Plasmolysing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causing a plant cell to lose water so its contents shrink and pull away from the cell wall in a biological process
2. Drawing water out of a living cell until the protoplast contracts and separates from the surrounding wall
3. Shrinking a cell's interior by osmosis so that the membrane detaches from the rigid outer wall of the cell

Etymology: Plasmolysis is built from two Greek roots: "plasma", meaning something moulded or formed, and "lysis", meaning loosening or breaking apart. The name describes what happens when a living cell is placed in a strongly salty or sugary solution. Water leaves the cell through its membrane, the cytoplasm shrinks away from the cell wall, and the cell appears to come apart from its own casing. The verb "plasmolyse" takes the noun and turns it into an action, so "plasmolysing" is the form describing that process as it is happening. Plant biologists use the term for the state of a cell that has lost water in this way, and the reverse process, in which water returns and the cell swells again, is called deplasmolysis.