Question

A student presented a project on how red blood cells react when placed in specific solutions. The project further described how these red blood cells shrivel (wrinkle) when placed in salt water. Based on this project, which type of cellular transport was the student MOST LIKELY investigating?

Answer 1

Passive transport- Osmosis

The salt solution is hypertonic to the red blood cells. Water will diffuse out from the red blood cell(high water potential) to the salt solution(low water potential) down the water potential gradient via osmosis.

Thus, the red blood cell shriveled.

There is no energy(ATP) required in this cellular transport.