Question

The cells of plant seeds store oils in the form of droplets enclosed by membranes, Unlike typical biological membranes, this oil droplet membrane consists of a single layer of phospholipids rather than a bilayer. Draw a model for a membrane around such an oil droplet. Explain why this arrangement is more stable than a bilayer of phospholipids.

Answer 1

The cells of plant seed store oil in the form of droplets enclosed by membranes.Both the plasma membrane membrane and the oil droplet membrane contain phospholipids consisting of hydrophobic tail and hydrophilic head.

The bilayer of the cell membrane is hydrophilic on either side of the bilayer and hydrophobic inside which allows molecules to move in and out of the cell.

Whereas the single layer of phospholipids in the oil membrane is either hydrophobic on one side and hydrophilic on the other, the transfer of molecules is not much.Since oil is hydrophobic (water hating), this membrane has only one layer, hydrophilic head on the outside and hydrophobic tails in the oil.This arrangement will therefore be helpful in re-wrapping the oil droplets