BIO 2 Lab Review Questions

1. You are having a party and you plan to serve celery, but your celery has gone limp, and the stores are closed. What might you do to make the celery crisp (turgid) again? Explain.

A: Put them in water. Because the cells have become hypertonic, water moves by osmosis into the cells, restoring their turgidity.
2. Why does a plant wilt and go limp when it doesn't have enough water?

A: Cytoplasm loses water, causing a drop in turgor (hydrostatic) pressure inside the vacuoles.
3. How do the nutrients you eat get through your intestinal wall and your blood vessels into your bloodstream?

A: Diffusion
4. 40 years ago, athletes were advised not to drink anything during an event/game but to take salt tablets to reduce salt loss. Otherwise they would get nausea and cramps. Football players playing in a hot environment can lose up to 8 kg mass (fluid) during a game. What does dehydration do to your body? (Hint: think blood volume and electrolyte concentrations)

A: When you sweat, you lose water and, to a lesser extent, electrolytes. As a consequence, blood loses water, causing the volume of blood to drop. This results in a drop in blood pressure. Also, losing water will cause the blood to become more concentrated, therefore hypertonic. This causes cells to lose water by osmosis due to the hypertonicity of the blood with respect to the cells of the body.
5. Suppose that you have an osmosis apparatus like the one that you used in the exercise. In one side of the apparatus, there are a 100 mL of solution composed of distilled water and iodine. In the other side, there is a 10% starch solution. The liquid levels in both sides are initially the same. Answer the following questions.

a. What will happen to the level of the water and iodine solution (Side A)? A: The level of the water and iodine solution will fall as more water moves into the starch solution than leaves it. b. What will happen to the level of the starch solution (Side B)? A: The level of the starch solution will rise since more water molecules will enter the solution than will leave it. c. In which direction across the semipermeable membrane will the water molecules move when the system reaches equilibrium? A: The water will move equally in both directions across the membrane. d. What will happen to the color of the water and iodine solution? Why? A: The color of the water and iodine solution will not change since starch cannot pass through the membrane to enter the solution. e. What will happen to the color of the starch solution? Why? A: The color of the starch solution will turn from clear to a blue-black as iodine molecules cross the membrane, enter the solution and complex with the starch molecules. 6. Often when a person is ill they must be given fluids intravenously (by injection directly into the blood vessel). Why must the person never be given pure water intravenously? Explain using the concepts of diffusion and osmosis. A: If a person were given an intravenous injection of pure water, the concentration of the water in the serum of the blood would be higher than in the red blood cells. More water would flow into the cell than out of the cell, causing it to swell. Since the cell membrane is not permeable to most of the other molecules in the cell, the cell would be unable to prevent the swelling and might burst. Should this happen on a large scale it would be dangerous for the person. 7. In an experiment testing the inhibitory effect of a compound on peroxidase activity, the following graph was obtained. Two different concentrations of inhibitor were used, A and B. The substrate was H2O2, and guaiacol was used as indicator.

E ffect of inhibitor on enz yme activity

0.7

0.6

0.5

Absorbance

0.4

0.3

0.2 No inhibitor Inhibitor [A] 0.1 Inhibitor [B]

0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

T ime (min)

Q. True or false? The inhibitor concentration A is greater than that of B. A: True

8. At one time, it was believed that individuals who had been submerged under water for longer than several minutes could not be resuscitated. Recently, this has been shown to be false, especially if the person was in cold water. Explain why coldwater drowning victims might survive prolonged periods under water. A: Cold water will cause a generalized decrease in enzymatic activity throughout the body, causing less demand for oxygen and ATP. 9. If you dont want a cut potato to brown, what can you do to prevent it? A: Block oxygen access to catechol oxidase by covering the potato with water, oil, etc.
10. An HTK student placed three dialysis bags in 1% sucrose solution. The concentrations of the sugars inside the dialysis bags were as follows: Bag A: 1% sucrose Bag B: 20% sucrose Bag C: 40% sucrose The weight of the bags was recorded at 15-minute interval for a total duration of one hour. The following results were obtained:

Bag A B C

Weight (g) initial weight 15 30 min min 10 9.8 10.2 10 12 14 10 14 16

45 min 10 16 18

60 min 9.9 18 20

Q- Calculate the rate of osmosis of bag B. A: 0.133g/min Q- Describe the relationship between the rate of osmosis and solute concentration. A: As solute concentration in dialysis bags increases, the rate of osmosis increases.
11. The enzyme peroxidase catalyzes the following reaction: 2H2O2 2 H2O + O2 You tested the effect of the inhibitor hydroxylamine on the activity of this enzyme. In order to detect and measure the amount of O2 produced by this reaction you added guaiacol. In solution, guaiacol is colourless, but upon oxidation (addition of O2) turns brown. You indirectly measured the activity of peroxidase by measuring the absorbance (at 470 nm) of the reaction mixture. You obtain the following results. Absorbance Mixtures 5 min 10 min 15 min 20 min Peroxidase +guaiacol 0 0 0 0 H2O2 + guaiacol 0 0 0 0 Peroxidase alone 0 0 0 0 Hydroxylamine + peroxidase 0 0 0 0 Peroxidase + guaiacol + H2O2 0.2 0.6 0.9 1 Peroxidase + guaiacol + H2O2 + 0.2 0.5 0.7 0.8 0.1 M hydroxylamine Peroxidase + guaiacol + H2O2 + 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.5 M hydroxylamine Peroxidase + guaiacol + H2O2 + 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 1 M hydroxylamine Q. Plot the data in a graph to show the effect of the inhibitor hydroxylamine on peroxidise activity (label all curves and axes). Q. Explain the effect of hydroxylamine on peroxidase activity. A: Competitive inhibitor 12. The table below shows the amounts (ml) of CO2 and O2 produced and consumed during the respiration of soybean seedlings in 15 minutes. (3 pts) Temperature (C) 25C 35C CO2 12.2 27.3 O2 16.5 37.4

Q. Calculate the respiratory quotient of soybean seedlings.

A: 0.73 (27.2/37.4 or 12.2/16.5)

Q. What can you conclude about the metabolism of the seedlings?

A: Mostly fat being metabolized. 13. What is the Rf value for xanthophyll calculated from the chromatogram below?

A: Rf= distance travelled/12 (distance of solvent front)

14. You have developed a standard curve for several dilutions

of the amino acid tyrosine, as shown below in the graph. The standard curve was obtained by mixing known concentrations of tyrosine with the compound nitrosonaphthol and measuring absorbance at 500 nm wavelength using a spectrophotometer. You wanted to measure the amount of tyrosine oxidized by the liver enzyme tyrosine oxidase. You mix in a tube 100 g of tyrosine with liver extract and 100 g of nitrosonaphthol. The final volume of the tube is 1 ml. You obtain absorbance readings as indicated in the table below.

Time (min) 0 2 5

Absorbanc e (500 nm) 0.4 0.2 0.1

How much tyrosine has been oxidized during a 5-minute period? Show your calculations.
A: At 5 minutes, remaining tyrosine amount in the tube is x=(0.10.0001)/0.0039= 25.61 g/ml; the amount oxidized in 10025.61=74.38 g/ml