Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Cell membrane structure

In the picture you see above is all the parts of the cell membrane.
The cell membrane is the outer part of the cell that consists of a lipid ilayer with proteins embedded in it.
Phospholipid Bilayer
This area, the Phospholipid Bilayer sets the boundaries of a cell. The Phospholipid is composed of two lays of fat cells. Inside this layer it  consists of:
  The hydrophilic polar head which likes water and associates with water that is outside the cell. There is a positive charge towards the water and negative charges away from the water. The phospholipid molecule's polar head group contains a phosphate group. 

The Hydrophobic non-polar tails don't like water.  These tails are fatty acids.
Thes tails are a non-polar fat acid.





Integral  Proteins
These types of proteins are embedded into the bilayer of the membrane. The integral protein floats freely throughout the bilayer and turns into a transmembrane protein because it extends through the lipid bilayer. Each end comes into contact with the exterior. The integral protien is hydrophobic and made up of non-polar amino acids and the soon exposed ends of the integral protien are hydrophilic.

Other examples of integral membrane proteins are:
glucose premease
hormone receptors
ion channels and gates



Peripheral Proteins

Peripheral Proteins are attached to the exterior part of an integral protein that regulates cell signaling.


Oligosaccharides 

The oligosaccharides are the the starches and carbohydrates that are 
part of the exterior cell membrane.






This link below shows how all of this work in the cell membrane


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