Organisms which cannot control their internal body temperature must adapt to the temperature of the environment in which they find themselves. One adaptation is to change the fatty acid composition of cell membranes, in order to maintain the same degree of membrane fluidity at different temperatures. If you grow E. coli at higher temperatures than usual, how might the membrane composition change?

a) Would the membranes have more or less unsaturated fatty acids? How and why

would this affect membrane fluidity?

b) Would the membranes have shorter or longer fatty acid chain lengths? How and why

would this affect membrane fluidity?

Question

Sam Golden

Biology

2 December, 22:17

Organisms which cannot control their internal body temperature must adapt to the temperature of the environment in which they find themselves. One adaptation is to change the fatty acid composition of cell membranes, in order to maintain the same degree of membrane fluidity at different temperatures. If you grow E. coli at higher temperatures than usual, how might the membrane composition change?

a) Would the membranes have more or less unsaturated fatty acids? How and why

would this affect membrane fluidity?

b) Would the membranes have shorter or longer fatty acid chain lengths? How and why

would this affect membrane fluidity?

+5

Answers (1)

Know the Answer?

Taco · Answer 1

Fatty acid composition of the plasma membrane changes with change in temperature.

Explanation:

a. If the E. coli is grown at high temperature, the membrane will have less unsaturated fatty acids. This is to maintain the fluidity at high temperature. Presence of cholesterol is also doing the same function, it also maintains the fluidity at high temperature.

b. At high temperature, the membrane will have longer fatty acid chains. Longer chain length increases the interactions and thus decreases the fluidity or maintains the fluidity at high temperature.