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Passive Transport
5.1 Terms
Term | Definition |
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passive transport | the movement of substances across a cell membrane without the use of energy by the cell |
diffusion | the movement of particles from regions of higher density to regions of lower density |
concentration gradient | a difference in the concentration of a substance across a distance |
equilibrium | in physics, the state in which opposing forces balance each other |
osmosis | the diffusion of water or another solvent from a more dilute solution (of a solute) to a more concentrated solution (of the solute) through a membrane that is permeable to the solvent |
hypotonic | describes a solution whose solute concentration is lower than the solute concentration inside a cell |
hypertonic | describes a solution whose solute concentration is higher than the solute concentration inside a cell |
isotonic | a solution whose solute concentration is equal to the solute concentration inside a cell |
contractile vacuole | in protozoans, an organelle that accumulates water and then releases it periodically to maintain osmotic pressure |
turgor pressure | the pressure that is exerted on the inside of cell walls and that is caused by the movement of water into the cell |
plasmolysis | the contraction or shrinking of the cell membrane of a plant cell in a hypertonic solution in response to the loss of water by osmosis |
cytolysis | the bursting of a cell |
facilitated diffusion | the transport of substances through a cell membrane along a concentration gradient with the aid of carrier proteins |
carrier protein | a protein that transports substances across a cell membrane |
ion channel | a pore in a cell membrane through which ions can pass |