Lesson 4.

2 Learning Task Worksheet

These questions should help you to review the content and skills that you learned by reading
Concepts 7.1 and 7.2 of your textbook and completing all of the lesson activities.

● Read each question carefully.

● Complete each question thoroughly.

● Turn in your completed worksheet to your teacher.

1. What are A, B, C, D, and E in the figure of a cell membrane below?

2. Which membrane would be more fluid based on the following lipid compositions? Explain your
answer.
 Membrane A: 65 percent palmitic acid (saturated); 35 percent linoleic acid (unsaturated)
 Membrane B: 55 percent palmitic acid (saturated); 45 percent linoleic acid (unsaturated)

3. Two species of related hibernating rodents live in different environments. One lives in a temperate
environment where it may freeze occasionally. The second lives in the tundra, where, during hibernation
season, it is almost always freezing. What would each species’ general cell membrane composition be
based on its environment?
4. What are some of the functions of cell membrane proteins?

5. How does the gene expression profile of a cell correlate to the composition of proteins within that
cell’s membrane?

6. How do bound ribosomes, such as at the rough endoplasmic reticulum, relate to the composition of
proteins within a cell membrane?

7. How is CCR5 deficiency an example of a genetic change that results in a specific membrane
composition and disease resistance?

8. Why can small nonpolar molecules, such as O2 and CO2, easily cross the cell membrane?

9. Why do small polar molecules, such as sugars, have difficulty passing through the cell membrane?

10. Why are cell membranes called “semipermeable membranes”?