1.

Why cell wall and cell membrane are called completely permeable and selectively permeable respectively?

Answer»

A cell wall provides structure for plant and bacterial cells, is most definitely semi-permeable in plants, allowing small molecules and proteins to pass through based on size, anything under about 30 Kilodaltons. Then the membrane manages the actual transfer of materials to the interior of the cell. However, the cell wall provides low-level nutrients like water and carbon dioxide to flow directly into the cell, and excretion of low-level substances like oxygen to leave the cell. For a plant cell there is a cell membrane INSIDE the cell wall.

Higher level organisms like animals do not have a cell wall, just a cell membrane. For these cells, the cell membrane also manages the movement of water, CO2 and oxygen in and out of the cell, and for all plant and animal cells the membrane is usually "selectively" permeable to specific preferred ions and organic molecules, and has lipid-protein complexes embedded in it to assist in the transfer of other molecules into the cell that the membrane is not initially permeable to. In this sense, a cell membrane is semi-permeable as well.

cell wall is called completely permeable as it allows nothing to pass through it but cell membrane allows only some particles which are of the size of its pores to pass through it.



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