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Ontario Secondary (Grade 9-12) Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes — practice questions

Explore 62 free Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes questions in Ontario Secondary (Grade 9-12) Biology. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

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Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 1–30 of 62.

Who proposed the fluid mosaic model of the plasma membrane, and in what year?Read the answer and worked solution →What did transmission electron microscopy reveal about the core of the plasma membrane in the 1950s?Read the answer and worked solution →What is the reported thickness range of a plasma membrane?Read the answer and worked solution →A human red blood cell is about 8 micrometres wide. Roughly how many times wider is that than a plasma membrane?Read the answer and worked solution →In a typical human cell, what fraction of the plasma membrane by mass is protein?Read the answer and worked solution →Myelin insulates peripheral nerve axons. What is unusual about its membrane composition?Read the answer and worked solution →Which membrane is reported as 76 percent protein and only 24 percent lipid?Read the answer and worked solution →A phospholipid molecule is built from which three parts?Read the answer and worked solution →Cholesterol sits alongside the phospholipids in the membrane core. What is its structure?Read the answer and worked solution →A carbohydrate chain bound to a membrane lipid forms which complex?Read the answer and worked solution →Within a phospholipid, which part can form hydrogen bonds with water?Read the answer and worked solution →Why do phospholipids in water spontaneously arrange into a bilayer?Read the answer and worked solution →Phospholipids heated in an aqueous solution tend to form what structures?Read the answer and worked solution →How long is the hydrophobic transmembrane segment of a typical single-pass integral membrane protein?Read the answer and worked solution →Peripheral proteins differ from integral proteins in that peripheral proteins are:Read the answer and worked solution →How many monosaccharide units make up the carbohydrate chains on the cell surface?Read the answer and worked solution →The carbohydrate components of glycoproteins and glycolipids on the cell exterior are known collectively as what?Read the answer and worked solution →The glycocalyx is highly hydrophilic. What does that property do for the cell?Read the answer and worked solution →Which cell surface receptor does HIV bind to on T cells?Read the answer and worked solution →A double bond in an unsaturated fatty acid tail bends the carbon chain by approximately how much?Read the answer and worked solution →Which membrane component organizes clusters of transmembrane proteins into lipid rafts?Read the answer and worked solution →What defines passive transport across a plasma membrane?Read the answer and worked solution →In passive transport, in which direction does a substance move?Read the answer and worked solution →What is a concentration gradient?Read the answer and worked solution →Which pair of gases crosses the plasma membrane by simple diffusion because neither carries a charge?Read the answer and worked solution →Which vitamins are named as passing readily through plasma membranes because they are fat soluble?Read the answer and worked solution →Diffusion moves a substance until what condition is reached?Read the answer and worked solution →Diffusion expends no energy of its own. What does a concentration gradient itself represent?Read the answer and worked solution →Two different solutes sit in the same extracellular fluid. How does each one diffuse?Read the answer and worked solution →After a substance has spread evenly through a space, molecules keep moving but there is no net movement. What is this state called?Read the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

Who proposed the fluid mosaic model of the plasma membrane, and in what year?

  1. Singer and Nicolson, in 1972
  2. Davson and Danielli, in 1935
  3. Davson and Nicolson, in 1950
  4. Singer and Danielli, in 1915
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Correct answer: A. Singer and Nicolson, in 1972

1. The fluid mosaic model was put forward by S.J. Singer and Garth L. Nicolson in 1972. 2. It replaced an earlier model because it explained both the microscopic observations and the function of the membrane. 3. Hugh Davson and James Danielli proposed the earlier sandwich model in 1935, so that pairing and that date belong to the model being replaced. 4. The 1915 date marks the identification of the membrane's chemical components, not any model. _Source: OpenStax Biology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 5 "Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes", section 5.1 Components and Structure_

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What did transmission electron microscopy reveal about the core of the plasma membrane in the 1950s?

  1. That it carried branched sugar chains
  2. That it was a double, not a single, layer
  3. That it was rigid rather than fluid
  4. That it held no protein of any kind
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Correct answer: B. That it was a double, not a single, layer

1. Advances in microscopy in the 1950s, notably transmission electron microscopy, sharpened the view of the membrane core. 2. Researchers saw that the core consisted of a double layer rather than a single layer. 3. That observation is what the 1935 sandwich model could not account for, and it drove the search for a better model. 4. Sugar chains and membrane fluidity were established by other lines of evidence, and proteins are in fact a principal component. _Source: OpenStax Biology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 5 "Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes", section 5.1 Components and Structure_

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What is the reported thickness range of a plasma membrane?

  1. 5 to 10 micrometres
  2. 5 to 10 nanometres
  3. 50 to 100 nanometres
  4. 8 to 10 micrometres
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Correct answer: B. 5 to 10 nanometres

1. Plasma membranes range from 5 to 10 nm in thickness. 2. A nanometre is a thousand times smaller than a micrometre, so the micrometre versions of the same numbers are off by a factor of one thousand. 3. A human red blood cell is about 8 micrometres wide, roughly 1,000 times wider than a plasma membrane, which fixes the scale. 4. Because of that comparison, 8 to 10 micrometres describes a whole red blood cell rather than a membrane. _Source: OpenStax Biology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 5 "Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes", section 5.1 Components and Structure_

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