Question

How do the unsaturated fatty acids in phospholipids affect the structure of cell membranes?

Answer 1

Unsaturated fatty acids are a component of the phospholipids in cell membranes and help maintain membrane fluidity. The Phospholipids contain a variety of unsaturated fatty acids, when compressed, the “kinks” in their tails push adjacent phospholipid molecules away, that helps in maintain fluidity in the membrane. Unsaturated fatty acids have at least one double bond, creating a "kink" in the chain, the absence of double bonds decreases fluidity, making the membrane very strong and stacked tightly.

The ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids determines the fluidity in the membrane at a temperature, at appropriate temperatures the phospholipids have enough kinetic energy to overcome the intermolecular forces holding the membrane together, which increases membrane fluidity.

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