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Turgor pressure is the postive internal pressure in a cell resulting from osmotic pressure.

When a cell is in a hypotonic environment, water flows across the cell membrane into the cell, causing it to expand due to osmotic pressure. In plant cells, water enters the cell until the inside and outside water potential is equal, however, the cell wall) prevents the cell from bursting, resulting in pressure on the cell wall from within. The pressure of each cell wall against its neighbour results in stiffness that allows the plant to stay upright. Cells not adapted to hypotonic environments will burst due to the inflow of water if they have no strong membrane or cell wall.

The opposite condition in a plant cell, resulting from immersion in a hypertonic enviroment, is plasmolysis.

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Cell biology | Membrane biology

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Turgor pressure".

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