Chapter 5 Flashcards
What are artificial membranes?
Artificial membranes are a simple mixture of amphipathic lipid molecules that form structures to minimize potential energy
What are the two types of amphipathic molecules?
Hydrophobic & Hydrophilic
Hydrophobic
- Will not try to interact with the water
- Non polar parts
Hydrophilic
- Will interact with the water
- Polar parts
What are the 3 types of membranes?
1) Micelle = soap, single phospholipid layer
- Sphere
2) Liposome = Fat molecule, phospholipid bilayer
- Sphere with halo middle
3) Phospholipid bilayer
- Straight line with tails facing in
What are membranes?
In reality they are much more complex, and contain many different types of molecules
What did we use to think about membranes? What was in conflict of this theory?
- That they were made of proteins (supported by TEM photographs)
- The mathematical calculations of the relative lipid and protein contents of the red blood cells were in conflict
Using geometric formulae, what were we able to conclude about the original theory of membranes?
The surface area of a red blood cell was too great to be covered by the amount of protein that it contains
What did researchers do to look at the membranes in great detail? Explain it
They developed a TEM technique called Freeze Fracture
- Cells were frozen in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees) then ‘cracked’ with a knife blade
In the Freeze Fracture experiments, where were the cells split open?
Split along the weakest point which is often between the layers of the membranes
What did the researches of the Freeze Fracture experiment observe?
There were dark spots in the membranes and they realized they were proteins in the lipid matrix
- Freeze fractured ________________
- White dots are what?
- How can we find out how big proteins and protein complexes are?
- Freeze fractured thylakoid membranes
- White dots are protein complexes that are embedded in the membrane
- By using the Freeze Fracture experiment
What is the Fluid Mosaic Model
It is a model that describes the structural features of biological membranes
Fluid Mosaic Model:
The membranes behave like a gel or a solid
A gel membrane, not a solid membrane
Fluid Mosaic Model:
What does the fluidity do?
It keeps the membranes intact and functioning, and allows the cells to change shape.
- The proteins move around
Could transport vesicles form without a flexible membrane system?
No, need a gel membrane
How is the fluidity of a membrane altered?
It is altered by lipid type and length, and also by other components such as cholesterol
Phospholipid bilayer of a solid is _____ with _________ hydrocarbon tails
Phospholipid bilayer of a solid is viscous with saturated hydrocarbon tails
Phospholipid bilayer of a liquid is ______ with _________ hydrocarbon tails
Phospholipid bilayer of a liquid is fluid with unsaturated hydrocarbon tails with kinks
Longer lipids give the _____________ more interactions and will make the membrane more/less _________
Longer lipids give the nonpolar tails (hydrophobic) more interactions and will make the membrane more viscous
More _________ in the fatty acids will introduce ______ order, and make the membranes more/less ______
More double bonds in the fatty acids will introduce less order, and make the membranes more fluid
Organisms living in cold areas will have more ______________ and ______________ in their membranes
Organisms living in cold areas will have more unsaturated fatty acids and shorter fatty acids in their membranes
What are the two layers of a phospholipid bilayer? Are they symmetrical?
NOT SYMETRICAL!!!
1) Extracellular leaflet
2) Cytosolic leaflet
What are membranes made up of?
A phospholipids, glycoproteins, glycolipids, and proteins
In which dimension do lipids move in the membrane?
They move in lateral & rotational movement
- Random movement of lipids
How can the lipids inside the cell be transported to the outer leaf of the plasma membrane?
Lipids move across the membrane using a transport protein called Flippase
-It turns ATP into ADP +Pi
Proteins in the membrane:
______ or ________ proteins cross the membrane and are embedded in the lipid bilayer
Intrinsic Proteins or Transmembrane proteins cross the membrane and are embedded in the lipid bilayer
What are the functions of transmembrane proteins in the plasma membrane?
1) They can aid transport of ions & polar molecules
2) They can help communicate signals (nerurotransmitter) from one side to the other (Signal transduction)
3) Enzymatic activity
4) Attachment/ recognition
Proteins in the membrane:
______ proteins are more loosely associated with the membrane
Extrinsic proteins
Where are the extrinsic proteins attached?
They can be attached to transmembrane proteins or with the lipids on one side of the membrane
Can membrane proteins move? At what speed and why? What is in their way?
Membrane proteins can also move, but much more slowly due to their size.
- There are many small lipids in their way
What else is located in the membrane? Animal and plant membranes
- Animal cells: Cholesterol
- Plant membranes: Other steroids
What is the role of the Cholesterol and Steroids in the membranes?
They fill spaces between the fatty acid tails, and help regulate the fluidity of the membrane
What is located in the Extracellular matrix? In the Cytosol?
Extracellular matrix = Fiber
Cytosol = Linker protein
Some membranes proteins are ________ as part of the cytoskeleton or extracellular matrix
Fixed in place
What was the Frye and Edidin Cell Fusion Experiment? 1970s
1) They added agents that caused a mouse and human cell to fuse
2) Temp= 0C; added a fluorescently labelled antibody to the mouse (H-2) protein -the proteins were unable to move laterally = remained on one side of the cell
3) Temp = 37C then cool to 0C; added a fluorescently labelled antibody to the mouse (H-2) protein - with a fluorescence microscope seen the proteins mixed due to the lateral movement at 37C
__________ are proteins produced by the immune system that recognize specific ______ structures called _________
Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system that recognize specific ‘foreign’ structures called antigens