For all cells, membrane fluidity is important for many reasons. It enables membrane proteins to diffuse rapidly in the plane of the bilayer and to interact with one another, as is crucial, for example, in cell signaling. It permits membrane lipids and proteins to diffuse from sites where they are inserted into the bilayer after their synthesis to other regions of the cell. It allows membranes to fuse with one another and mix their molecules, and it ensures that membrane molecules are distributed evenly between daughter cells when a cell divides. If biological membranes were not fluid, it is hard to imagine how cells could live, grow, and reproduce.