Tuesday, 2 April 2013

What specific membrane adaptations do cells have for saline-rich environs?

This 1969 Steensland paper seems to suggest that the membranes of halophiles are stabilized by sodium ions and they rapidly denature at lower-salt conditions (2.2 vs. 4.3 M). The protein composition of the membrane was generally acidic, stabilized by all the Na+.



As far as what the role of the halophile membrane is in sheltering the cell from the high ionic strength solution seems left unsaid.

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