BIOC 2300 Lecture 13: lecture 13

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Biochem & Molecular Biology
• Course: BIOC 2300
• Professor: David Byers

Document Summary

Lipids are heterogeneous, hydrophobic (or amphipathic), and thus insoluble. Lipids associate into larger structures and are not usually free in solution (due to hydrophobic effect: due to potential to aggregate, lipid storage and transport is a challenge. All lipids, despite their diversity in shapes/forms, are hydrophobic molecules. The hydrophobic effect causes the lipids to assemble together. Hence, each lipid has an organized layer of water around it not entropically favorable. What is more favorable is to have the lipids together with a smaller layer of ordered water around them causes the formation of larger structures. Lipids form ordered structures, but they don"t polymerize key differences between lipids and other biological molecules. Storage and transport are difficult tasks, and certain diseases (plaque-building in arteries) have to do with issues in transport. Phospholipids (pls: phosphor-head group attached to diacylglycerol or ceramide) Isoprenoids/steroids (e. g. cholesterol: or by major functions: Bioactivity (messengers, vitamins, hormones) largely through steroids.