Look up the content of saturated and unstaurated fats in Butter (or margarine) and oil and reflect on how they look when you put them on your kitchen counter or in your fridge.
And now try to think in terms of what if the membrane was made of butter or of oil when the temperature change…
Cell of poikilothermic (cold blooded) animals usaully have higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids than homoiothermic (warm blooded)animals.
WHY???????????
the cell membrane needs to be fluid. For cold blooded animals the temperature is dependent on the surroundings so they could have low body temperatures, especially at nights.
–> properties of fatty acids is that short, unsaturated fatty acids have a low melting point so are fluid at low temperatures so that cell membrane can function normally under low temperatures.
