Question

How can you experimentally examine factors (physical and chemical) affecting the permeability of plant cell membrane? Discuss how these factors can affect the plant cell permeability.

Answer 1

The physical factors that affect plant cell membrane permeability are temperature, pH, etc. Because the membrane are made up of phospholipids, proteins, carbohydrates, cholesterol , etc. Temp and acidity may alter with protein structure and carbohydrates nature.

Experiment:   Place a beetroot in a beaker and slowly increase the temperature by placing it in a water bath(for Safety purposes) as the temperature is increased significantly, pigment leaks out of the cell. Therefore temperature affect membrane permeability.

The chemical factors that interfare with permeability are itself which constitutes the membrane i.e, phospholipids, proteins, cholesterol