Membrane structure and function Flashcards
What is the basic structure of phospholipids?
glycerol backbone
polar, charged head
nonpolar, fatty acid tail
What are the sites of side chain attachment on glycerol?
3 OH groups
Which part of a phospholipid faces the outer side (extracellular/cytoplasm)?
polar phosphate head (hydrophilic)
Which part of a phospholipid faces the inner side (lipid bilayer) ?
nonpolar fatty acid tail (hydrophobic)
What causes the kinks in phospholipid fatty acid tails?
double bonds
Are kinks in fatty acid tails saturated or unsaturated?
unsaturated
What effect do to kinks have on the phospholipids?
spaces them out so they don’t pack as tight which means that the bilayer is more open
What is the benefit of having mixed saturated and unsaturated fatty acids?
faster diffusion
Example of purpose of unsaturated FA in bilayer in real life?
drug delivery
What type of phospholipid has O-linked to a charged group and amide-linked to an acyl group, such as a fatty acid?
Sphingosine backbone
What type of barrier is a membrane phospholipid bilayer?
semipermeable
Can charged molecules diffuse through lipid bilayer?
NO
Which molecules can diffuse rapidly across the bilayer?
O2
N2
H2O
CO2
Can glycine and other AA such as pyruvate diffuseacorss membranes?
NO
Can hydrophobic compounds such as estrogen (hormones) diffuse across membranes?
yes
Are lipid components of plasma membrane distributed symmetrically or asymmetrically?
asymmetrically
Which component of the PM is distributed symmetrically?
cholesterol
What happens when phospholipids are dispersed in water?
form vesicles (multilammellar or unilammellar)
Artificially prepared vesicle composed of a lipid bilayer
liposome
What can be used to administer and transport nutrients and pharmaceutical drugs in the body?
liposome
The pfizer and moderna vaccines use what for drug delivery?
liposome
Proteins have numerous localizations in membranes. Name the 7/8 of them.
- single alpha-helix transmembrane protein
- multiple alpha-helices transmembrane protein
- rolled up beta sheet (alpha beta barrel)
- alpha-helix cytoplasmic partitioned protein
- cytoplasmic face protein anchored by a lipid chain in the cytoplasmic monolayer
- anchored by oligosaccharide linker to a phosphotidyl inositol in non-cytoplasmic monolayer
7/8. proteins with main portion on one side of layer anchored by transmembrane spanning alpha-helix
What is the most common structural feature of transmembrane regions of integral membrane proteins?
alpha-helix
What are the functions of membrane proteins? (4)
- cell-cell contact (cell adhesion)
- receptor signaling systems
- pores and channels (transport)
- enzymes
Absorption and synthesis of this is important and much is known about hereditary problems.
Component of PM
cholesterol