Becker's World of the Cell 9th Edition by Lewis Kleinsmith, Jeff Hardin, Gregory Paul Bertoni

Exercise 5

Martian Membranes. Imagine a new type of cell was discovered on Mars in an organism growing in benzene, a nonpolar liquid. The cell had a lipid bilayer made of phospholipids, but its structure was very different from that of our cell membranes.
(a)Draw what might be a possible structure for this new type of membrane. What might be characteristic features of the phospholipid head groups
(b)What properties would you expect to find in membrane proteins embedded in this membrane
(c)How might you isolate and visualize these unusual membranes