Compare and contrast the chemical composition and structure of the cytoplasmic membranes found in Bacteria and Archaea. What is the advantage of the archaeal membranes in relationship to the types of environments archaea may inhabit?

Bacteria have a phospholipid bilayer whereas archaea have a monolayer. This monolayer allows archaea to be heat-resistant

Explanation:

Unlike the lipids present in bacteria and Eukarya, in which the ester binds fatty acids to glycerol, Archaea lipids contain ether type bonds between glycerol and the hydrophobic part of the chain. Archaeological lipids lack fatty acid side chains and are formed by repeated hydrophobic isoprene structures using 5 carbon chains. The arcade cytoplasm membrane can be constructed from glycerol having chains of 20 or 40 carbons (called phthanyl groups and diglycerol tetraethers, respectively).

In the tetraeter lipid, the ends of the carbon chains are covalently bonded, this forms a lipid monolayer instead of a lipid bilayer.

The membrane compacted by the monolayer is extremely resistant to heat denaturation and, therefore, is considered hyperthermophilic (prokaryotic organisms that can grow at temperatures above 80 ° C)