Question

A scientist grew an Elodea plant in a freshwater aquarium. She removed a leaf from the plant and placed the leaf in a hypertonic solution containing 8% salt in order to observe what happened to the cells within the leaf. When she looked at the cells under a microscope, she noticed that the cells in the leaf shrunk. Which statement best explains what caused the cells to shrink?

The hypertonic solution caused the water in the cell to move from the cytoplasm into the nucleus.
The salt moved from the hypertonic solution into the cell and chemically bonded with the water.
The salt within the cell moved through the cell membrane into the solution with the higher salt concentration.
The water within the cell moved through the cell membrane into the solution with the lower water concentration.

Answer 1

The water within the cell moved through the cell membrane into the solution with the lower water concentration.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to this question, a scientist removed the leaf of a plant originally grown in a freshwater aquarium and placed it in a hypertonic solution containing 8% salt. Firstly, A HYPERTONIC SOLUTION is that solution which contains a higher solute concentration than that of the intracellular environment.

Due to this concentration gradient i.e. difference in concentration, OSMOSIS process will be triggered. Osmosis is the movement of water from the region of low solute concentration (the leaf cells) to a high solute concentration (the salt solution) via a semi-permeable membrane (cell membrane).

Therefore, osmotic process causes water to move from the leaf cells into the salt solution via the cell membrane. hence, causing the cells of the leaf to shrink.