Bio-membranes

Eukaryotes ..
Eukaryotic cell has an efficient membrane functions due to increase in the surface area. This is attributed to the presence of many internal membranes with numerous convolutions and infoldings. Membranes surround the nucleus, mitochondria, and (in plant cells) the chloroplasts as well as Endoplasmic Reticulum. Membranes form stacks of sacs with Golgi apparatus, surround lysosomes responsible for intracellular digestion, peroxisomes as well as form small vesicles and, in plants, a large liquid-filled vacuole. Each organelle is surrounded by one or more biomembranes, with unique set of proteins specific for its characteristic function. All these membrane-bounded structures correspond to distinct internal compartments within the cytoplasm. In a typical animal cell these organelles occupy nearly half the total cell volume and the remaining is the cytosol. Keeping all the organelles in proper shape and in a controlled movement eukaryotic cells have a tough cytoskeleton.

Functions of biomembranes
Cell membranes are crucial to the life of the cell. The plasma membrane encloses the cell, defines its boundaries, and maintains the essential differences between the cytosol and the extracellular environment. The membranes of the ER, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and other membrane-bounded organelles in eukaryotic cells maintain the characteristic differences between the contents of each organelle and the cytosol. Responsible for maintaining ion gradients across membranes (function of specialized membrane proteins) which can be used to synthesize ATP, to drive the transport of selected solutes, or, in production and transmission of electrical signals in nerve and muscle cells. Plasma membrane also contains proteins that act as sensors of external signals, allowing the cell to change its behavior in response to environmental changes; These are called receptors, that transfer information rather than ions or molecules across the membrane.

Membrane structure
Inspite of diverse functions, all the cell membranes have a common basic molecular structure. Each membrane is a thin film of lipid and protein molecules, held together mainly by non-covalent interactions. Carbohydrates are present in covalent linkage with lipids or proteins. The lipid molecules are arranged as a continuous double layer (~5 nm thick). This lipid bilayer provides the basic structure of the membrane and is a relatively impermeable barrier to the passage of most watersoluble molecules. Cell membranes are asymmetrical structures: The lipid and protein compositions of the outside and inside faces differ from one another in ways that reflect the different functions performed at the two surfaces of the membrane.

(a) Electron micrograph of plasma membrane (b, c) Schematic representations of lipid bilayer

The Lipid bilayer-Composition

The lipid bilayer has been firmly established as the universal basis for cell-membrane structure. It is easily seen by ordinary electron microscopy, although specialized techniques, such as x-ray diffraction and freeze-fracture electron microscopy, are needed to reveal the details of its organization. The bilayer structure is attributed to the special properties of the lipid molecules i.e. the amphipathic nature, due to which it assembles spontaneously to form bilayers.
The most abundant are the phospholipids consist of two long-chain, nonpolar fatty acid groups linked (usually by an ester bond) to small, highly polar groups, including a phosphate.

 The tails are usually fatty acids which may vary in length (14-24 C atoms). One tail usually has one or more cis-double bonds (that is, it is unsaturated), while the other tail does not (that is, it is saturated). Each double bond creates a small kink in the tail. Differences in the length and saturation of the fatty acid tails influence the ability of phospholipid molecules to pack against one another, and for this reason they affect the fluidity of the membrane.

Major phosphoglyceride, phopshatidylcholine

Types of fatty acids in membrane

14:0 myristic acid 16:0 palmitic acid 18:0 stearic acid 18:1 cis 9 oleic acid 18:2 cis 9,12 linoleic acid 18:3 cis 9,12,15 linonenic acid 20:4 cis 5,8,11,14 arachidonic acid 20:5 cis 5,8,11,14,17 eicosapentaenoic acid
(an omega-3 fatty acid because of double bond 3 C from distal end)

Three Classes of Lipids Are Found in Biomembranes

A typical biomembrane is assembled from phosphoglycerides glycerophospholipids (major class), sphingolipids, and steroids.

or

Phosphoglycerides contain two fatty acyl chains esterified with glycerol-3-P and a polar head group attached to the P group; nature of the polar group decides the classification. For eg. In Phosphatidylcholine head group consists of choline, a positively charged alcohol, esterified to the negatively charged phosphate.

Esterificn of C1 and C2 hydroxyls with fatty acids and C3 hydroxyl with phosphate Phosphate esterified to an alcohol of a polar head grp: choline, Inositol, ethanolamine, serine

OR

X=

Sphingolipids and Cholesterol are other two classes of membrane lipids

Sphingolipids are derivatives of sphingosine (red), an amino alcohol with a long hydrocarbon chain. Various fatty acyl chains are connected to sphingosine by an amide bond to yield ceramide inolved in forming complex sphingolipids. The sphingomyelins (SM), which contain a phosphocholine or phosphoethanolamine head group.

Other sphingolipids are glycosphingolipids with single sugar residue or branched oligosaccharide attached to the sphingosine backbone. eg A cerebroside is a sphingolipid (ceramide) with a monosaccharide such as glucose or galactose as polar head group.

A ganglioside is a ceramide with a polar head group that is a complex oligosaccharide, including the acidic sugar derivative sialic acid

Cholesterol .
Like other membrane lipids, the steroid cholesterol is amphipathic. Its single hydroxyl group is equivalent to the polar head group in other lipids; the conjugated ring and short hydrocarbon chain form the hydrophobic tail.

 In aqueous solution, when lipid molecules are surrounded on all sides by water, they tend to aggregate so that their hydrophobic tails are buried in the interior and their hydrophilic heads are exposed to water. Depending on their shape, they can do this in either of two ways: they form spherical micelles, with the tails inward, or they can form bimolecular sheets, or bilayers, with the hydrophobic tails sandwiched between the hydrophilic head groups.
The hydrophobic effect and van der Waals interactions, cause the tail groups to selfassociate into a bilayer with the polar head groups oriented toward water. Because of their cylindrical shape, membrane phospholipid molecules spontaneously form bilayers in aqueous environments and tend to seal on themselves to form compartments. This is one property that makes it an ideal structure to form membranes.

Liposomes: artificial micelles of phospholipids