Cell Membranes and Cellular Organization

Flashcards covering vocabulary terms about cell membrane structure, lipid bilayer permeability, and membrane proteins from the lecture.

Selective permeability

A property of lipid bilayers where certain molecules pass through easily, others pass with hindrance, and large molecules or charged ions are restricted from passing on their own.

Short and unsaturated hydrocarbon tails

Phospholipid tails that have bent structures, conferring higher permeability and higher fluidity to a lipid bilayer.

Long and saturated hydrocarbon tails

Phospholipid tails that confer lower permeability and lower fluidity to a lipid bilayer.

Liposomes

Artificial lipid bilayer spheres constructed by researchers to examine how molecules move across membranes.

Lipoproteins

Structures with hydrophobic interiors and hydrophilic exteriors used for transporting lipids, such as triglycerides and cholesterol, in aqueous environments.

Fluid mosaic

A term used to describe the plasma membrane because it consists of more than one type of molecule whose components move constantly around one another within each plane of the bilayer.

Transmembrane proteins

Proteins that span the entire phospholipid bilayer, protruding into the watery environment on both sides and moving laterally within the membrane.

Peripheral membrane proteins

Membrane proteins that do not cross the entire bilayer and are associated with the membrane on only one side.

Detergents

Water-soluble molecules that form micelles and are used to isolate transmembrane proteins by interacting with their hydrophobic portions.

Micelles

Little structures formed by detergent molecules in water.

Glycoproteins

Structures formed on the exterior surface of the plasma membrane when carbohydrates attach to proteins.

Glycolipids

Structures formed on the exterior surface of the plasma membrane when carbohydrates attach to lipids.