Membrane fluidity is a measurement of the viscosity of the lipid bilayer. The factors that affect membrane fluidity are temperature, double bonds of unsaturated phospholipids, and the amount of cholesterol.
The membranes in winter wheat are able to remain fluid in extremely cold temperatures because they contain an increased proportion of UNSATURATED PHOSPHOLIPIDS.
Unsaturated fatty acids that form phospholipids have at least one double bond, maintaining thus bilayer fluidity by reducing the packing between phospholipids.
As temperature increases, membrane fluidity increases because it decreases intermolecular interactions between components of the lipid bilayer.
