1. Short answer (8pts each, 2 sentences max) A. How does the saturation of lipid
ID: 198399 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Short answer (8pts each, 2 sentences max) A. How does the saturation of lipid tailgroups affect a membrane's fluidity? B. Why don't cells have membrane transporters to build gradients of O2? C. Your lab recently purchased a 30-inch monitor, & your friend claims now they can enlarge all images obtained using a light microscope to distinguish objects that are less than 0.1 m apart. Is she right? Please provide your reasoning. D. Why is C. elegans a useful model organism for studying cell development?Explanation / Answer
1.A
he composition of a membrane can also affect its fluidity. The membrane phospholipids incorporate fatty acids of varying length and saturation. Lipids with shorter chains are less stiff and less viscous because they are more susceptible to changes in kinetic energy due to their smaller molecular size and they have less surface area to undergo stabilizing van der Waals interactions with neighboring hydrophobic chains. Lipid chains with carbon-carbon double bonds (unsaturated) are more fluid than lipids that are saturated with hydrogens and thus have only single bonds. On the molecular level, unsaturated double bonds make it harder for the lipids to pack together by putting kinks into the otherwise straightened hydrocarbon chain. Membranes made with such lipids have lower melting points: less thermal energy is required to achieve the same level of fluidity as membranes made with lipids with saturated chains.
B.
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