Cell Biology Chapter 4

The membrane serving as a boundary between the interior of a cell and its extracellular environment.

The overall process in which information carried by extracellular messenger molecules is translated into changes that occur inside a cell.

Any substance that can bind to a specific molecule(ligand), often leading to uptake or signal transduction.

Any molecule that can bind to a receptor because it has a complementary structure.

Phospholipids self-assembled into a bimolecular structure based on hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions; biologically important as the core organization of cellular membranes.

Model presenting membranes as dynamic structures as dynamic sturctures in which both lipids and associated proteins are mobile and capable of moving within the membrane to engage in interactions with other membrane molecules.

Containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions.

Phosphate-containing lipids that represent the primary constituents of the lipid bilayer of cellular membranes.

Phospholipids that are built on a glycerol backbone.

The polar, water-soluble region of a phospholipid that consists of a phosphate group linked to one of several small, hydrophilic molecules.

Class of membrane lipids-derivations of sphingosine-that consist of sphingosine linked to a fatty acid by its amino group.

Sphingosine-based lipid molecules linked to carbohydrates, often active components of plasma membranes.

Sterol found in animal cells that can constitute up to half of the lipid in a plasma membrane, with the relative proportion in any membrane affecting its fluid behavior.

An artificial lipid bilayer that aggregates into a spherical vesicle or vesicles when in an aqueous enviornment.

The reactions by which sugar groups are added to proteins and lipids.