Paramecium is a unicellular organism that lives in fresh water. Suppose you are studying two populations of this organism. One population lives in a pond in a cold environment, and the other lives in a pond in a warm environment.

If you examined the fatty acids in plasma membranes of both of these populations, what difference would you expect to find?

a) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be shorter and less saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

b) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be longer but less saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

c) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be shorter and more saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

d) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be longer and more saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

Question

Biology

Dorian Howard

27 May, 02:11

Paramecium is a unicellular organism that lives in fresh water. Suppose you are studying two populations of this organism. One population lives in a pond in a cold environment, and the other lives in a pond in a warm environment.

If you examined the fatty acids in plasma membranes of both of these populations, what difference would you expect to find?

a) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be shorter and less saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

b) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be longer but less saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

c) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be shorter and more saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

d) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be longer and more saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

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Answers (1)

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Katherine Lee · Answer 1

Answer : b) The fatty acid tails from the cold environment would generally be longer but less saturated compared to fatty acids from the warm environment.

Explanation:

this is because the longer and unsaturated the chains are, the more the insulation they provide, in the plasma membrane to maintain relatively constant internal environment in the poikilothermic environment.

Generally, the more unsaturated (cis / trans configuration) and longer a carbon - hydrogen chain is in a fatty acid the more the heat energy it will generate.