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Membrane lipids are a group of compounds (structurally similar to fats and oils) which form the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. The three major classes of membrane lipids are phospholipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol. Lipids are amphiphilic: they have one end that is soluble in water ('polar') and an ending that is soluble in fat ...
Neural membranes contain several classes of glycerophospholipids which turnover at different rates with respect to their structure and localization in different cells and membranes. There are three major classes namely; 1-alkyl-2-acyl glycerophospholipid, 1,2-diacyl glycerophospholipid and plasmalogen.
Biological lipids originate entirely or in part from two distinct types of biochemical subunits or "building-blocks": ketoacyl and isoprene groups. [3] Using this approach, lipids may be divided into eight categories: fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides (derived from condensation of ...
For lipids present in biological membranes, the hydrophilic head is from one of three classes: Glycolipids, whose heads contain an oligosaccharide with 1-15 saccharide residues. Phospholipids, whose heads contain a positively charged group that is linked to the tail by a negatively charged phosphate group. Sterols, whose heads contain a planar ...
The hydrophilic end usually contains a negatively charged phosphate group, and the hydrophobic end usually consists of two "tails" that are long fatty acid residues. [ 4 ] In aqueous solutions, phospholipids are driven by hydrophobic interactions , which result in the fatty acid tails aggregating to minimize interactions with the water molecules.
Fatty acids are a major component of the lipids (up to 70% by weight) in some species such as microalgae [2] but in some other organisms are not found in their standalone form, but instead exist as three main classes of esters: triglycerides, phospholipids, and cholesteryl esters.
Illustration of a eukaryotic cell membrane Comparison of a eukaryotic vs. a prokaryotic cell membrane. The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extracellular space).
DNA and RNA are both capable of encoding genetic information, because there are biochemical mechanisms which read the information coded within a DNA or RNA sequence and use it to generate a specified protein. On the other hand, the sequence information of a protein molecule is not used by cells to functionally encode genetic information. [1]: 5