Please help me, I am deeply confused in this class and trying so hard to underst

Question

Please help me, I am deeply confused in this class and trying so hard to understand. Please give detailed answers. I know some of these might be confusing but your help will really help me learn. The teacher requires very very detailed answers and he gives nearly no (and I mean literally nearly zero) partial credit so I'm dying here. Thank you sooooooo much, you have no idea.

Also, I am nearly leaglly blind and I am dyslexic so if you could please write clear it would help so much. I just want to learn like everyone else. SUPER SUPER THANK YOU

4. You are a member of an expedition to study bacteria X that is found living in Antarctica. In the middle of your studies of this bacteria, a colleague of yours discovers that the same species of bacteria living in the soil in Cambridge. To begin your investigation into the similarities and differences of these two bacterial populations, you decide to look at the composition of lipids in the plasma membrane of bacteria X for both samples derived from Antarctica and Cambridge. (5 pts total) a) What differences in composition do you expect to observe and why? [2 ptl You can use Activity 6.2 (www.Life11e.com/ac6.2) to help model this question. b) Why is it mpotant for cells to maintain membrane fluidity? [1 ptl c) You further observe that the membrane composition of this bacteria X that is found living in Cambridge is more similar to that of the inner membrane of the mitochondria within human cells than the outer membranes of the mitochondria. Why do you think this is the case? [1 ptl d) Moreover, why might mitochondria and other organelles maintain different lipid membrane compositions compared to one another and compared to the plasma membrane? [1 pt]

Explanation / Answer

a) Increase in temperature increases the membrane fluidity and lowering of temperature causes the fluid like membrane structure to be gel like. Fluidity of lipid layer depends on the chain length and the degree of unsaturation of its fatty acid residues. Increased proportionn of unsaturated to saturated fatty acid in the membrane increases the fluidity of bilayer at the reduced temperature

b) Fluidity of the membrane is required for the normal cell growth and function, depends on lipid composition and temperature. Cholesterol determines the membrane fluidity.

At high temperature cholesterol interfers with the movement of the phospholipid fatty acid chains, making the membrane less fluid but at low temperature it interferes with the interaction between fatty acid chains and prevents membrane from freezing.

At high concentrations found in eukaryotic plasma membranes, cholesterol tends to make the membrane less fluid at growth temperatures near 37 degree celsius.

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