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Friday 5 April 2013

LIPIDS

There are three types of lipids: fatty acids, triglycerides and phospholipids.
1. Fatty acids - Long carbon chains (C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C).
  • They come in many different lengths, get many different fatty acids.
  • They are non-polar, so they clump together in water (oil and water don't mix.)
2. Triglyceride
  • Three fatty acids linked by glycerol.
3. Phospholipid - Remove one fatty acid fromTriglyceride and add a Phosphorous
instead.
  • Phospholipids organize themselves in water in unique ways.
  • They are partly non-polar (long tails) and partly polar (the phosphorous end.)

  • Because of this they organize together in unique ways - they form a Bilayer or a Micelle (round ball.)
Phospholipids are used to construct cell membranes

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