Lysis
You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.
Please Take Over This Page and Apply to be Editor-In-Chief for this topic: There can be one or more than one Editor-In-Chief. You may also apply to be an Associate Editor-In-Chief of one of the subtopics below. Please mail us [1] to indicate your interest in serving either as an Editor-In-Chief of the entire topic or as an Associate Editor-In-Chief for a subtopic. Please be sure to attach your CV and or biographical sketch.
Lysis (Greek λύσις, lusis from luein = to separate) refers to the death of a cell by breaking of the cellular membrane, often by viral or osmotic mechanisms that compromise its integrity.[citation needed] A solution containing the contents of lysed cells is called a "lysate".
Applications
Cell lysis is used mostly in western blotting to analyse the composition of specific proteins, lipids and nucleic acids individually or as complexes. Depending upon the detergent that is used either all membranes are lysed or certain membranes are lysed, leaving other membranes intact. For example if the cell membrane only is lysed then gradient centrifugation can be used to collect certain organelles - nuclei, mitochondria, lysosomes, chloroplasts and endoplasmic reticulum. The isolated organelles can then be analysed by electron microscopy or western blotting.
Cytolysis
Cytolysis is the lysis of cells in a hypotonic environment. Cytolysis is caused by excessive osmosis, or movement of water, towards the inside of a cell (hyperhydration). The cell membrane cannot withstand the osmotic pressure of the water inside, and so it explodes. Osmosis occurs from a region of high water potential to a region of low water potential passing through a semipermeable membrane, so these bursting cells are located in hypotonic environments.
Cytolysis can be prevented by several different mechanisms, including the contractile vacuole that exists in some paramecia which rapidly pump water out of the system of the cell.
Cytolysis does not occur under normal conditions in plant cells because plant cells have a strong cell wall that contains the osmotic pressure, or turgor pressure, that would otherwise cause cytolysis to occur.
Plasmolysis
Plasmolysis is the contraction of cells within plants due to the loss of water through osmosis. In a hypertonic environment, the cell membrane peels off of the cell wall and the vacuole collapses. These cells will eventually wilt and die unless the flow of water caused by osmosis can stop the contraction of the cell membrane.
See also
Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content
Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
