Question

1. How would it affect organisms living in cold climates if oil or alcohol were their main body fluid?
2. How do you think the cohesive nature of water relates to its evaporation?
3. Describe in detail an experiment you could conduct to test whether another substance could replace water.

Answer 1

1. If the organism is located in the cold climatic conditions and having the alcohol or oil as the main body fluid then it can be stated that the organism is dependent on the organic solvent and the cytoplasmic content of the organism are not going to affect the entities to come inside the body of an organism. Also, the cell membrane structure of an organism will change in such a way that the hydrophobic moieties will face towards the cytoplasm as to form the hydrophobic interactions and leading to the alterations in the diffusion of molecules across the membrane.

2. the cohesive properties of the water will change due to such change in the body fluids and hence the interaction between the water and the body fluid will be in an opposite way due to which the body fluid will start changing the structure of the molecules. the hydrophobic interactions will increase and form the covering around the water molecule to reduce down the evaporation effect of the water.

3. As to design an experiment in such case the gene for the aquaporin will be knocked out in such a way that the water will not be able to cross the cell membrane directly through the diffusion and hence the other condition can be provided by keeping the cells in the oil which will resemble the body fluid and maintaining the osmolarity of the cell. In another way, we can check the effect of the water on the cell membrane potential of such an organism by meaning the potential using the electrode system in case of the water and in case of the oil. One of the facts is that when the organism is kept in the water the solute particle in the system will be less and the cell will undergo hypotonic condition as to release out the cellular content and that can be seen whether the cell is shrinking in such conditions or compatible to the surrounding provided. While in case of the oil in the surrounding the cell will not lose its integrity in the shape and size and remain in the isotonic condition.