Water is the source of life on our planet. Her role is so great that you can’t list everything. Imagine what our life would be like without the same H2O molecule? It's simple, it would be completely absent, because a man is ninety percent water. Even when examining other planets, scientists are primarily looking for water, and in any of its state of aggregation. Since life originated in it.
We decided to devote today's work to such a topic as the role of water in the cell. What are its functions? We will try to explain all this very clearly in this article. Let's get to work, the first question we will outline the role and importance of water for all living organisms, and for a single cell.
Water is the source of life
The title of this section already says a lot about the meaning of H2O. But still, we will talk about this a little more. To begin with, this is one of the most amazing substances on our planet. The land is almost completely covered by water, the land area is less than half. There is no pure water in nature, and it cannot be, but it is obtained artificially. It has no smell, no color, no taste. In nature, by mass, one can distinguish the following regularity of the composition of water:
- 11.19 percent hydrogen;
- 88.81 percent oxygen.
If we take natural water, then it represents the collection of many chemical compounds, which are based on salts. In addition to salts, there are gases. At the moment, 2/3 of the periodic table have already been identified in sea water. With the growth of technological progress, the rest may come to light.
What is the role of water in the cell? To begin with, we note that its percentage ratio can be from 40 to 98 percent. Her role, functions, we will note a little later.
Water molecules
Before we note the role of water in the cell, let's talk a little about the molecule itself. H2O is the most common compound of our planet. Water is contained everywhere, only in different percentages, that is, its amount is different. For example, take tooth enamel and a developing embryo, for example, water takes 10 and 90 percent, respectively.
It is important to know that in the human body it is more than 60 percent, and the content in the young body is much higher. TAKE in the baby's body is more than 70 percent of the fluid. People have long wondered why we are aging and not living forever. So one of the hypotheses appeared: the body is aging, since proteins cannot bind a large amount of water.
Everywhere in the human body there is water:
- bones - 20 percent;
- brain - 80 percent;
- liver - 80 percent;
- muscle - 80 percent.
It is important to know that the basis of life is metabolism, and without water, neither protein, nor carbohydrate, nor fat, and so on are possible. Based on the foregoing, we can already distinguish the role of water in the cell, not even one. We will list them right now.
Functions
So, the water in the cell performs the following functions:
- maintains the elasticity of the cell, for example, if the cells lose fluid, the fruits of trees and shrubs can dry out and the leaves wither;
- water is involved in the process of removing harmful elements and in the movement of substances;
- water contributes to the rapid occurrence of chemical reactions, since many substances are able to dissolve in it;
- dissolution of salts and sugar;
- direct participation in the process of thermoregulation, as water is able to slowly heat up and cool.
Based on this, it can be argued that water in the cell is simply necessary. She participates in all vital processes occurring in the human body and other living creatures of our planet.
Free water
It is also important to know that the water in the cell can be in two forms:
Now we will consider in detail each of these species. In this section, we consider free, which approximately occupies 95 percent of the water in the cell. It is used as a solvent, but we will also talk about this in more detail a little later. Another purpose is the environment for protoplasm. But there is also the purpose of H2O in the cell - the elimination of unnecessary substances. As we mentioned earlier, water is involved in the process of thermoregulation, it absorbs heat and does not allow the temperature of the cell to make sudden jumps.
Bound water
Now about another form, which takes up only 5 percent of the water in the cell. Bound water is able to bind to proteins via hydrogen or other bonds. It is important to know that this compound is not very strong.
It is also called immobilized, it is part of the fibrillar structure of the molecule. We also clarify that bound water can combine with positively and negatively charged proteins, this is due to the fact that the charge distribution is asymmetric, and the molecule acts as a diapole.
We mentioned that water is in the human body and its distribution is uneven, but did not say anything about the time of its full renewal. It depends on the environment and climate to which the body is adapted. For example:
- amoeba - 7 days;
- person - 28 days;
- camel - 90 days;
- turtle - 1 year;
- cactus - 30 years old.
Solvent
Water plays a rather large role in the life of the cell. We talked about the fact that water is a universal solvent, for this we must thank the polarity and ability to form a hydrogen bond. So, it can dissolve both ionic compounds (salt, acid) and non-ionic (alcohol, sugar, amino acid). They are at least non-ionic, but polar, and substances contain charged groups.