Cell Membrane Permeability in Beetroot

Cell Membrane Permeability in Beetroot

By

Nadir al-Kabra        

BIO 1045

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that as the temperature increase, there will be greater damage to the cell membrane causing increased pigmentation in the solution, and therefore an increasing absorbance rate reading on the spectrophotometer as the temperature goes up.

Method and Materials

Materials

• fresh beetroot
• sharp blade
• cork borer
• 11 test tubes and a boiling rack (with spare tubes)
• measuring cylinder (25ml)
• beakers (x1 500cm3 and x1 250cm3)
• timer
• spectophotometer
• cuvettes
• deionized water
• water baths (45, 50, 55, 50, 65, & 70 Celcius)
• liquid nitrogen access
• 20cm3 chloroform saturated solution
• 20cm3 70% IBM solution

Method(s)

Effect of Temperature on Beet Membrane Permeability

1. Beetroot cylinders were cut into 2x 1cm strips, then rinsed for 10 minutes under running water to remove pigmentation from damaged cells
2. 7 boiling tubes are prepared by placing 15 cm3 of distilled water in each tube
3. One beetroot cylinder is transferred into a beaker in a 70 Celsius waterbath for one minute, and then transferred again into a tube of 15cm3 distilled water.
4. Step 3 repeated at 45, 50, 55, 60, and 65 Celcius.
5. Control tube is place in distilled water at 21 Celcius.
6. Each cylinder is left for 45 minutes.
7. After 45minutes, tubes are each agitated and the solution transferred into a cuvette.
8. Each cuvette, in turn, is placed in the spectrophotometer set at 540nm.

Effect of Organic Solvents on Beet Membrane Permeability

1. Two boiling tubes are prepared by placed 15cm3 of chloroform-saturated water in one, and 15cm3 of 70% alcohol IBM in the other.
2. A prepared beetroot cylinder is placed in each, and these are left to sit for 45 minutes with occasional agitation.
3. Spectrophotometer readings are taken as above, at 540nm, calibrated by the control solution, for each tube.
4. Results are then recorded and runt through DataAnalysis

Effect of freezing on membrane permeability

1. Beetroot cylinders are frozen in liquid nitrogen
2. The beetroot cylinders are then placed in 15cm3 of distilled water at room temperature.
3. The absorbance is then compared with the control solution.
4. Results are then recorded and runt through DataAnalysis

Data

Table 1: The effect of temperature on beetroot cell membranes.

Table 2: The effect of organic solvents on beetroot cell membranes.

Table 3: The effect of rapid freezing (by liquid nitrogen) on beet cell membranes

GRAPH 1

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