What is the effect of cholesterol on membrane fluidity at moderate temperatures?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking about how cholesterol affects the fluidity of biological membranes at moderate temperatures. It is specifically looking for a relationship between cholesterol and the behavior of cell membranes.
Answer
Cholesterol decreases fluidity at moderate temperatures.
Cholesterol decreases membrane fluidity at moderate (and higher) temperatures.
Answer for screen readers
Cholesterol decreases membrane fluidity at moderate (and higher) temperatures.
More Information
At moderate temperatures, cholesterol's rigid structure inserts between the phospholipid molecules in cell membranes. This disrupts the regular packing of phospholipids, thereby reducing membrane fluidity.
Tips
Misunderstanding cholesterol's buffering role; it stabilizes membrane fluidity against temperature changes, but affects fluidity differently depending on whether the temperature is high or low.
Sources
- How does cholesterol affect the fluidity of a plasma membrane? - biology.stackexchange.com
- 3.2C: Membrane Fluidity - Medicine LibreTexts - med.libretexts.org
