Question

Winter wheat is planted in the early fall, grows over the winter when the weather is colder and is harvested in the spring. As the temperature drops, the makeup of the plasma membrane of winter wheat changes. Unsaturated fatty acids replace saturated fatty acids in the phospholipids of the membrane. How does the change in fatty acid structure help wheat to adapt seasonally?

Answer 1

As, the temperature is decreasing which means the fluidity of the plasma membrane will be decreased and the membrane will be frozen.

Thus, to maintain the fluidity of the membrane , the fatty acids is changed from saturated to unsaturated because unsaturated fatty acids has nick in their tail positions and thus they can't be compacted so much and thus their a gap is present always .

Thus, even in low temperature, the membrane does not become frozen though the temperature is very low. Normally, saturated fatty acids doest not have double or triple bonds and thus they can be easily compacted that's why they can be frozen easily in low temperature.