Lipids

Question 1

What are triglycerides?

Answer 1

Lipids made of one molecule of glycerol and three fatty acid chains joined by an ester bond formed in a condensation reaction which removes 3 molecules of water.

Question 2

What are the 2 types of R groups?

Answer 2

Saturated and unsaturated

Question 3

What do the terms saturated and unsaturated mean?

Answer 3

saturated - no double carbon bond
unsaturated - double carbon bond, allows it to bend, liquid at room temp because they cannot pack tightly together

Question 4

How do the structure of triglycerides relate to their property?

Answer 4

large and non-polar lipids so they do not affect the water potential of cells

low mass to energy ratio so you can store a lot of energy in a small volume.

Question 5

What are phospholipids?

Answer 5

Lipids made of two fatty acid chains and a phosphate group. Phospholipid heads are hydrophillic (attract water) and the tails are hydrophobic (repel water) therefore the molecule is polar

Question 6

How do the structure of phospholipids relate to their property?

Answer 6

It is polar which means a bilayer can form in an aqueous environment

structure allows them to form glycolipids with carbohydates which are important for cell recognition.

Question 7

Describe how an ester bond is formed in a phospholipid molecule

Answer 7

In a condensation reaction between glycerol and fatty acid