Cell Membranes Lab Report

Superior Essays
The Effects of Temperature on Cellular Membranes
Kean University: Biology 1300 Section 3
Liyet Iran
Partners: Paoline Medina, Jennifer Yuen,
Christian Gonzalez, D’wan McCrary, Nicole Piscatelli
November 12, 2015

Abstract
The cell membrane is an essential structure of any cell. It’s the structure that protects and support the cell. To determine whether this structure can withstand hot or cold environment, a beet specimen is put to test. Six consistent cylindrical beet will each be placed into different temperatures ranging from
-5℃ to 70℃. When a beet cell has been damage, betacyanin, will leak out of the cell to turn the water that surrounds it red. A beet cell will exhibit some damages to their cell
…show more content…
The cell membrane’s main function is to regulate the exchange of ions and solutes, protect the cell, cell communication and adhesion, and some signaling mechanisms (Mandraccia 2014). Most eukaryotic cellular membrane are made up of phospholipid bilayer, a phospholipid molecule with fatty acids, which has proteins embedded within. The proteins within the phospholipid bilayer are not fixed within its position and its functions is to regulate the passage of molecules and an identification tag (Gupta, 2009). Within “Cellular Membranes: Effects of Physical and Chemical Stress” lab from the Kean University Gen Bio I & II Lab Manual, we test how well the cellular membrane of a beet can withstand the different temperatures that it goes through. The experiment will take six cylindrical beets and be put into different temperatures to so that we may be able to observe how a temperature stress can affect the membrane. A way to observe whether the beet cell membrane has been damage is seeing the change in color of the solution. The change of color is caused by betacyanin leaking out of the cell cause the solution to turn color. Within this experiment, the beet cell membrane will likely suffer the most damage in lower temperatures while suffer the least damage in the higher temperature …show more content…
The experimental data revealed that samples that were exposed to a cold or lower temperature environment exhibit a high damage to their cell membranes while that were in the higher temperature exhibited a small damage to their cell membrane. We could tell whether the cell membrane had received great damage on it due to the red color of the solution. . Betacyanin is the red pigment that is contained inside the beet cell membranes; they are also water soluble (Neelwarne, 2012). Since the cell membrane is the structure that separate the cells organelles from the extracellular matrix; when the membrane is damaged, the fluid that is inside the cell can leak out (Gupta,

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