Study Guide for Chapter 4: Plasma Membrane
Explain the phrase “fluid mosaic model” when referring to the plasma membrane.
Identify and describe the components of a typical cell membrane.
Describe what can and cannot pass through the phospholipids bilayer of the cell membrane. Be sure to include polarity
and size in your answer.
4. List the five membrane proteins and explain the purpose and function of each.
5. Describe the difference between passive and active transport across the cell membrane.
6. Explain how diffusion works. Explain how the concentration gradient determines the rate and amount of material that
diffuses across the membrane. Be sure to identify the solute and solvent in a solution.
7. Explain osmosis in terms of isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic solutions. Describe what happens to a plant and an
animal cell in each solution.
8. How do carrier proteins function in facilitated diffusion and what type of molecules are they responsible for moving
across the cell membrane.
9. How is active transport different than passive transport in terms of concentration gradient and expended energy?
10. Describe the sodium-potassium pump works. How can an electric potential build up by using 2 positively charged ions?
11. Explain endocytosis and exocytosis. How are phagocytosis and pinocytosis the same and how are they different? What
is the difference between pinocytosis and receptor-mediated pinocytosis?
12. Explain the process of osmosis as it occurred in your potato core lab. In the potato demonstration lab, the molarity of the
potato contents was experimentally determined by the rate of osmosis of the potato cores in six different molarities. Be
able to describe both (the molarity of the potato versus the molarity of the solution) and how they are alike and different.
Why did we use four smaller cores instead of one large core? Why did we calculate percent difference instead of using
the actual change in mass between groups?
1.
2.
3.
Study Guide for Chapter 4: Plasma Membrane
Explain the phrase “fluid mosaic model” when referring to the plasma membrane.
Identify and describe the components of a typical cell membrane.
Describe what can and cannot pass through the phospholipids bilayer of the cell membrane. Be sure to include polarity
and size in your answer.
4. List the five membrane proteins and explain the purpose and function of each.
5. Describe the difference between passive and active transport across the cell membrane.
6. Explain how diffusion works. Explain how the concentration gradient determines the rate and amount of material that
diffuses across the membrane. Be sure to identify the solute and solvent in a solution.
7. Explain osmosis in terms of isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic solutions. Describe what happens to a plant and an
animal cell in each solution.
8. How do carrier proteins function in facilitated diffusion and what type of molecules are they responsible for moving
across the cell membrane.
9. How is active transport different than passive transport in terms of concentration gradient and expended energy?
10. Describe the sodium-potassium pump works. How can an electric potential build up by using 2 positively charged ions?
11. Explain endocytosis and exocytosis. How are phagocytosis and pinocytosis the same and how are they different? What
is the difference between pinocytosis and receptor-mediated pinocytosis?
12. Explain the process of osmosis as it occurred in your potato core lab. In the potato demonstration lab, the molarity of the
potato contents was experimentally determined by the rate of osmosis of the potato cores in six different molarities. Be
able to describe both (the molarity of the potato versus the molarity of the solution) and how they are alike and different.
Why did we use four smaller cores instead of one large core? Why did we calculate percent difference instead of using
the actual change in mass between groups?
1.
2.
3.