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Alicia Snchez

At what temperature do membrane proteins denature?


Hypothesis: 1. For the 0c, the distilled water will be completely clear. This is because the cell membranes will stay the same. 2. For the 20c, the distilled water will also be clear. This is because the proteins will remain unchanged. 3. For the 40c, the distilled water will be slightly pink because the cell membrane will be a bit destroyed. 4. For the 75c, the distilled water will be completely purple because the cell membrane would be completely destroyed. Scale: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Clear Light Pink Pink Pink-Red Red

Flow Diagram:

Drill out 8 cylinders of beetroot using the cork borer.

Label 4 different test tubes with distilled water with the 4 temperatures

Put two cylinders of beetroot in each test tube.

Put the test tubes in the appropriate baths for 10 min

Get another 4 test tubes with the same amount of distilled water and label them with the 4 temperatures.

Transfer the cylinders of beetroot to their new corresponding test tubes.

Alicia Snchez

Take the beetroot out after 15 min.

Observe the colour of the water left in the test tubes.

Data Table: Temperature (c) 0 20 40 75 Colour in Scale 1 1 1 3

Graph:

At what temperature do membrane proteins denature?


3.5 3 Colour Scale Number 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Temperature (c)

Conclusions: The graph shows that before 40c, the proteins in the membrane of the beetroot are doing their job at controlling the diffusion of the pigments. However, at 75c, the distilled water no longer stays clear and instead, it turns pink. This shows that at some point between 40 and 75c the proteins in the cell membrane denatured and allowed the diffusion of the pigments, I think this happened just about after 47c. This isnt exactly what we suspected in our hypothesis because

Alicia Snchez the proteins remained completely undamaged until after the 40c. Also, when it reached 75c, it didnt turn completely purple, it was only pink; this could be because the temperature needed to be higher in order for the membrane to let the pigments diffuse completely.

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