1 When certain bacterial cells are placed in distilled water

1- When certain bacterial cells are placed in distilled water, they immediately open channel proteins in their plasma membrane to rapidly allow ions and small molecules to exit the cell.

- Explain how this mechanism helps the cell survive.

2- Would staining a specimen with methylene blue be useful for identifying cellular structures using a transmission electron microscope? Explain.

Solution

1. This Mechanism is related to the process of Osmosis and Diffusion.

In Diffusion : Particles moves from higher concentration of solute to lower concentration across the concentration gradient

In Osmosis : Solution moves from lesser concentration of solute to higher concentration acrosss the semipermeable membrane.

The distilled water contains very less concentration of solute as compared to the bacterial cell .so when the cell is placed in distilled water , the water tends to flow towards the cell because of osmosis process that could result in bursting of the cell . In order to avoid that, the bacterial cell responds to it by the process of diffusion by releasing small molecules and ions to exit the cell so as to maintain the equivalent solute concentration across inside and outside of the cell and hence survives in it.

2. Yes, it would be helpful to detect the cellular structure with the help of TEM and methylene blue.

Methylene blue is a cationic gram staining dye used to stain the negativeley charged cells resulting into blue/ violet/ pink colored staining that helps to diffrentiate between the specific component of the cell and other parts of the specimen

Transmission electron microscope transmits the electrons towards the specimen resulting in a high resolution of image than of the light microscope.

So combined use of methylene blue which stains the specific structures of the specimen cell wall helps to identify the structure while TEM helps to study more detailing in effective manner.

Hope this helps!