Cell membrane 1 Flashcards
What are the basic components of eukaryotic membranes?
Lipid bilayer
Integral and peripheral proteins
Glycocalyx
Cytoskeletal associations
What are the major types of lipids in membranes? Are these lipids amphipathic?
All 4 lipids possess hydrophobic and hydrophillic regions
- Phospholipids- make up the bulk of membrane proteins
- Cholesterol
- Glycolipids
- Phosphatidylinositols
What is the purpose of phospholipids in the plasma membrane?
Establish basic membrane structure.
Can be glycosylated.
What is the purpose of cholesterol in the plasma membrane?
Stiffens membranes.
What is the purpose of glycolipids in the plasma membrane?
Have sugar component. (minor amount in membrane)
What do phosphatidylinostiols do?
Cell signaling (minor amt in membrane)
What do Cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and heridatory spherocytosis have in common?
Faulty membrane functioning due to mutations in, or loss of, certain membrane-associated proteins
What is the function of the membrane?
- Establish specialized environment (boundary between inside and outside of cell, define intracellular compartments)
- Serve as a scaffold to organize protein complexes involved in biochemical behavior
- Semi-permeable barrier
- Transport
- Sensing and responding to environment
- Cell protection and identification
- Cell junctions and adhesion
What two lipids make up the bulk of the membrane?
- Phospholipids (4)- 3 phosphoglycerides and 1 sphingolipid
- Sterol (cholesterol): varies in quantity among membranes, stiffens membrane, reduces permeability, inhibits phase changes
What two lipids make up a minor part of the membrane?
Glycolipids and phosphatidylinositol
What are Glycolipids?
- neutral or negatively charged depending on sugars attached
- Functions: protection (glycocalyx), surface properties of membranes, cell identification, cell adhesion
- Present only on NON-CYTOSOLIC LEAFLET
- may partition into lipid rafts
- Most complex are gangliosides (can serve as entry points for bacterial toxins
DEFICITS: toxic to neurons, basis pof pathology for lysosomal storage disease
What are Phosphatidylinositol phospholipids?
- Inositol sugar which can be phosphorylated at different positions
- Responsible for cell signaling:
stimulation > inositol cleaves DAG and IP3 > DAG activates protein kinase C, phorphorylates target proteins > IP3 binds to SER and opens Ca channels into cytoplasm > binds and modulates fxns of Ca binding proteins
Where are membrane lipids synthesized?
ER: Phosphoglycerides (phosphatidlyethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine)
GOLGI: Sphingomyelin and Glycolipids (made form sphingosine which is synthesized by GA)
How do phospholipids behave in the lipid bilayer?
- Flex, rotate, and are laterally mobile within a leaflet
2. Spontaneous flipping between leaflets is rare
What are the consequences of phospholipid behavior?
- Amphipathic nature prevents movement between monolayers–flippases have evolved that flip phospholipids between leaflets
- Because of lateral mobility within a monolayer, higher order structures are needed to establish membrane domains with a distinct lipid makeup