Plasmolysis is said to occur when
- A. a plant cell takes in water and becomes turgid
- B. the protoplast of a plant cell shrinks away from the cell wall in a concentrated solution
- C. the cell wall dissolves completely
- D. the nucleus divides into two
Explanation
In a solution of lower water potential than the cell sap, water leaves the vacuole, the protoplast contracts and pulls away from the wall, and the cell becomes flaccid and then plasmolysed. Because the wall is fully permeable, the external solution simply fills the space between it and the shrunken protoplast. The process can be reversed if the cell is returned to water soon enough.
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