BIOC 2580 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Trans Fat, Lipid Bilayer, Triglyceride

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Biochemistry
• Course: BIOC 2580
• Professor: Enoka Wijekoon

Document Summary

Biological lipids are a structurally diverse group of molecules. Lipids, as a class of molecules, are not defined by their chemical structures, but by their common chemical property: hydrophobicity. Lipids are those biomolecules that partition into the organic solvent phase when we perform a two-phase extraction of a cell extract. (typically, the organic solvent used for the extraction is a 2:1 mixture of chloroform to methanol. ) Lipids are highly diverse with respect to both structure and function. Insulation from environment - fats: pigments - colour of tomatoes, carrots, pumpkins, some birds, vitamins -vitamins a and d (hormone precursors), e (antioxidant) and k (blood clotting, waterproof coating - waxes. Lipids can occur covalently linked to other classes of biomolecules. Glycolipids, such as sphingolipids and gangliosides, contain both sugar and lipid portions and are important constituents of cell membranes. For example, the human blood groups (o, a, b) are defined by the glycolipids displayed on the outer surfaces of blood cells.