If NaCl is added to a culture of Paramecia what would happen

If NaCl is added to a culture of Paramecia, what would happen to the cell? Would it alter the swimming behavior? How would the Na+ ions affect the paramecium\'s swimming behavior? Would it swim faster or slower?

Solution

The cells of the paramecium consists of the membrane which is permeable to water diffusion but they do not allow the the salt solution ( Nacl) to pass into the cell. thus only water can diffuse into the cells. This kind of diffusion through semi permeable membrane is known as osmosis. The Nacl salt solution will always diffuse away from areas of higher concentration into the surrounding solution. water also diffuses from the higher concentration to the area of solute concentration. If suppose high concentration of salt solution that is Nacl is added to the cell the body will shrinks and dehydrates. And it also alters the swimming behaviour. By adding Nacl solution to the culture of paramecia, these Nacl solution elicited backward swimming in paramecia The paramecium recovers slowly from Na\' stimulation, typically whirling for several seconds before resuming forward swimming, and even then, forward swimming in Na+ is slow and interrupted frequently by repeated turns. By adding Nacl solution to the swimming paramecium it slowed their forward speed slightly.