Biology (1)

1501143

Dr Maysoun Qutob
Applied Science Private University,
20241
1

Applied Science Private University 1

 Membrane Structure
and Function

Applied Science Private University 2

• Plasma membrane
• Consists of a phospholipid bilayer.
• Exhibits selective permeability : it allows some substances to cross it
more easily than others.
 Cellular membranes are fluid mosaics of
lipids and proteins
• Membranes consists of:
the staple
ingredients of
• Lipids (phospholipids)
membranes, • proteins
• carbohydrates.
• Phospholipids are the most abundant lipids in most membranes.
• A phospholipid is an amphipathic molecule, meaning it has both
a hydrophilic (“water-loving”) region and a hydrophobic (“water-
fearing”) region
A phospholipid bilayer can exist as
a stable boundary between two
aqueous compartments because
the molecular arrangement shelters
the hydrophobic tails of the
phospholipids from water while
exposing the hydrophilic heads to
water (Figure 7.2).
• Most membrane proteins are amphipathic. Such proteins can
reside in the phospholipid bilayer with their hydrophilic regions
protruding.
• Figure 7.3 shows the fluid mosaic model, the membrane is a
mosaic of protein molecules bobbing in a fluid bilayer of
phospholipids.
The Fluidity of Membranes
• Membranes are not static sheets of molecules locked rigidly in
place. A membrane is held together mainly by hydrophobic
interactions.
• Most of the lipids and some proteins can shift about sideways.
Sideway movement

phospholipids: rapid proteins: slow (figure 7.4)

(proteins are much larger than lipids)
• Very rarely a lipid may flip-flop across the membrane, switching
from one phospholipid layer to the other.
 Membrane proteins

move in a highly
immobile
directed manner
driven along cytoskeletal held by their attachment
fibers in the cell by motor to the cytoskeleton or to
proteins the extracellular matrix
• The temperature at which a membrane solidifies depends on the
types of lipids it is made of.
Membrane rich in phospholipids with :

Unsaturated hydrocarbon tails: saturated hydrocarbon tails:

remain fluid at low less fluid at low temperature
temperature
more viscous membrane
Because of kinks in the tails
where double bonds are
located (cannot pack together)
➢ Figure 7.5 Factors that affect membrane fluidity.
• Cholesterol is wedged between phospholipid molecules in the plasma
membranes of animal cells, has different effects on membrane fluidity
at different temperatures (Figure 7.5b).

• Cholesterol can be thought of as a “fluidity buffer” for the membrane,

resisting changes in membrane fluidity that can be caused by changes
in temperature.
1. At relatively high temperatures; at 37°C (body temperature) cholesterol
makes the membrane less fluid by restraining phospholipid movement.
2. it lowers the temperature required for the membrane to solidify by
hindering the close packing of phospholipids.
 • The fluidity of a membrane affects both:
1. the permeability of membrane
2. the ability of membrane proteins to move to
where their function is needed.

• Membranes must be fluid to work properly:

• When a membrane solidifies, its permeability changes, and enzymatic
proteins in the membrane may become inactive if their activity requires
movement within the membrane.
• Membranes that are too fluid cannot support protein function either.

Extreme environments pose a challenge for life

 Extreme cold Extreme hot

• Fish: have membranes with a • Some bacteria and archaea:

high proportion of unsaturated their membranes include
hydrocarbon tails, enabling their unusual lipids that may prevent
membranes to remain fluid. excessive fluidity at such high
• Plants: such as winter wheat, the temperatures (>90°C).
percentage of unsaturated
phospholipids increases in
autumn, an adjustment that
keeps the membranes from
solidifying during winter.

• Certain bacteria and archaea can also change the proportion of unsaturated
phospholipids in their cell membranes, depending on the temperature at which
they are growing.
Membrane Proteins and Their Functions
• A membrane is a collage of different proteins, often clustered together in
groups, embedded in the fluid matrix of the lipid bilayer (i.e., RBCs >50 kinds
of proteins in their plasma membrane).

• Different types of cells different sets of membrane proteins.

• There are two major populations of membrane proteins

1. Integral proteins 2. Peripheral proteins

 Integral proteins (i.e., integrins) Peripheral proteins
• Penetrate the hydrophobic interior of the • Are not embedded in the lipid bilayer at all.
lipid bilayer. • They are loosely bound to the surface of
• The majority are transmembrane the membrane, often to exposed parts of
proteins, which span the membrane; integral proteins.
other integral proteins extend only
partway into the hydrophobic interior.
• The hydrophilic parts of the molecule are
exposed to the aqueous solutions on
either side of the membrane.
• Some proteins also have one or more
hydrophilic channels that allow passage
through the membrane of hydrophilic
substances.
• On the cytoplasmic side of the plasma membrane, some membrane
proteins are held in place by attachment to the cytoskeleton.
• On the extracellular side, certain membrane proteins may attach to
materials outside the cell (as with integrins)
• Membrane proteins carry out several different functions (Figure 7.7).
The Role of Membrane Carbohydrates in Cell-Cell
Recognition
• Cell-cell recognition, a cell’s ability to distinguish one type of neighboring cell
from another, is crucial to the functioning of an organism. It is important:
1. In the sorting of cells into tissues and organs in an animal embryo.
2. It is the basis for the rejection of foreign cells by the immune system.
3. Function as markers that distinguish one cell from another (blood types
designated A, B, AB, and O reflect variation in the carbohydrate part of
glycoproteins on the surface of red blood cells.
• Cells recognize other cells by binding to molecules, often containing
carbohydrates, on the extracellular surface of the plasma membrane
(forming glycolipids and glycoproteins).
Membrane structure results in selective permeability
• There is a steady traffic of small molecules and ions moves across the
plasma membrane in both directions.
• Sugars, amino acids, and other nutrients enter the cell, and metabolic
waste products leave it.
• The cell takes in O2 for use in cellular respiration and expels CO2.
• The cell regulates its concentrations of inorganic ions such as Na+, K+,
Ca2+, and Cl-, by shuttling them one way or the other across the plasma
membrane.
The Permeability of the Lipid Bilayer

Nonpolar Ions and polar

• Hydrophobic (i.e., • Hydrophilic
hydrocarbons, CO2, O2) • Cannot cross the membrane (i.e.,
• Dissolve in bilayer membrane glucose and other sugars, H2O,
and cross it easily charged atoms or molecules)

No aid of membrane proteins Need for transport proteins

(proteins built into membrane
which play key roles in regulating
transport)
 Transport Proteins
Channel Proteins Carrier Proteins
• Function by having a hydrophilic • Hold onto their passengers and
channel that certain molecules change shape in a way that shuttles
or ions use as a tunnel through them across the membrane.
the membrane. • For example, glucose transporter a
• For example, Aquaporins specific carrier protein in the
facilitates the passage of water plasma membrane of red blood
molecules through the cells transports glucose across the
membrane and increasing their membrane. is so selective that it
passage rate (kidney cells) even rejects fructose, a structural
• Ion channels (gated channels: isomer of glucose.
open or close in response to a
stimulus (in nervous system)).
The selective permeability of a membrane depends on both:
1. The discriminating barrier of the lipid bilayer
2. The specific transport proteins built into the membrane.
Passive transport is diffusion of a substance across a
membrane with no energy investment
• Molecules have a type of energy called thermal energy, due to their
constant motion.
• One result of this motion is diffusion, the movement of particles of any
substance so that they spread out into the available space.
• A substance will diffuse from where it is more concentrated to where
it is less concentrated any substance will diffuse down its
concentration gradient.
❖Diffusion is a spontaneous process, needing no input of energy.
• Figure 7.10.
• When a substance is more concentrated on one side of a membrane
than on the other, there is a tendency for the substance to diffuse
across the membrane down its concentration gradient.
• One important example is the uptake of oxygen by a cell performing
cellular respiration.
• The diffusion of a substance across a biological membrane is called
passive transport because the cell does not have to expend energy to
make it happen. The concentration gradient itself represents
potential energy and drives diffusion.
Effects of Osmosis on Water Balance
• The solution with a higher solute concentration has a lower free water
concentration.
• Water diffuses across the membrane from the region of higher free
water concentration (lower solute concentration) to that of lower
free water concentration (higher solute concentration) until the
solute concentrations on both sides of the membrane are more nearly
equal.

The diffusion of free water across a selectively permeable membrane is

called osmosis.
Water Balance of Cells Without Cell Walls

Tonicity:
• The ability of a surrounding solution to cause a cell to gain or lose
water.
• Depends in part on its concentration of solutes that cannot cross the
membrane (nonpenetrating solutes) relative to that inside the cell.
• If there is a higher concentration of nonpenetrating solutes in the
surrounding solution, water will tend to leave the cell, and vice versa.
• If a cell without a cell wall (an animal cell), is immersed in an
environment that is isotonic to the cell (iso means “same”), there will
be no net movement of water across the plasma membrane (net
movement = 0).
• Water diffuses across the membrane, but at the same rate in both
directions. In an isotonic environment, the volume of an animal cell is
stable (Figure 7.12a).
• In a solution that is hypertonic to the cell (hyper means “more,”
referring to nonpenetrating solutes). The cell will lose water, shrivel,
and probably die.
• This is why an increase in the salinity (saltiness) of a lake can kill the
animals there.
• in a solution that is hypotonic to the cell (hypo means “less”), water
will enter the cell faster than it leaves, and the cell will swell and lyse
(burst).
➢ Figure 7.13 The water balance of living cells. How living cells react to changes in the solute concentration of their environment
depends on whether or not they have cell walls. (a) Animal cells, such as this red blood cell, do not have cell walls. (b) Plant
cells do have cell walls. (Arrows indicate net water movement after the cells were first placed in these solutions.)
Water Balance of Cells with Cell Walls

• The relatively inelastic cell wall will expand only so much before it
exerts a back pressure on the cell, called turgor pressure, that
opposes further water uptake. At this point, the cell is turgid (very firm),
the healthy state for most plant cells.
• If a plant’s cells and surroundings are isotonic, there is no net tendency
for water to enter and the cells become flaccid (limp); the plant wilts.
• A cell wall is of no advantage if the cell is immersed in a hypertonic
environment a plant cell will lose water to its surroundings
and shrink. As the plant cell shrivels, its plasma membrane pulls away
from the cell wall at multiple places. This phenomenon, called
plasmolysis, causes the plant to wilt and can lead to plant death.
 Facilitated Diffusion: Passive Transport Aided by Proteins
• Many polar molecules and ions impeded by the lipid bilayer of the membrane
diffuse passively with the help of transport proteins that span the membrane.
This phenomenon is called facilitated diffusion.
• Most transport proteins are very specific: They transport some substances
but not others.

Channel proteins
Aquaporins (kidney cells) Carrier proteins
Ion channels (gated channels: open or close in Glucose transporter
response to a stimulus (in nervous system)).