunately, the cell membrane also contains many transport proteins that allow charged and larger molecules such as water to move into the cell. Other proteins in the cell membrane include glycoprotein and enzymes which are involved in cellular functions such as recognition of other cells and chemical messaging. Another component of the cell

This means that in 0.15M solution, the cytoplasm of the potato cells are isotonic to the solution so the net movement of water between the two is equivalent. One possible source of error in this lab is that I did not pour the correct solution into each cup at first so my partner and I had to dump them out and restart. However, each cup already had a potato core in it at the time of the incident so the potato cells might have gained or lost some water before they were placed in the correct solution and this would have affected their changes in mass. Also, since the cups were stored next to a window during the lab, they were exposed to sunlight which could have caused some of the water in the solutions to evaporate. With less solvent, the solutions became more concentrated and hypertonic which would have caused larger decreases in the potato cores’ mass. One way to build off of this lab in the future is by replacing sucrose with salt or a different solute in the solutions and then comparing the effects on the potatoes’