Consider the following statements regarding osmosis in animal cells : 1. If the water potential of the solution surrounding the cell is too high, the cell shrinks. 2. If the water potential of the solution surrounding the cell is too low, the cell swells

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Q: 76 (NDA-I/2013)
Consider the following statements regarding osmosis in animal cells :
1. If the water potential of the solution surrounding the cell is too high, the cell shrinks.
2. If the water potential of the solution surrounding the cell is too low, the cell swells and bursts.
3. It is important to maintain a constant water potential inside the animal body.
4. In animal cells, water potential far exceeds the solute potential.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

question_subject: 

Science

question_exam: 

NDA-I

stats: 

0,16,11,7,16,1,3

keywords: 

{'osmosis': [2, 0, 0, 2], 'water potential': [0, 0, 1, 0], 'solute potential': [1, 0, 0, 1], 'constant water potential': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'animal cells': [0, 0, 0, 2], 'cell swells': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'cell': [14, 0, 7, 16]}

The correct answer is option 2, which states that statement 3 is correct.

Let`s dissect each option to understand why this is the correct answer:

Option 1 states that statement 1 and 2 are correct. However, this is incorrect. In osmosis, if the water potential of the solution surrounding the cell is too high, the cell will swell and potentially burst, not shrink. On the other hand, if the water potential of the solution surrounding the cell is too low, the cell will shrink, but it will not burst. Therefore, statement 1 is incorrect and statement 2 is partially correct.

Option 2 states that statement 3 is correct. This is the correct answer. It is indeed important to maintain a constant water potential inside the animal body to ensure the proper functioning of cells and organs.

Option 3 states that statement 4 is correct. However, this is incorrect. In animal cells, solute potential is typically higher than water potential. This means that the solute concentration inside the cell is higher compared to the surrounding solution, causing water to move into the cell by osmosis. Therefore, statement 4 is incorrect.

Option 4 states that statement 2 and 3 are correct. As mentioned earlier, statement