BIO 361 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Red Blood Cell, Glycophorin, Chief Operating Officer
10 Jul 2016
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Document Summary
These amphiphilic molecules tend to organize into structures without a strongly polar headgroup. Fatty acids themselves will form micelles, but as soon as you put a strong polar headgroup, a bilayer membrane will form. The structures that provide the bilayers do not distribute themselves symmetrically in biological membranes. In general, in the outer face of the membranes, one finds positively-charged neutrophospholipids. Those phospholipids that tend to selectively accumulate lipid rafts tend to be on the outer face of biological membranes. But pc, which has a zwitterionic group on the outer face of the biological membranes. In the inner face of the biological membranes are negatively charged phospholipids such as phosphatidylserine (ps). The polar head group on these phospholipids are inward facing unless the cell is in trouble. Migration of negatively charged phospholipids from the inner to the outer face is the hallmark of the development of cell death.
