Thermal motion promotes lateral position exchanges between lipid molecules within a monolayer. In an artificial bilayer, this movement has been estimated to be ~2 ?m/second. This represents the entire length of a bacterial cell

Do you expect the lateral movement of a lipid molecule within a biological membrane to be equally fast? Explain your answer.


No. Although the rate of movement may be similar, it will most likely be slower in a biological membrane. An artificial bilayer is primarily phospholipids. Biological membranes contain a large number of protein components and specialized membrane domains that could limit the rate of lateral diffusion.

Biology & Microbiology

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In his experiments, Griffith found that transformation occurs naturally in bacteria. Explain how Griffith found this out.

What will be an ideal response?

Biology & Microbiology