BIOL 225 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Trimethylamine N-Oxide, Gastrovascular Cavity, Osmoregulation
11 Mar 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Osmoregulation: regulation of solute concentrations and water balance by a cell or organism. Balances the uptake and loss of water and solutes. Excretion: the disposal of nitrogen-containing metabolites and other waste products. Hyperosmotic: hypertonic solution a is hyper osmotic to solution b = a has a higher concentration of solute than b. Hypoosmotic: hypotonic solution a is hypo osmotic to solution b = a has a lower concentration of solute than b. Osmoconformer: an animal that is isoosmotic with its environment. Ex: most marine animals although most marine chordates are osmoregulator. Osmoregulator: an animal that controls its internal osmolality independent of the external environment. Stenohaline: referring to organisms that cannot tolerate substantial changes in external osmolality. Euryhaline: referring to organisms that tolerate substantial changes in external osmolality. Exceptions: condrichthyes (sharks: high levels of urea in body fluids, requires trimethylamine oxide protects to tissues from urea, body tissues are slightly hyperosmotic to seawater.
