Phospholipid Flashcards
Define hydrophilic
Water loving
Define hydrophobic
Water fearing
Define amphipathic
describing a molecules which has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties
Outline the amphipathic properties of phospholipids
Phospholipids contain hydrophilic heads and hydrophobic tails
Explain why phospholipids form bilayers in water, with reference to hyrdrophillic phosphate heads and two hydrophobic hydrocarbon tails
There is water both outside the cell and inside the cell.
So, phospholipids will arrange themselves in a bilayer so that the hydrophilic head associates with the water and the hydrophobic tails face each other (away from the water)
Head of a phospholipid is made up of
Phosphate bounded to glycerol
Tails of a phospholipids are
chains of hydrogen and carbon atoms (AKA a hydrocarbon chain)
How is the head of a phospholipid hydrophilic?
head is exposed to water
How are the tails of phospholipids hydrophobic?
tails are oriented inside the bilayer
“P” means
phosphate group
“O” means
glycerol
how to know if fatty acids are present in a diagram?
it is everything else except P or O
Unsaturated hydrocarbon tail
not tightly packed and there is atleast one double bond between the carbons
hydrogens in an Unsaturated hydrocarbon tail
have fewer hydrogens present that can bond to the carbons (so there is a double bond between the carbons)
What do Unsaturated hydrocarbon tails cause?
kinked chains (which increases fluidity in the membrane, and hinders close packaging of phospholipids)
