Name: Shannon Kelso

Access ID: smk5736

Exploration Homework - Week 5 Cell Membranes
Part I - Use the Wikipedia article Phospholipids (Introduction and Amphipathic Character
section) and Lipid Bilayers (Introduction and Structure and Organization) to answer the
following questions.
1. What is the general structure of a phospholipid?
Phospholipids are composed of a phosphate group that acts as the head & two fatty acid
tails. The hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tails are held together by a glycerol
molecule.
2. Why are phospholipids considered amphiphilic?
Theyre amphiphilic because phospholipids contain both hydrophobic & hydrophilic
characteristics. The head is water loving & faces outward while the tails are water fearing
& face inward.
3. Why do phopholipids self-assemble into a lipid bilayer? What type of bonds contribute to
the bilayer formation?
The tails facing each other create the lipid bilayer, & the heads on the outside create the
membrane. This occurs when phospholipid are put in water with hydrogen bonds, & Van
der Waals & electrostatic attraction.
4. What molecules generally cannot diffuse through the membrane? Why (**hint think about
the amphiphilic character of the lipid bilayer)?
Sugars & salts are excluded from the bilayer because of the structure of the lipid bilayer.
The inside of the bilayer is composed of hydrophobic tails, so theres hardly any water to
be able to dissolve the sugars and salts.
5. Which phase allows for more lipid mobility (i.e., movement of individual lipids with a leaflet or
one layer of the bilayer)?
The fluid phase because its more of a liquid than a solid & the tails arent packed quite
as tightly.
6. Short lipid tails have __________ (more or less) Van der Waals interactions compared to
longer lipid tails? How does this affect the phase of a membrane?
They have less Van der Waals interactions because they have less area for the
interactions to occur. Short lipid tails are less saturated and will have a more liquid like
phase for better mobility.
7. How does the saturation (double bond nature) of a lipid tail affect fluidity?
Unsaturated phospholipids do not pack together as well as saturated phospholipids. So
saturated lipids have better packing & less fluidity, and unsaturated lipids have poor
packing but better fluidity.

Part II. Use the Wikipedia article Membrane Protein to answer the following questions.
8. What is the main difference between integral and peripheral membrane proteins?
Integral membrane proteins are always attached to the membrane (permeant). Peripheral
membrane proteins are just temporarily attached to integral proteins or bilayer.
9. What characteristic makes a protein a transmembrane protein?
They are integral membrane proteins that stretch across the membrane at least once.
They consist of one of the 2 tertiary structures.
10. Click on the link to Glycosylphosphatidylinositol - GPI Wikipedia article. GPI-anchored
proteins can be peripheral proteins if the GPI anchor is removed. They are synthesized after
the translation process. Where are the ribosomes that translate glypiated proteins located?
In the ER.
11. In order to associate with the lipid bilayer, the GPI-anchor must have a (hydrophobic or
hydrophilic) region. Select one term from the parentheses.
Hydrophobic.
12. What enzyme can release proteins from their GPI-anchor?
Phospholipases can release proteins for the GPI-anchor.
Part III. Use the Wikipedia articles Synonymous substitution and Nonsynonymous
substitution to answer the following questions,
13. What is a synonymous substitution?
A DNA base pair change in the coding sequence of a gene, but there is no alteration in
the amino acid sequence of the protein.
14. What is a nonsynonymous substitution?
A DNA base pair change in the coding sequence of a gene, but there is an alteration in
the amino acid sequence of the protein.