Question

A fully turgid cell has
A. Minimum cell size
B. Minimum water content
C. Maximum solute pressure
D. Minimum solute pressure

Answer 1

Hint: A turgid cell refers to a cell that has turgor pressure. A plant cell that is placed in a hypotonic solution causes the water to move into the cell by osmosis. This results in large turgor pressure being exerted against the plant cell wall as the cells swell.

Complete answer:
When water enters into a cell by osmosis and turgor pressure develops in the cell present in a hypotonic solution, the cell membrane becomes stretched and the osmotic pressure of the cell decreases. As the cell keeps on absorbing more and more water its Turgor Pressure increases further and Osmotic Pressure decreases even more. When a cell is fully turgid, it cannot absorb any more water and OP is equal to TP and DPD is zero. With reference to plant cells, the DPD is the actual thrust of a cell for water and can be expressed as DPD=OP-TP.
Solute pressure refers to the amount by which water potential is reduced as a result of the presence of solute is also known as osmotic pressure. A fully turgid cell always has minimum solute pressure and minimum concentration of solute in it. The osmotic potential and pressure potential of a fully turgid cell is equal but with opposite signs. It retains maximum turgor pressures and the water potential is zero.

Thus, the correct answer is option D- Minimum solute pressure.

Note: Plant cell when placed in a hypotonic solution, takes up water by osmosis and starts to swell. The cell wall prevents it from bursting. The plant cell that is swelled and not bursted is said to have become 'turgid', i.e. swollen and hard. The pressure inside the cell keeps on rising until this internal pressure is equal to the pressure outside.