Question

Think of the cell as a factory that makes a product. What sorts of activities would be necessary to have a factory that builds a product and ships that product to consumers (the outside world)? What properties of the different biological molecules would allow them to serve this purpose? Using your understanding of the biological molecules you studied in Chapter 5 describe how each of these molecules might play a role in your factory.

I will give you two things factories need to run for example:

1) Factories need to have walls to separate the specialized equipment, starting materials, and products they make from the outside environment:

The molecules that might be used to build a wall are?

What properties make them a good wall?

2) Factories need a blueprint and instructions to tell the employees or machines how to make the product?

The molecules used to accomplish this function are?

What are the properties of these molecules that allow them to perform this function?

Feel free to use a labeled drawing or descriptive story to illustrate your factory made of Biological molecules. Please submit your assignment in .docx or .pdf format.

Answer 1

1). The cell membranes are made of “phospholipids” and they are major kind of lipids found in all biological membranes. As the name indicates, the phospholipid contains phosphate and fatty acid molecules in its structure. Cell membrane also contains proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates in its structure.

The lipid end (fatty acid) of fatty acid is non-polar (hydrophobic), and the phosphate attached alcohol serves as a polar head. In the structure of cell membrane, the outer and inner layers are exposed with these polar ends and the middle part contains lipid layer. Thus, the hydrophobic lipid layer is sand witched between two hydrophilic phosphate layers, so it is also called as “phospholipid bilayer (PLP, i.e. phosphate-lipid-phosphate)”.

Thus, due to the amphipathic nature (both polar and nonpolar) of phospholipids, they provide the nature of selectivity to the cell membrane.

Within the phospholipid bilayer, proteins are embedded. According to fluid-mosaic model, the protein molecules embedded in the plasma membrane and have a mosaic pattern.The fluidity depends on fatty acid composition and cholesterol content. The fluidity of the fatty acids increases with the degree of unsaturation and decreases with the length of the linear hydrocarbon chain.