Week Three Flashcards
What are the main component of cell membranes
Lipids
Are there proteins in membranes?
yes proteins are often associated with or embedded in the cell membrane
What is the role of proteins associated or embedded in cell membranes?
they preform important functions such as transporting molecules
Where are the carbohydrates which are usually found in cell membranes attached?
they are usually attached to lipids(glycolipids) and proteins (glycoproteins)
What are most phospholipids made up of?
a glycerol backbone attached to a phosphate group and two fatty acids
Is the phosphate head group on phospholipids hydrophilic or hydrophobic?
hydrophilic (polar)
Are the fatty acid tail groups on phospholipids hydrophilic or hydrophobic?
hydrophobic (nonpolar)
Define amphipathic
Having both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions.
Molecules with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions are called….?
amphipathic
Define micelle
A spherical structure in which lipids with bulky heads and a single hydrophobic tail are pakded
Define bilayer
A two-layered structure of the cell membrane with hydrophilic “heads” pointing outward toward the aqueous environment and hydrophobic “tails” oriented inward, away from water.
The shape amphipathic molecules in a aqueous environment is caused by…?
the polar heads interacting with the water on the outside and the hydrophobic nonpolar tails hiding from the water on the inside
The shape amphipathic molecules in a aqueous environment is dependent on…?
The bulkiness of the head group relative to the hydrphobic tails
Why are bilayers the most effective cell membranes?
because bilayers form closed structures with an inner spaces since free edges would expose the hydrophobic chains to the aqueous environment
Why are cell membranes formed by bilayers self healing?
Small tears in a membrane are rapidly sealed by the spontaneous rearrangement of the lipids surrounding the damaged region because of the tendency of water to exclude nonpolar molecules
What does a liposome look like?
a sphere with a hollow center
bilayers from spontaneously without the action of an enzyme as long as…?
the concentration of free phospholipids is high enough and the pH of the solution is similar to that of a cell
What do micelles look like?
solid spheres
define liposomes
An enclosed bilayer structure spontaneously formed by phospholipids in environments with neutral pH, like water.
why is pH important to the formation of bilayers?
beacuse in ensures that the head groups are in their ionized (charged) form and thus suitably hydrophilic
Why do lipids freely associate with one another?
becuase of their extensive van der waals forces between their fatty acid tails
Why are cell membranes dynamic?
the weak van der waals interactions between fatty acid tails are easily broken and reformed so phospholipids can easily move transnationally, rotate around their vertical axis and flex or bend
Define fluid
Describes lipids that are able to move in the plane of the cell membrane.
why are membranes called fluid?
because of the lipids’s ability to move in the plane of the membrane
What is the degree of fluidity of the cell membrane dependent on?
the type of lipid which makes up the membrane
what other lipid besides phospholipids do cell membranes often contain?
cholesterol
Does cholesterol influence membrane fluidity?
yes
define cholesterol
An amphipathic lipid that is a major component of animal cell membranes.
What is the hydrophilic region in cholesterol made up of?
a hydroxyl group (-OH)
what is the hydrophobic region in cholesterol made up of?
4 interconnected carbon rings with an attached hydrocarbon chain
What does the structure of cholesterol allow it to do?
it allows it to insert into the lipid bilayer so that the head group interacts with the hydrophilic head group of the phospholipids while the 4 rings interacts (by van der waals attractions) with the fatty acid chains
When does cholesterol decrease membrane fluidity? and how?
at temperature typically found in a cell. it does so because the rigid rings interact with the fatty acid tails of two different phospholipids decreasing the phospholipids mobility
When does cholesterol increase the fluidity of of the membrane? and how?
At low temperatures it increases the membranes fluidity. It does this by preventing phospholipids from packing tightly with other phospholipids
because of cholesterol’s ability to make the membrane more fluid at low temperatures and less fluid at normal temperatures it helps the cell to…?
maintain a consistent state of membrane fluidity by preventing dramatic transitions from a fluid to solid state
Define lipid rafts
Lipids assembled in a defined patch in the cell membrane.
Are membranes always a uniform fluid bilayer?
no because lipid rafts can form creating regions with discrete components
define transporter
Membrane proteins that move ions or other molecules across the cell membrane.
define receptor
A molecule on cell membranes that detects critical features of the environment. Receptors detecting signals that easily cross the cell membrane are sometimes found in the cytoplasm.
Define enzymes
A protein that functions as a catalyst to accelerate the rate of a chemical reaction; enzymes are critical in determining which chemical reactions take place in a cell.
define anchor
A membrane protein that attaches to other proteins and helps to maintain cell structure and shape.
name 4 different roles proteins can play in the cell membrane
trasporter
receptor
enzyme
anchor
Define integral membrane protein
A protein that is permanently associated with the cell membrane and cannot be separated from the membrane experimentally without destroying the membrane itself.