Welcome, everyone.

This video is going to discuss Aquaporins

and Osmosis.
In the previous video we talked about
transport channels in membranes in a
general way.
And in this video we're going to talk
about a specific example.
The example of water transport using a
membrane protein called an aquaporin.
Here is a representation of what an
aquaporin molecule looks like.
If we were going to draw in the lipid
bilayer around
it, it would go something like this.
You can see that an aquaporin channel is
complicated.
The different colors represent different
proteins that
actually are bound together to create the
channel.
You could see that there's a hydrophobic
region of the
protein that it corresponds to the inside
of the lipid bi-layerr.
That's a hydrophobic region.
And a polar region of the membrane
protein that corresponds to the more water
loving inside or outside of the cell.
This aquaporin molecule, if you looked at
it from above
kind down into the pore, would actually
look rather solid.
It consists of four proteins that are
bound together with very few holes between
them.
And each one has a very small pore in the
middle that allows the water
molecule to pass through.
So they're actually a four channels in
each aquaporin molecule.
And the rest of the protein is actually
pretty solid and very little can pass.
And if you were looking from above, the
heads of the phospholipids would be
nearby, like this.
'Kay?
Tired of drawing, you get the idea.
So, this is an example of an actual
transport protein that transports
water in and out of the membrane Here is a
video that was produced
by the University of Illinois in their
Center for Macro molecular Modeling and
Bioinformatics.
That attempts to show you what it's like
for a water molecule to actually cross the
membrane.
Here again we have a lipid bilayer on each
side.
You can see this white molecule represents
the aquaporin.
And all of our little red and white
balls represent water molecules.
And I want you to pay particular attention
to
this yellow water molecule here while I
start the video.
Because what this video is trying to point
out to you is
that the movement of water across a
membrane is a very random process.
There's nothing sucking water in or
pushing water in or out.
It's completely based on the random motion
of molecules.
And if the concentration of water
molecules is high outside compared to
inside.
Then the net movement of water molecules
will be in.
So if we watch our poor little yellow
water molecule.
We can see it's just bouncing around.
Maybe it's going to make it in, maybe it's
not.
Oh, the drama.
Oh, and there.
The water molecule made it into the cell.
So that gives you an idea of the
complexity of the system that we're
actually dealing with.
Now, aquaporins are present in all cells.
And you can imagine a red blood cell with
aquaporin
channels in it like this.
And water is flowing in and
out of tissues and cells at all points.
In all organisms.
So you would think that the movement of
water will be a relatively straightforward
sort of topic.
And that introductory students would do
okay with
the language and the discussion of water
movement.
But it turns out that a lot of students
have a lot of misconceptions about the
words and
the definitions involved and have a lot of
trouble on exam.
So what I'm going to do is take
you through how introductory students are
often confused.
So that you have an opportunity to work
through that
and fix the problem before you even start
taking a class.
So, in a regular introductory Biology
class, the topic would come up as osmosis.
[INAUDIBLE]
.
The idea of diffusion of water across a
membrane.
So the slide comes up.
It defines osmosis.
You can even stop the video now.
Write down this definition.
Then it goes to a picture like this one,
and
they say okay, here's a tube, it's open at
both ends.
There are sugar molecules and a higher
concentration over here.
And water moves from high water
concentration to low water concentration.
And they showed these water molecules
moving like this.
And students go sure, okay.
Water moves high concentration, low
concentration, salts, sure.
And students feel pretty good about that.
They get some more definition words,
isotonic, hypertonic, hypotonic.
Little bit intimidating.
They stop, they write these down, they
study
'em, they make flash cards, they do okay.
They get to a picture like this one, and
the instructor says, all right.
If you put a cell in an isotonic
solution, then the net movement of water
in to and out of the cell is equal.
If you put cells in a hypotonic solution.
And that movement of water is across
aquaporins into the cell.
The cell gets bigger and bigger.
The cell lysed or breaks open.
If you put cells into a hyptertonic
solution, then
that movement of water is out of the
cells.
The cells get smaller and smaller and
shrivel up.
And students are good.
They see this picture, they study this
picture, they
remember hypotonic, cells get bigger,
hypertonic, cells get smaller.
And maybe you see where this is going.
I'm going to actually have you take a
little in-video quiz right now to
see what you would answer to the standard
question that we give students.
Okay?
So go ahead and do that, and I'll
join you after the quiz.
Okay, welcome back.
The standard question is what does
hypertonic mean,
and you can see, and maybe you answered
this.
But I'll let you know that generally when
asked what does hypertonic mean.
Students answer, hypertonic means cells
shrink.
And it's not that that's not often true.
If you put cells in a hypertonic solution
they do shrink.
But the problem is, students don't know
why cells shrink.
They don't
know what hyper means.
They don't know what tonic means.
They don't understand what exactly is
going on.
And so when we give them an exam question
that looks like this.
They start to read through it and go
salamanders.
Oh, don't know.
Saline.
Cells grow smaller and they say oh, I
know.
Cells grow smaller, that's hypertonic.
And when they look for the answers, they
see hypertonic, they circle a.
And they get the question wrong.
And it's not a first question.
And we'll talk more about why, maybe in
the peer assessment.
You could talk about it on the discussion
boards.
But it is important for you to go beyond
hypertonic mean cells shrink.
So, let's take the cells out of the
equation
alltogeether and just make a tank of
water, okay.
We have a tank of water.
We'll have a membrane coming down the
middle here.
We've got little aqua porins in the
membrane.
And if we put some solute on one side of
the membrane, say side A.
Then we've now created a comparison
between two solutes.
And in a comparison the side with more
solute is hypertonic.
And the side with fewer solutes is
hypotonic.
That makes sense.
Now, because water can
cross this membrane but the solutes
cannot.
I specially designed it so only water can
pass the memberane.
Water is going to move from the high
water concentration to the low water
concentration.
So, that what happens is the total amount
of water here
goes up, and the total amount of water
there goes down.
Water follows solutes.
Water moves from high concentration to low
concentration.
Water moves from hypotonic to hypertonic.
See how all of those words have nothing
to do with cells shrinking?
So it's important for you to think bigger
than that one
picture that just showed red blood cells
getting bigger and smaller.
For a definition, I usually tell students
to think that hyper means more.
And tonic in this case, it means the
ability
to attract water, that's kind of its
actual definition.
But the one that works just fine for
introductory biology is if you think
of tonic as meaning solutes.
The places with most solutes is
hypertonic.
The place with less solutes is hypotonic.
OK?
I think those definitions will help you
more as you
go ahead in your biology study than just
cell shrink.
Alright.
That's the end of our
video today.
If you're only interested in basics, you
can work
on these particular facts before you take
the quiz.
If you're interested in a higher level of
understanding, you can work
on these higher level application
questions
before you do the peer assessments.
And thanks for watching.