Concept explainers
To analyze:
The factors responsible for influencing the membrane fluidity apart from the temperature.
Given:
An experiment to comparatively study the fluidity and composition of cell membranes was conducted by the researchers. They maintained different animals like arctic sculpin at 0°C, a group of goldfish at 5°C, other group of goldfish at 25°C, desert pupfish at 34°C, and rats at normal temperature of 21°C. They incubated these animals for several days and then extracted the membranes of the neuronal cells of all these animals.
Researchers added a fluorescent molecule to each of the extracted membranes and incubated these membranes at 20°C. Fluorescence was measured and a graph was plotted by them which indicated the fluorescence against the body temperature of each of the animals.
The following graph depicted the fluorescence of each animal at different temperatures. The more the value of fluorescence, the less will be the movement of molecules depicting a less fluid membrane.
The following table was drawn by the researchers showing the ratio of saturated-to-unsaturated fatty acids in the phospholipid phosphatidyl choline for different animals taken into consideration.
Introduction:
Fatty acids present in the membrane can be saturated or unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids do not constitute double bond and have no scope of addition of any molecule. Unsaturated fatty acids are those which comprise of double or triple bonds that have scope of addition of molecules and help in increasing the fluidity of the membrane. In cold temperatures, the amounts of unsaturated fatty acids are high to prevent the membrane from getting frozen and death of the organism.
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 6 Solutions
Life: The Science of Biology
- List the means of unassisted membrane transport.arrow_forwardWhat is membrane fluidity?arrow_forwardWhich of the following factors would tend to increase membrane fluidity? A greater proportion of unsaturated phospholipids A relatively high protein content in the membrane A greater proportion of saturated phospholipids A lower temperaturearrow_forward
- Describe the two ways that the cell can increase/decrease membrane fluidity.arrow_forwardWhat effect might a solvent such as ethanol have on membrane permeability? Explain your answer using ideas about membrane structure.arrow_forwardDescribe the passive processes of membrane transport, including simple diffusion, facilitated diffusion, and osmosis.arrow_forward
- The intracellular salt content of a red blood cell is about 150 mM. The cell is put in a 500 mM salt beaker. (a) Describe what will happen to the cell in terms of osmosis if the cell membrane is permeable to water but not to ions. (b) Which direction would solutes diff use if the membrane was permeable to ions: into or out of the cell?arrow_forwardDescribe the chemical composition of membranes. What are the two most critical functions of membranes? What contributes to membrane fluidity and rigidity? Explain Diffusion. What are the differences between Osmosis and Dialysis? Explain the differences between Iso, Hypo, and Hypertonic conditions. If the solutions is Hypertonic then the cell would be?arrow_forwardDefine osmosis and solve simple problems involving osmosis; for example, predict whether cells will swell or shrink under various osmotic conditions.arrow_forward
- The distribution of water is determined by solute concentrations. A hypertonic solution would cause a body cell to shrink in size. Both statements are true. Both statements are false. The first statement is true and the second statement is false. The first statement is false and the second statement is true. Spaced practice question: Consider a membrane protein and its chemistry. Which of the following would describe a channel protein? It is an inorganic compound. It is an example of a globular (functional) protein. It is stable when exposed to an acidic environment. It is an example of a fibrous (structural) protein.arrow_forwardWhy the composition of biological membrane varies ? Should it be helpful in membrane physiology ?arrow_forwardList the following from which is MOST permeable to LEAST permeable to an intact cell membrane water glucose RNA Na+ >arrow_forward
- Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems (MindTap ...BiologyISBN:9781285866932Author:Lauralee SherwoodPublisher:Cengage Learning