Exam 2 Flashcards
What are a couple of tools cells use for movement?
Shape change
Flagella
What are the functions of the membrane?
Define boundaries
Selective barriers
Cell signaling
What is meant by “dynamic” when we talk about the membrane
It has complex patterns of internal movement and organelles move within it.
What are the major lipid bilayer components
Amphipatic lipids
Proteins
Carbohydrates
How much of membrane does each component make up?
Phospholipids - 50 to 90% Sterols - 2-25% Glycolipids - less than 5% Proteins -20 to 80% Carbohydrates - none. They are outside membrane.
What are the four polar heads of major lipids? Which one is charged?
Phosphatidylethanolamine
Phosphatidyl serine - charged
Phosphatidyl choline
Sphingomyelin - a sphingosine derivative
Is there an example to the exception to the lipid bilayer?
Lipid mono layers are seen in archea, extremophiles. Made up of bipolar molecules with a fatty acid in the middle. Laid next to each other vertically with polar side on each end.
What force drives the shape of the lipid bilayer?
Hydrophobic forces
Van der waals forces
What lipid is only found in eukaryotes?
Sterols
What is the function of lipids and carbs in the lipid bilayer?
Help protect plasma membrane
Cell to cell signaling
How can one change the fluidity of a membrane?
Change fatty acid length
Change fatty acid saturation/desaturation
How is a membranes fluidity helpful?
Allows cells to fit surroundings
Prevents membrane from becoming leaky
How can we chemically control a membranes fluidity
Fatty acyl desaturated help lipids become desaturated. Fatty acid reductases help fatty ticks become more saturated.
What are phospholipids made of
Glycerol, two fatty acids with a polar head
Are both fatty acids saturated in a phospholipid?
No. One is saturated. The other is unsaturated.
What phospholipid is important in signaling
Phosphatidyl inositol
Why do hydrophobic forces roll lipid into ball
More energetically favorable
How do we use synthetic vesicles
We use these liposomes for drug delivery. Sometimes used in aerosols. Liposomes are then endocytosed.
What is the structure of a sterol?
Four rigid rings, single polar hydroxyl group, short nonpolar hydrocarbon chain
What is the function of a sterol
Controls membrane fluidity. Cholesterol. Stick in between phospholipids in bilayer
What is attached to lipid in glycolipids
Sugars
What kind of fluid is the lipid bilayer
Two dimensional
What can change fluidity of lipid bilayer?
Temperature
Chemical composition
If something is fluid at a low temperature, is it saturated or desaturated?
It is less saturated
How does organism adjust to temperature change?
Change fluidity of membrane
Control total cholesterol
How does one change fluidity of membrane?
Use desaturated to desaturated the membranes in order to get more fluidity
Which bacteria I’ll be the most fluid at low temps
Those with shorter tails
What happens to fluidity if cholesterol increases?
It decreases
What kind of bond exists phospholipid and cholesterol on lipid membrane
Hydrogen bond
What technique is used to measure membrane fluidity
Fluorescence recovery after photo bleaching
three steps of FRAP
- Label membrane with fluorophore
- Bleach label with laser in small area of cell. Destroy label, not membrane,
- Monitor recovery of signal. This will show how quickly diffusion happens.
Why are lipid bilayers asymmetrical?
Leaflets are different, have different chemical compositions
Why are lipid bilayers asymmetrical
So cell knows which way is up and down
How is membrane generated and maintained
1-new membrane made in ER
2-proteins inserted in lipid bilayer with specific orientation
3-glycolipids and glycoproteins are made/modified in Golgi apparatus
What are flip passes in ER
Transfer p-lipid from Cytosolic side to external side of bilayer
How is new membrane sent out of ER
Vesicles
What happens if a protein is inserted backwards
It may not work
In Golgi, what do sugars never face?
The cytosol
Four purposes of proteins
Transporters
Anchors
Receptors
Enzymes
Two types of membrane proteins
Peripheral
Integral
Peripheral protein
Loosely associated
Noncovalent interaction with integral protein or lipid
Integral protein
Transmembrane domain containing protein - usually has one or more hydrophobic or amphipatic alpha helix or beta barrels
Lipid linked protein
What is orientation of alpha helix? How many subunits doe it have?
Vertical
One
Multi pass
More than one subunit threading through PM, and will have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts. Side chains are hydrophobic. Are often transporters.
Beta barrels
Form huge holes in membrane. Are always open. Undergo no conformation change.
Porins
Beta barrels. Found outside mitochondria and chloroplasts. Static. No large scale conformation change.
Lipid linked protein
Post translational modifications Palmitoylation Prenylation Protein is anchored to bilayer even though amino acids do interact Lipid linkages allow for fast diffusion
Palmitoylation
Covalent attachment of fatty acid
Prenylation
Addition of hydrophobic molecule to protein or chemical compound
How does one study integral membrane proteins
Add detergent to solubilize protein (SDS, triton, etc.)
Purify
Slowly add back
Phospholipids–>liposome–>study
SDS
Strong a ionic detergents
Why difficult to study integral protein
Nonpolar
Highly insoluble, hard to purify, hard to study
Book method to study integral proteins
- Integral membrane protein in sample
- Add detergent micelles and monomers
- Solubilize membrane proteins
- Add lipid-detergent micelles
- Purify protein
- Add phospholipids to remove detergent
- Protein incorporated into phospholipid vesicle
Oleate
Fatty acid with one kink