Transport across cells

in living organisms
 Which bread do
you think has more
surface area?
What is surface area? What is
volume?
• SURFACE AREA: is the measure of the exposed area
or exposed surfaces of an object (cell).
• Surface area will determine the exchange of materials
between the cell and its environment.
• Bigger cells will metabolise more, but they will need
more surface to support that metabolism.

• VOLUME: the amount of space that is contained

within an object (cell). Volume determines the amount
metabolism in the cytoplasm.
 Unicellular vs multicellular
organisms
• Unicellular organisms are single-celled. Substances
can easily diffuse in and out of these cells. The
distance is very short between the environment and
inside the cell.
• Multicellular organisms e.g. humans, lizards, have
many cells which grow and divide. Substances have a
very long way to travel around the body of multicellular
organisms. The distance between the environment and
individual cells inside the body is very large.
• Diffusion alone cannot transport substances in and out
of multicellular organisms.
 BREAKOUT ROOMS –
Simulation Exercise
1. What is the surface area of the smallest cube?
Volume? S/V ratio?
2. What happens to the surface area as the cubes
get larger? What happens to the volume?
3. What happens to the S/V ratio as the cubes get
larger?
4. Proportionately, which grows faster: surface
area or volume? Explain.
5. Which cube has the largest surface area in
proportion to its volume? Explain.
• Diffusion is ______ and efficient
over _______ distances and
becomes ______ and inefficient
as distances become larger.
 Unicellular protist with a
cell size of 30nm.

Multicellular organism cell

measuring 100µm
 What is Surface Area to Volume
ratio? Why is it Important?

• Surface area to volume ratio is just the

surface area of a cell divided by its
volume.
What does this mean?
• It means that small
animals, like mice,
have a lot of skin on the
outside compared to a
small volume of bones,
blood, and internal
organs on the inside.
So a mouse or a baby
bird loses ______
rapidly.
• When an animal has a large volume (big
bones, muscles, lungs, digestive
system) the skin on the outside (the
surface area) gets progressively smaller
when it is compared to the volume
inside. This means that large animals
tend to maintain their temperatures and to
get cooler or warmer _______.  It is also
difficult for them to get rid of excess
body heat, for example, if they have
been running.
 CRITICAL THINKING!!!
• Explain why leaves are thin and flat.

• Why do elephants have large, flat ears?

• Explain why desert plants generally have

smaller leaves.

• Explain why roots have “hairs”.

 What is Surface Area to Volume
ratio? Why is it Important?

• In biology, the larger this number the better

for cells because that would mean that the
cell has a relatively large surface area
compared with its volume.

• This is important because it is one of the

factors that determines how _________
substances can diffuse into and out of the
cell.
• Generally the smaller the
cell, the larger the SA to
V ratio and the ______
the rate of diffusion.
• This is also why larger organisms
need more specialized transport
systems to carry substances to
certain parts- diffusion would be
too slow.
 Solving the Problem

•Bigger cells have a greater metabolism than

smaller cells
•BUT bigger cells have a proportionally less
surface for exchange
•How to increase surface area with increasing
size?
 Throw out extensions
Microvilli of
small intesti
ne epitheliu
m

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Multicellular organisms show
the same adaptations
•Flowering plants have an extensive, branched rooti
ng system to absorb water and minerals

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Multicellular organisms show
the same adaptations
•Mammals have a long
small intestine with internal
folding to absorb digested
food

C. Candalh, INSERM
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS