Osmoregulation Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is an advantage to being an osmoconformer? What is an advantage in which there is never an osmotic gradient between you and then environment?
More energy conservative! You develop a strategy where your cells never shrink and never expand and dont have to worry about it! Way cheaper than osmoregulation!
In osmoregulators, large changes outside result in
small changes on the inside!
When your exercising your kidney produces an inside environment that has what kind of osmotic concentration?
very high osmotic concentration. This reflects a situation when you need water, therefore the osmotic concentration will be higher (1200mOsm). Increased water permeability.
When you have drank to much and need to pee what is the osmotic concentration gradient like now?
It will become lower around (800mOsm). No water permeability.
Some cells from the loop of Henle (human kidney) are exposed to environments with varying osmotic concentration over time that can range from 600 to 1200 mOsm. What physiological mechanism allow these to survive these changes in the osmotic environment?
Animals developed different strategies. Some osmoconform and some osmoregulate.
Osmoconformers
cells are equal in osmotic pressure to the environment. Mainly found in the ocean.
Osmoregulators:
Osmotic pressure of body fluids is homeostatically regulated and usually different from the external environment
in osmoconformers large changes on the outside result in
large changes on the inside
Do osmoregulators or do osmoconformers have higher cellular osmotic osmolytes?
osmoconformers
in osmoconformers cell and tissues can cope with high extracellular osmolarities by
increasing intraceullular osmolarities with compatible osmolytes this maintains cell volume.
A flat line represents
a perfect osmoregulator
A diagnol line going up represents
a strict osmoconformer
what types of strategy does the shark use to help with osmosis?
osmoconformer
Common organic osmolytes include
carbohydrates, free amino acids, methyaline, urea and methylsulfonium.
Osmoconformers must maintain intraceullular inorganic levels within a range compatible with
protein functions. This involves compatible osmolytes.
Types of osmoconformers:
stenohaline
Euryhaline
Stenohalie
Unable to respond to large changes in the environment. Restricted to a narrow range of salinity.
euryhaline
Tolerant of changes in salinity. Regulate organic osmolytes in their cells.
what animal is an example of a euryhaline?
mosquito
What type of osmoconformer would do well in an intertidal zone?
euryhaline
euryhaline relies of what for their tolerance of changes to salinity.
osmolytes!
If an animal does not use compatible osmolytes what does this restrict them too and talk about an example of this.
If it does not use compatible osmolytes it can only surivive in a single type of environment. Example is halobacterium lives in high salinity. Its strategy instead of compatible osmolytes requires massive amino acid subsitution in thousands of proteins
So if an animal does use compatible osmolytes what kind of an advantage does this give them and give an example of an organism that lives better than halobacterium?
Compatible osmolytes gives an advantage of being able to tolerate a wide range of salinity. Dunaliella is a euryhaline and lives in a wide range of salinites.
How does a mosquito know when it needs to increase protein concentration (protein concentration increases when the environment becomes more salty, proteins are the osmolytes.)
Scientist proposed the mosquito was sensing it with the environmental ions. When the mosquito was exposed to sea water the animal was exposed to sodium and chloride, and she was able to prove that it starts to osmoconform when it senses these changes. Not sorbitol
