osmoregulators

(noun)

is the active regulation of the fluid balance and the concentration of electrolytes (salts in solution) to keep the fluids from becoming too diluted or too concentrated.

Related Terms

Examples of osmoregulators in the following topics:

  • Osmoregulators and Osmoconformers

    • Aquatic organisms with various salt tolerances adapt to their environments through osmoregulation and osmoconformation.
    • Fish are osmoregulators, but must use different mechanisms to survive in (a) freshwater or (b) saltwater environments.

  • Introduction to Osmoregulation

    • Osmoregulation balances concentrations of solutes and water across semi-permeable membranes, maintaining homeostasis.
    • Osmotic regulation, or osmoregulation, keeps these solutes at the ideal concentrations.
    • Osmoregulation is the process of maintenance of salt and water balance (osmotic balance) across membranes within the body's fluids, which are composed of water plus electrolytes and non-electrolytes.
    • Osmoconformers are marine animals which, in contrast to osmoregulators, maintain the osmolarity of their body fluids such that it is always equal to the surrounding seawater.
    • Excess electrolytes and wastes that result from osmoregulation are transported to the kidneys and excreted.

  • Osmoregulation

    • Osmoregulation is the process by which living things regulate the effects of osmosis in order to protect cellular integrity.
    • Various living things have ways of controlling the effects of osmosis—a mechanism called osmoregulation.

  • Other Hormonal Controls for Osmoregulation

  • Overview of the Urinary System

    • The kidneys play a very large role in human osmoregulation by regulating the amount of water reabsorbed from the glomerular filtrate in kidney tubules, which is controlled by hormones such as antidiuretic hormone (ADH), renin, aldosterone, and angiotensin I and II.

  • Concept of Osmolality and Milliequivalent

    • Osmoregulation maintains body fluids in a range of 280 to 300 mOsm.

  • Steroids

    • Cholesterol also plays a role in synthesizing the steroid hormones aldosterone, which is used for osmoregulation, and cortisol, which plays a role in metabolism.

  • Osmotic Pressure

    • Osmoregulation is the homeostasis mechanism of an organism to reach balance in osmotic pressure.

  • Circumventricular Organs

  • Two-Component Regulatory Systems

    • In E. coli the EnvZ/OmpR osmoregulation system controls the differential expression of the outer membrane porin proteins OmpF and OmpC.
    • Examples of histidine kinases are EnvZ, which plays a central role in osmoregulation, and CheA, which plays a central role in the chemotaxis system.