In: Chemistry
Which of the following are characteristics of cholesterol?
1) It is a weakly amphipathic, rigid substance.
2) It is the precursor for all steroidal hormones.
3) It packs neatly with the fatty acid tails of membrane
bilayers.
4) It is part of the lipid family of biomolecules.
1) Cholesterol is weakly amphipathic, as it contains polar hydroxyl group on ring on one end and hydrocarbon tail on the other end as shown in the picture.This makes cholesterol weakly amphipathic. Due to this reason cholesterol have both water and fat soluble sides.
2) Cholestrol is also precursor of all steroidal hormones including blood sugar regulator, mineral balance,blood pressure regulator, sex hormones etc.
3) cholesterol also packs into bilayer membranes with its hydroxyl group oriented toward the aqueous phase. hydoxyl group makes hydogen bonds with polar phospholipid head groups of fatty acids. the rigid cholestrol prevents the mobility of the hydrocarbon ends of phospholipids as shown in the picture.
4) cholesterol is part of lipid family of biomolecules and falls under the category of sterol lipids.