In the extremities of some arctic animals and cold water fowl (e.g., reindeer pa

Question

In the extremities of some arctic animals and cold water fowl (e.g., reindeer paws, duck feet) tissues near the surface are maintained at temperatures significantly below that of the body core. Of course this means that the cells in those tissues must function normally at lower temperatures than the cells of the same tissues elsewhere in the animal. An obvious problem for a cell functioning at low temperature is maintaining the fluidity of its membranes. Which changes in the composition of membranes would allow them to maintain fluidity (keep them from solidifying) at low temperatures? 0 Increase the length of the fatty acid chains and increase the % of unsaturated C-C bonds O Increase the length of the fatty acid chains and decrease the % of unsaturated C-C bonds O Decrease the length of the fatty acid chains and decrease the % of unsaturated C-C bonds o Decrease the length of the fatty acid chains and increase the % of unsaturated C-C bonds Submit Answer Tries o/3

Explanation / Answer

In biology membrane fluidity refers to the viscosity of the lipids. Since, membrane is made up of phospholipids, the minimum interaction between these phospholipids is going to increase the fluidity of the membrane.

Here decreasing the length of fatty acid chain and increasing the % of unsaturated fatty acid is going to increase the fluidity of the membrane.

Because larger the membrane more will be the interaction and if phospholipids will be saturated there will be a linear alignment and chances of interaction increases and thus fluidity of the membrane decreases.

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