Compare and Contrast Process in Plants and Animals: Regulation of Body Fluids

All animals—regardless of habitat or type of waste produced— face the same need to balance water
uptake and loss. If water uptake is excessive, animal cells swell and burst; if water loss is substantial,
they shrivel and die.

OSMOREGULATION

Osmoregulation is the process by which an organism or a cell balances its uptake and loss of water and
dissolved solutes such as sodium ions, chlorine ions, potassium ions, calcium ions, bicarbonate ions, and
proteins. As you may remember, this process is associated with osmosis osmotic and osmotic pressure.
Thus, osmoregulation can be described as the adjustment of the internal osmotic pressure of organism
or a cell in relation with the surrounding medium.

In connection, there are two types of animals based on the osmolarity (solute concentration):
a. Osmoconformers – allow the osmolarity of their body fluids to match that of the environment. These
include most marine invertebrates because their body fluids are isosmotic to seawater, they expend
little or no energy on maintaining water balance.

b. Osmoregulators – keep the osmolarity of body fluids different from that of the environment through
discharging water in a hypotonic environment or they take in water in a hypertonic environment. These
include most marine vertebrates, birds, mammals in which they must expend more energy.

Marine Animals

•Most marine invertebrates are osmoconformers.

•Most marine vertebrates and some invertebrates are osmoregulators.
•Marine bony fishes are hypoosmotic to sea water. They lose water by osmosis and gain salt by diffusion
and from food.
•They balance water loss by drinking seawater and excreting salts

Freshwater Animals
•Freshwater animals constantly take in water by osmosis from their hypoosmotic environment.
•They lose salts by diffusion and maintain water balance by excreting large amounts of dilute urine.
•Salts lost by diffusion are replaced in foods and by uptake across the gills.

Excretion – the elimination of metabolic wastes including nitrogenous wastes produced from the
breakdown of proteins; this process also helps in the regulation of water and ion balance.

 Some animals convert toxic ammonia (NH3 ) to less toxic compounds prior to excretion.
Animals Excrete Different Forms of Nitrogenous Wastes

Ammonia –the primary nitrogenous waste for aquatic invertebrates, teleosts, and larval amphibians
o It is readily soluble in water but is also highly toxic
o It can be excreted from the body only in dilute solutions.

Urea –produced by mammals, most amphibians, some reptiles, some marine fishes, and some
terrestrial invertebrates
o It is formed by combining ammonia with bicarbonate ion (HCO3 )̄and converting the
product into urea
o Although its formation requires more energy compared to ammonia, it is about 100,000x
less toxic than ammonia
o Its excretion requires only about 10% as much water compared to ammonia

Uric Acid - Insects, land snails, and many reptiles, including birds, mainly excrete uric acid. Uric acid is
largely insoluble in water; can be secreted as a paste with little water loss. Uric acid is more
energetically expensive to produce than urea.

•The kinds of nitrogenous wastes excreted depend on an animal’s evolutionary history and habitat.
•The amount of nitrogenous waste is coupled to the animal’s energy budget.

HOW ANIMALS EXCRETE WASTE?

Among the invertebrates, there are several ways of removing their waste products and there are
corresponding systems and organs responsible for it, namely:
 Cell surface or cell membrane – allows passage of wastes in unicellular organisms.
 Contractile vacuole – a specialized cytoplasmic organelle in many freshwater protists (e.g.
Paramecium) that expels excess water out of the cell to prevent lysis)
 Protonephridia or Flame Bulb System – a network of tubules that lack internal openings but
have external openings at the body surface called nephridiopores. Examples of such are the
Platyhelminthes (Planaria), rotifers, and some annelids.
 o A protonephridium is a network of dead-end tubules connected to external openings.
o The smallest branches of the network are capped by a cellular unit called a flame bulb.
o These tubules excrete a dilute fluid and function in osmoregulation
A. The smallest branches of the tubule network end with a large cell called a flame bulb
or cell
B. Water and solutes in body fluids enter the flame cell and get filtered
C. Specific molecules and ions are removed by reabsorption while other ions and
nitrogenous wastes are released into the tubule network and excreted via the
nephridiopore

 Metanephridia – the excretory tubule of most annelids and adult mollusks. The tubular network
has a funnel-like internal opening called a nephrostome that collects body fluids. One popular
example is the earthworm.
o Each segment of an earthworm has a pair of open-ended metanephridia.
o Metanephridia consist of tubules that collect coelomic fluid and produce dilute urine for
excretion.

o As the body fluids move through the network, some molecules and ions are reabsorbed
while other ions and nitrogenous wastes are secreted into the tubule
o The bladder stores the nitrogenous wastes as urine and later on excreted from the body
surface via the nephridiopore

 Malpighian Tubules – the excretory tubules of insects and other terrestrial arthropods attached
to their digestive tract (midgut);
o The tubules have ends that are immersed in the hemolymph (circulatory fluid) while the
distal ends empty into the gut
o Malpighian tubules do not filter body fluids; instead they employ secretion to generate
the fluid for release from the body
 o In particular, they help actively secrete uric acid and ions like Na+ and K+ into the
tubules, allowing the water to move osmotically from the hemolymph into the tubule

o The fluid then passes into the hindgut (intestine and rectum) of the insect as dilute urine

o Reabsorption of ions and water occurs in the hindgut wall, causing the formation of uric
acid crystals that are released with the feces

o In insects and other terrestrial arthropods, Malpighian tubules remove nitrogenous

wastes from hemolymph and function in osmoregulation.

o Insects produce a relatively dry waste matter, an important adaptation to terrestrial

life

Excretory systems regulate solute movement between internal fluids and the external environment.
Most excretory systems produce urine by refining a filtrate derived from body fluids.
Key functions of most excretory systems:
o Filtration: pressure-filtering of body fluids
o Reabsorption: reclaiming valuable solutes
o Secretion: adding toxins and other solutes from the body fluids to the filtrate
o Excretion: removing the filtrate from the system
Kidneys : Nephrons = the Functional Unit

•Kidneys = excretory organs of vertebrates, function in both excretion and osmoregulation.

•Mammalian excretory systems center on paired kidneys, which are also the principal site of water
balance and salt regulation.
•Each kidney is supplied with blood by a renal artery and drained by a renal vein.
o Urine exits each kidney through a duct called the ureter.
o Both ureters drain into a common urinary bladder, and urine is expelled through a urethra

•The nephron = the functional unit of the vertebrate kidney, consists of a single long tubule and a ball of
capillaries called the glomerulus.
•Bowman’s capsule surrounds and receives filtrate from the glomerulus capillaries

Filtration : Glomerulus --> Bowman’s Capsule

•Filtration occurs as blood pressure = hydrostatic pressure forces fluid from the blood in the glomerulus
to lumen of Bowman’s capsule.
•Filtration of small molecules is nonselective.
•The filtrate contains salts, glucose, amino acids, vitamins, nitrogenous wastes, and other small
molecules

Pathway of the Filtrate

•From Bowman’s capsule, the filtrate passes through three regions of the nephron: the proximal tubule
--> loop of Henle --> distal tubule…
•Fluid from several nephrons flows into a collecting duct ---> renal pelvis ---> ureter.
•Cortical nephrons are confined to the renal cortex, while juxtamedullary nephrons have loops of Henle
that descend into the renal medulla

Adaptations of the Vertebrate Kidney to Diverse Environments

•The form and function of nephrons in various vertebrate classes are related to requirements for
osmoregulation in the animal’s habitat.
Mammals
•The juxtamedullary nephron contributes to water conservation in terrestrial animals.
•Mammals that inhabit dry environments have long loops of Henle, while those in fresh water have
relatively short loops.

Birds and Other Reptiles

•Birds have shorter loops of Henle but conserve water by excreting uric acid instead of urea.
•Other reptiles have only cortical nephrons but also excrete nitrogenous waste as uric acid

Freshwater Fishes, Amphibians, Marine Bony Fishes

o Freshwater fishes conserve salt in their distal tubules and excrete large volumes of dilute urine.
o Kidney function in amphibians is similar to freshwater fishes. Amphibians conserve water on land by
reabsorbing water from the urinary bladder.
o Marine bony fishes are hypoosmotic compared with their environment and excrete very little urine

HOW PLANTS EXCRETE WASTE?

Plants as a living organism are known for their production of relatively little waste because they have
less active metabolism as compared to animals. Stomata are the tiny openings found at the back portion
of the leaf to allow the entrance of water and carbon dioxide into the plant, and light can combine with
both molecules making photosynthesis to happen. At the same time, the waste products, oxygen, can
escape through the stomata.