Chapter 6, Problem 4Q

Summary Introduction

To analyze:

The ratio of Saturated acid to unsaturated fatty acid in the ethanolamine phospholipids of an animal, given that the fluorescence of membrane probe is 0.27.

Given:

Fluorescence of membrane probe is 0.27. The fluorescence of the membrane probes from different animals was recorded in Figure 1 as a graph. The graph represents the fluorescence with respect to a set of temperature ranging from 0°C to 37°C.

Figure 1: A graph representing the level of fluorescence against the animal’s body temperature.

The ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids in different animals, against a particular temperature is provided in the following Table 1 below:

Table 1: The ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids in different animals

Introduction:

The saturated fatty acids are those that have single bonds in hydrocarbon chains, unlike the unsaturated fatty acids that have double or triple bonds in their hydrocarbon chains. The ethanolamine is a phospholipid that is generally present in the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane. The hydrocarbon chain of the ethanolamine phospholipid contains more concentration of unsaturated fatty acids when the temperature of the membrane is low. The ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids is used by the researchers to find out the flexibility and the composition of the plasma membrane. The information also provides the range of the temperatures at which the organisms can operate their biological functions.