PHSL233 Lecture Notes - Occludin, Proteoglycan, Connexin
Document Summary
So cellular membranes acts as a barrier for a cell and some organelles so there are many different varieties of membranes. Membrane of mitochondria have electron transport chain and thus it is useful for atp synthesis. The cellular membrane is flexible and asymmetric with hydrophilic head facing the outside and lipid tails on the inside, thus like a mirror image of lipid bilaye. The membrane have both lipids and proteins but protein population will vary between membranes. The plasma membrane is a lipid bilayer of mainly phospholipids (75%). There are different types of phosphlipids, mainly phosphatidylcholine (pc) is present in large amount, but other types are phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol. Phosphatidylinositol present in very small amounts because it can be released by cell as a signalling molecule. Phospholipids have a head and 2 fatty acid tails and it is a amphipathic structure which just means 2 different characteristic in one molecule.