Question

-What features of their cell membranes allow some archaea to thrive at very high temperatures? At very acidic pH?

Answer 1

Features that allow archaea to thrive at very high temperatures are

a. Ether linkage instead of ester linkage - This increases the stability between phosphate groups and hydrocarbons.

b. Tetraether phsopholipids - It is a molecule with two hydrocarbon tails, each coming from one ester bond and one phosphate molecule. They form monolayers and decreases membrane fluidity. This increases the survival of archaea at high temperature.

c. Cyclopentane rings in hydrocarbon tails of ester-linked phospholipids - Cyclopentane regulates the entry and exit of solutes. This protects the cells from damage at high temperatures.

Features that allow archaea to thrive at very high acidic conditions is

a. Presence of bolaamphiphiles - These are amphiphilic molecules that have hydrophilic groups at both ends of a sufficiently long hydrophobic hydrocarbon chain. This replaces the lipid bilayer with monolayer and makes them resistant to very acidic pH.