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What makes phospholipid molecules uniquely suited to their role in membrane structure?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Phosopholipids have both a hydrophilic (water loving) and hydrophobic (water hating) region. This enables them to effectively make a barrier between the fluid inside and outside of the cell.
The heads of phospholipids are hydrophilic - and so form the surfaces of the membrane, with their hydrophobic (lipid) tails facing inwards.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Wiki User
∙ 10y agoThe 'head' of a phospholipid is hydrophilic (attracted to water) whereas the hydrophobic 'tails' repel water. The hydrophillic head contains the negatively charged phosphate group, and may contain other polar groups. The hydrophobic tail usually consists of long fatty acid hydrocarbon chains. When placed in water, phospholipids form a variety of structures depending on the specific properties of the phospholipid. These specific properties allow phospholipids to play an important role in the phospholipid bilayer. In biological systems, the phospholipids often occur with other molecules (proteins, glycolipids, cholesterol) in a bilayer such as a cell membrane. Lipid bilayers occur when hydrophobic tails line up against one another, forming a membrane with hydrophilic heads on both sides facing the water.
It is polar, which allows for unique characteristics
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What are the instruments used in biometrics?
Fingerprint readers, facial recognition, speech recognition... anything really that can be used to uniquely identify a person, in the way of the physcial structure can be used for biometrics.
Why is cholesterol important in the human body?
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Uniquely arranged colorful petals.
What is the difference between a protein channel and a transporter carrier?
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What is the evidence that organisms may have evolved from a common ancestor?
Perhaps the most important outcomes of biochemical research has been the realization that all organisms have much in common. Organisms are remarkably uniform at the molecular level. This observation is frequently referred to as the unity of biochemistry, but, in reality, it illustrates the unity of life. This uniformity reveals that all organisms on the Earth have arisen from a common ancestor. A core of essential biochemical processes appeared early in the evolution of life. The diversity of life in the modern world has been generated by evolutionary processes acting on these core processes through millions or even billions of years. Only three naturally occurring elements ---oxygen, hydrogen and carbon--- make up 98% of the atoms in a living organism. Moreover, the abundance of these three elements in life is vastly different from their abundance in Earth's crust. One reason that oxygen and hydrogen are so common is the ubiquity of water and there is a universal consensus among biologists that water has been the life enabler on earth. After oxygen and hydrogen, the next most common element in living organisms is carbon. Most large molecules in living systems are made up predominantly of carbon. Under a certain point of view, if we divide biological molecules in structural molecules, composing the structure of living beings, and fuel molecules, that are the molecules transformed in the processes providing energy to life, fuel molecules are dominated by oxygen and hydrogen, even if carbon has an important role in them, while structural molecules are dominated by carbon. As a means of seeing why carbon is uniquely suited for life, let us compare it with silicon, its nearest elemental relative. Silicon is much more plentiful than carbon in Earth's crust, and, like carbon, can form four covalent bonds, a property crucial to the construction of large molecules. However, carbon-to-carbon bonds are stronger than silicon-to-silicon bonds. This difference in bond strength has an important consequence: after Carbon has undergone combustion, carbon dioxide is readily soluble in water and can exist as a gas; thus, it remains in biochemical circulation, to be used by another organisms. In contrast, silicon is essentially insoluble in reactions with oxygen, silicon oxide in amorphous form is glass while in crystalline form it is quartz. After silicon has combined with oxygen, it is permanently out of circulation. Thus, carbon based molecules are stronger construction materials and are better fuels than silicon based molecules. Other elements have essential roles in living systems, for example nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Moreover, some of the trace elements, although present in tiny amounts compared with oxygen, hydrogen and carbon, are absolutely vital to a number of life processes, like iron and potassium.
What structure of DNA makes it uniquely qualified to function as an information carrier?
Molecular structure of DNA consists of Nucleotides that carry genetic information. However RNA also has nucleotides but it is not as stable as DNA. So, I think the stability of DNA structure is what "makes it uniquely qualified to function as information carrier".
Capillary structure is uniquely adapted for exchange processes because?
they allow two-way flow
What cell structures are in yogurt cells?
Yogurt cells contain various cell structures, including the cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, and organelles such as mitochondria and ribosomes. Additionally, yogurt cells may also contain bacterial structures, such as the cell wall, nucleoid (bacterial equivalent of a nucleus), and plasmids (small circular pieces of DNA).
Is uniquely bespoke grammatically correct?
"Uniquely bespoke" is a tautological statement.
What are the dimensions of a open box if the surface area is 1024?
There is not enough information to uniquely identify the dimensions.There is not enough information to uniquely identify the dimensions.There is not enough information to uniquely identify the dimensions.There is not enough information to uniquely identify the dimensions.
What are the instruments used in biometrics?
Fingerprint readers, facial recognition, speech recognition... anything really that can be used to uniquely identify a person, in the way of the physcial structure can be used for biometrics.
How do you uniquely identfied the record?
we will use primary key to uniquely idetified the record.
Who wrote uniquely?
The book Uniquely Indiana was written by D. J. Ross.
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this is because carbon only has four electrons on its outer shell. the out shell can and "wants" to hold 8 electrons, so in order to do this it bonds (in a covalent bond) with other 4 atoms which creates large and diverse molecules.
What part of speech is uniquely?
The word uniquely is an adverb. It means to do something in a unique manner.adverb
Who wrote Uniquely Indiana?
The book Uniquely Indiana was written by D. J. Ross.
How to propose uniquely to a girl?
There is few ways to be uniquely to a girl. You can go out of your way to be nice to the girl.
