Membrane Structures- Tutorials and Posters

In this latest edition of my biology class, we have been studying the make up of cell membranes and their functions.  To begin, we started by taking notes from this site.  This site went over the main structure of the cell lipid membrane (in which will be explained later) and the functions.  Lipids benefit our human and animal cells in 3 major ways.

1. Fats: With their double bonds, fats act as an energy source and cushion internal organs.  They make up the hydrophobic tails.
2. Phospholipids: Along with being the hydrophilic heads, this is also the part that acts as the semi-permiable layer.  It separates the important parts of a cell from the dangerous outside environment.
3. Steroids: In cholesterol form, steroids restrict movement of fatty acids.

Also in the tutorial, on another site, we completed a tutorial and answered questions about the cell membrane structure.  Here are the 4 questions that I answered. They happen to be the ones that were in multiple choice format.

Quiz Questions and Answers:

1. (Blank) are the primary determinants of membrane structure, while (Blank) carry out membrane function.
   1. Lipids, proteins
2. List the molecular components common to all phosphoglycerides.  
   1. Phosphate, glycerol, two fatty acids
3. State three classes of membrane lipids (Also name the most important one)
   1. Glycolipids, cholesterol, phospholipids (Phospholipids)
4. What type of bonding dominates interactions between lipid tails and limits fluidity?
   1. van der Waals forces

Then, it was time to bring out our inner creative child.

As a group, we created a fluid mosaic model poster of the cell membrane structure to show our understanding.  Ours turned out as so:

Within the model, there is a variety of vocabulary words.*  In further detail, they are:

• Hydrophobic Region: Parts that water does not touch or is wanted.
• Hydrophilic Region: Lipid bilayer that agrees with water.
• Oligosaccharide: A carbohydrate attached to the proteins.
• Glycolipid: A carbohydrate attached to the hydrophilic heads.
• Peripheral Protein: A membrane protein not associated with the hydrophobic region.
• Integral Protein: A protein in the hydrophobic amino acid region of the membrane.
• Lipid Linked Protein: A Protein covalently bonded to the fatty acids.
• Helix: Linear sequence of amino acids.
• Cytoplasm:  Fluid material in the cell that allows organelles to move around.

*Note: Though it is not there, know that the black strings in the hydrophobic region are the fats explained in the beginning.