page_title: Crenation
hierarchical_section_title: Crenation
caption_attribution_description: Crenate
context_page_description: Crenation in botany and zoology, describes an object's shape, especially a leaf or shell, as being round-toothed or having a scalloped edge.
  The descriptor can apply to objects of different types, including cells, where one mechanism of crenation is the contraction of a cell after exposure to a hypertonic solution, due to the loss of water through osmosis. In a hypertonic environment, the cell has a lower concentration of solutes than the surrounding extracellular fluid, and water diffuses out of the cell by osmosis, causing the cytoplasm to decrease in volume. As a result, the cell shrinks and the cell membrane develops abnormal notchings. Pickling cucumbers and salt-curing of meat are two practical applications of crenation.
  Plasmolysis is the term which describes plant cells when the cytoplasm shrinks from the cell wall in a hypertonic environment. In plasmolysis, the cell wall stays intact, but the plasma membrane shrinks and the chloroplasts of the plant cell concentrate in the center of the cell.
context_section_description: Crenation (from modern Latin crenatus meaning 'scalloped or notched', from popular Latin crena meaning 'notch') in botany and zoology, describes an object's shape, especially a leaf or shell, as being round-toothed or having a scalloped edge.
  The descriptor can apply to objects of different types, including cells, where one mechanism of crenation is the contraction of a cell after exposure to a hypertonic solution, due to the loss of water through osmosis. In a hypertonic environment, the cell has a lower concentration of solutes than the surrounding extracellular fluid, and water diffuses out of the cell by osmosis, causing the cytoplasm to decrease in volume. As a result, the cell shrinks and the cell membrane develops abnormal notchings. Pickling cucumbers and salt-curing of meat are two practical applications of crenation.
  Plasmolysis is the term which describes plant cells when the cytoplasm shrinks from the cell wall in a hypertonic environment. In plasmolysis, the cell wall stays intact, but the plasma membrane shrinks and the chloroplasts of the plant cell concentrate in the center of the cell.
caption: Diagram of a crenated leaf
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