The significance of cell membrane can be illustrated with the example of viruses. They happen to lack cell membrane and therefore,do not show any characteristics pertaining to life til they find a host to reside in where they multiply themselves.
- Cell membrane's main function is to maintain the cell's shape and it's rigidity along with separating the interior and exterior part of the cell from each other.
- It is semipermeable which means it allow entry and exist of only selected material needed for the cell's development.
- Viruses do not have their own cell membrane but possess an envelope after entering the host that is obtained from the host's cell membrane.
- The envelope surround the capsid( a shell which has nucleic acid captured in a virus ) and results in infiltration of the viral in the host's cell.
- These envelopes have spikes arose on their surface made up of glycoprotein and perform enzymatic,absorptive ,clumping of blood cells & antigenic activities.