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Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of an organism's body fluids, detected by osmoreceptors, to maintain the homeostasis of the organism's water content; that is, it maintains the fluid balance and the concentration of electrolytes (salts in solution which in this case is represented by body fluid) to keep the body fluids from becoming too diluted or concentrated.
In animal cells excessive osmotic pressure can result in cytolysis due to the absence of a cell wall. Osmotic pressure is the basis of filtering ("reverse osmosis"), a process commonly used in water purification. The water to be purified is placed in a chamber and put under an amount of pressure greater than the osmotic pressure exerted by the ...
The process stops and equilibrium is attained when the pressure difference equals the osmotic pressure. Two laws governing the osmotic pressure of a dilute solution were discovered by the German botanist W. F. P. Pfeffer and the Dutch chemist J. H. van’t Hoff: The osmotic pressure of a dilute solution at constant temperature is directly ...
As the osmolyte concentration in fish cells scales linearly with pressure and therefore depth, osmolytes have been used to calculate the maximum depth where a fish can survive. Fish cells reach a maximum concentration of osmolytes at depths of approximately 26,900 feet (8,200 meters), with no fish ever being observed beyond 27,349 feet (8,336 ...
These channels function in tandem-mode and are responsible of turgor regulation in bacteria; when activated by changes in the osmotic pressure. MscM is activated first at really low pressures followed by MscS, and finally MscL being the last chance of survival during osmotic shock.
Unlike osmotic pressure, tonicity is influenced only by solutes that cannot cross the membrane, as only these exert an effective osmotic pressure. Solutes able to freely cross the membrane do not affect tonicity because they will always equilibrate with equal concentrations on both sides of the membrane without net solvent movement.
An osmoreceptor is a sensory receptor primarily found in the hypothalamus of most homeothermic organisms that detects changes in osmotic pressure. Osmoreceptors can be found in several structures, including two of the circumventricular organs – the vascular organ of the lamina terminalis, and the subfornical organ.
Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a technique to separate a solvent (for example, fresh water) from a solution that is more concentrated (e.g. sea water) and also pressurized. A semipermeable membrane allows the solvent to pass to the concentrated solution side by osmosis . [ 1 ]