Question

5. /l An egg is placed in a jar of household vinegar and left for about one week, after which time the shell has dissolved completely, leaving a thin membrane to contain the contents of the egg. The egg is then carefully removed and the vinegar residue is carefully washed from the membrane. Describe two procedures that could be performed to investigate active and/or passive transport with this membrane system.

Answer 1

The deshelled egg has to be placed first in concentrated salt solution. And it has to be kept for a about an hour. Then the deshelled egg will shrink.

Now this shrunken egg has to be placed in distilled water. Then the shrunken egg will be swollen.

In the first case, the egg has got shrunken, since it is placed in hypertonic solution. And in the second case, the egg has got swollen, since the egg is placed in hypotonic environment.

In first case, the egg has lost water due to exosmosis when it is placed in hypertonic environment and in the second case, the egg has got swollen as the egg has gained the water due to endosmosis, as the egg is placed in the hypotonic environment.

In both the cases, osmosis has occurred, which is a mode of passive transport.