Biological Membrane :) Flashcards
What are plasma membrane?
A barrier between the cell and its environment controlling which substances enter and leave the cell
Can substances move across the cell membrane?
Some molecules can but not others because they are partially permeable
How can substances move across a plasma membrane?
By diffusion, osmosis or active transport
What do plasma membranes allow?
Recognition by other cells e.g. The cells of the immune system Cell communication (cell signalling)
What do the membranes around organelles do?
Divide the cell into different compartments and act as a barrier between organelles and the cytoplasm making different functions more efficient e.g. Substances needed for respiration kept together in mitochondria
What can membranes within cells form?
Vesicles to transport substances between different areas of the cell
What are cells and many organelles surrounded by?
Many membranes which have a range of functions
What do membranes within cells control?
Which substances enter and leave the organelles e.g. RNA leaves the nucleus via nuclear membrane. (It’s partially permeable)
Where else can you get membranes?
Within organelles
What do membranes within organelles act as?
Barriers between membrane contents and the rest of the organelle e.g. Thylakoid membranes in chloroplasts
What can membranes be site of?
Chemical reactions
E.g. Inner membrane of mitchrondrion contains enzymes needed for respiration
How does the structure of all membranes differ?
Not a lot because they are basically the same
What are membranes composed of?
Lipids (phospholipids mainly)
Proteins
Carbohydrates (proteins or lipids)
What happened in 1972?
Fluid mosiac model was suggested to describe the arrangement of molecules in the membrane
What do phospholipids molecules do?
Form a continuous bilayer
What is this bilayer and why?
Fluid because the phospholipids are constantly moving
What are within the bilayer?
Cholesterol molecules
Protein molecules scattered through bilayer like tiles in a mosiac
Fluid mosiac model
Carbohydrates
Some proteins have polysaccharide (carbohydrate) chain attached (glycoproteins)
Some lipids have polysaccharide chain attached (glycolipids)
Phospholipid bilayer size?
About 7nm thick
What do phospholipids do in the membrane?
Form a barrier to dissolved substances
But not to fat-soluble substances e.g. Fat-soluble vitamins, can dissolve and pass directly through
Explain phospholipids?
They have a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail
Automatically arranges itself into bilayer heads face out, tails face inwards either side of membrane
Centre of bilayer is hydrophilic so membrane doesn’t allow water-soluble substances through it
Cholestral
Type of lipid
Present in all cell membranes except bacterial cell membranes
Fit between phospholipids. They hung to hydrophobic tails of phospholipids causing them to pack more closely together making membrane less fluid and more rigid
What’s does protein do?
Control what enters and what leaves the cell
Proteins
Form channels in membrane allowing small or charged particles through
Act as receptors for molecules in cell signalling when a molecule binds to the protein a chemical reaction is triggered inside the cell
What do carrier proteins?
Transport molecules and ions across the membrane by active transport and facilitated diffusion
Glycoproteins and glycolipids
Stabilise membrane by forming hydrogen bonds with surrounding water molecules
Sites where drugs, hormones and antibodies bind
Act as receptors for cell signalling
Antigens- cell surface molecules involved in immune response
Why do cell need to be able to communicate with each other?
To control processes inside the body and to respond to changes in their environment
How do cell communicate with each other?
Using messenger molecules
1) one cell releases a messenger molecule (hormone)
2) molecule travels (in blood) to another cell
3) messenger molecule is detected by the cell because it binds to a receptor on its cell membrane
How do cell receptors play an important role in cell signalling?
Proteins in cell membrane act as receptors for messenger molecules (membrane- bound receptors)
Receptor proteins have specific shapes
Different cells have different types of receptors
Receptor proteins have specific shape?
Only messenger molecules with complementary shapes can bind to then
Different cells have different types of receptors?
Respond to different messenger molecules
Cell responds to particular messenger molecule (target cell)
What is glucagon?
A hormone that’s released when there isn’t enough glucose in the blood. It binds to receptors on liver cells causing liver cells to break down stores of glycogen to glucose
How do many drugs work?
By binding to receptors in cell membranes
Either trigger a response in the cell or block the receptors and prevent it from working
Antihistamines
Cell damage causes the release of histamine. Histamine binds to the receptors on the surface of other cells and causes inflammation. Antihistamines work by blocking histamine receptors on cell surface preventing histamine from binding to the cell membrane
What is the permeability of cell membrane affected by?
Different conditions e.g. Temperature, solvent type and solvent concentration
How can you investigate how things affect permeability?
By doing an experiment using beetroot. Beetroot cells contain a coloured pigment that leaks out- the higher the permeability of the membrane the more pigment leaks out of the cell
Investigate how temperature affects beetroot membrane permeability? Step 1
Cut give equal sized pieces of beetroot and rinse them to remove any pigment released during cutting
Investigate how temperature affects beetroot membrane permeability? Step 2
Place five equal sized pieces in five different test tubes each with 5cm3 of water
Investigate how temperature affects beetroot membrane permeability? Step 3
Place each test tube in a water bath at different temperatures e.g. 10, 20, 30,40,50 degrees for the same length of time
Investigate how temperature affects beetroot membrane permeability? Step 4
Remove pieces of beetroot from the tubes, leaving just coloured liquid
Investigate how temperature affects beetroot membrane permeability? Step 5
Use colorimeter
Machine that passes light through liquid and measures how much water of the light is absorbed the higher the permeability of the membrane the more pigment released so the higher the absorbance of the liquid is
Temperature below 0 degrees membrane permeability?
Phospholipids don’t have much energy so can’t move very much. Packed closely together and the membrane is rigid. But the channel orotund and carrier proteins in the membrane deform increasing permeability of the membrane. Ice crystals may form and pierce the membrane making it highly permable when it thaws