Salahaddin 

University 
Science College 
Chemistry Department

Effect of temperature on the membrane nature

Name: Rayan Jalal Kareem

Group: D

1
Introduction

Generally, cell membranes are phospholipid bilayers that are usually visualized by the fluid
mosaic model consisting of proteins, carbohydrates and glycoproteins that are able to move
around relatively freely amongst the phospholipids. The phospholipids have polar heads, which
are hydrophilic, and non-polar tails which are hydrophobic. Generally, increasing the
temperature increases membrane permeability. At temperatures below 0 oC the phospholipids in
the membrane don't have much energy and so they can't move much, which means that they're
closely packed together and the membrane is rigid. Between 0 oC and 45 oC the permeability
increases as phospholipids start to move around more, as they have more energy, and therefore
they're no longer as tightly packed, meaning that the membrane is partially permeable. At
temperatures about 45 oC the phospholipid bilayer starts to melt and the membrane becomes
more permaeable. Water inside the cell expands, putting pressure on the membrane, and
transport proteins deform (due to denaturing of proteins) so they can't control what enters or
leaves the cell.

2
 Procedure:

Use cork borer and knife

to cut beetroot to equal size wash by distilled water to remove
any dye released when beetroot
———-> was cut

Label a set of test tubes, one for each

temperature (room
temperature,refrigerator, freezer, and <—-—- dry beetroot by filter paper
water bath 70°C). Add 5 ml (or same and any tissue
<—-——
volume) of distilled water to each test
tube

Place same number of

beetroot pieces into each
test tube leave each one in a specific
temperature for 30 to 40 minutes
——->

Describe the depth Remove the beetroot pieces

of color in each test gently with a pair of forceps and
tube <—-—— then
shake the tubes to disperse the
dye

3
Result

Discussion

Figure 1 shows the results for the experiment. The solution placed in the freezer has a very pale
pink color, indicating that the amount of pigments in the solution is the least. Second, the
solution placed in fridge has a light pink, while the solution placed in the room temperature is

4
pink, indicating that there is an increase in the amount of pigment in the solution. At high
temperature , the solution collected is red.
From the results obtained, a trend can be observed where as the temperature
increases; the permeability of the plasma membrane also increases, shown by the increasing
optical
density of the water samples obtained. whereas the solution left in freezer has a pale pink color
and the color becomes darker and the temperature increases.
Besides, as the temperature increases, the average kinetic energy of water molecules also
increases. Therefore, the collision between water molecules and the pigments in beetroot become
more frequent, causing the solution to turn darker, hence increasing the optical density for the
solution. The phospholipid membrane and the vacuole membrane are also disrupted due to the
high temperature. wallowing more pigments inside the vacuole to leak into the water.
As this happens, holes are formed in the phospholipid bilayer, allowing more pigments in the
beetroot cells to spill out into the water. Besides, the structure of the phospholipid bilayer starts
to change into a more fluid state from a tightly packed structure, allowing the pigment molecules
to diffuse This occurrence can also be seen in solid butter When it’s heated.