Fatty acids and Triglycerides

Question 1

What does the Greek word Lipos mean?

Answer 1

Animal or vegetable fat

Question 2

Is cholesterol hydrophobic or hydrophillic?

Answer 2

Hydrophobic.

Question 3

What are fatty foods rich in?

Answer 3

Triglycerides

Question 3

Structure of Triglycerides

Answer 3

3 fatty acid chains (referred to sn1, sn2, sn3) ester-linked to glycerol backbone.

Floppy molecules. They hold variety of different shapes. This shows fat is a soft substance

Question 4

What is a chain of hydrocarbons often referred to as?

Answer 4

Acyl

Question 5

What does monounsaturated mean

Answer 5

One double bond

Question 6

What is the significance of more double bonds in the fatty acid?

Answer 6

Means lower melting point.

This suggests it’ll be an oil if a triglyceride contains polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Question 7

Cis and Trans fatty acids

Answer 7

All fatty acids found in body and food are in the Cis form because it gives additional properties of what happens with the double bond.

The cis form has a kink in it. The more cis double bonds the more curled the fatty acid is. This suggests how fluid the membrane will be. (the more kinks the more fluid)

Question 8

What do elongases do?

Answer 8

Increase chain length by 2C

Question 9

What do desaturases do?

Answer 9

Remove H’s from CH2’s to make double bond