Lipids

Lipids are really nice. Without them, we'd have no cell membranes. You owe it to them to make sure you can
remember all o f the stuff about them on these pages. It'll help you and your membranes get a good grade.

Triglycerides are a Kind of Lipid

Triglycerides have one molecule of glycerol with three fatty acids attached to it.

Structure of a Triglyceride Fa tt a d d m o |e c u |e s h a v e |o n g <t a i |s > Basic Stru ctu re of a Fa tty A cid

o
V
Fatty Acid

Fatty Acid
made of hydrocarbons. The tails
are 'hydrophobic' (they repel water
molecules). These tails make lipids
Os r carbon atom links
fatty acid to glycerol

0Jt' C— R
Fatty Acid insoluble in water. All fatty acids
HO
have the same basic structure,
variable 'R* group
but the hydrocarbon tail varies. hydrocarbon tail
hydrocarbon 'tail' of fa tty acids

Triglycerides are Formed by Condensation Reactions

glycerol trig lyce rid e

H-,0 is released .f a t t y acid The diagram shows a fatty acid
. . e s te r bond
joining to a glycerol molecule.
H
I
o
V V, When the ester bond is formed a
H — C — O H \+ X H — C « — O — 'C — R
molecule of water is released.
H - C
I

— OH\ condensation 9 — it's a condensation reaction.

H — C — O — C — R
This process happens twice more
----------------- :— ►
reaction
H ,0 9 to form a triglyceride.
Two more f a t t y acids are attach ed H — C — O — C — R
in th e same way here and here I
H

Fatty Acids can be Saturated or Unsaturated

There are two kinds of fatty acids — saturated and unsaturated.
The difference is in their hydrocarbon tails (R group).

Saturated fatty acids don't have any double bonds Unsaturated fatty acids have at least one double bond
between their carbon atoms. The fatty acid is between carbon atoms, which cause the chain to kink.

saturated hydrocarbon tail unsaturated hydrocarbon tail

Phospholipids are Similar to Triglycerides

Structure of a Phospholipid
1) The lipids found in cell membranes aren't triglycerides
— they're phospholipids.
2) Phospholipids are pretty similar to triglycerides except one of the
fatty acid molecules is replaced by a phosphate group.
3) The phosphate group is hydrophilic (attracts water). The fatty acid
tails are hydrophobic (repel water). This is important in the cell
membrane (see next page to find out why).
 Lipids
The Structures of Lipids Relate to Their Functions
You need to know how the structures of triglycerides and phospholipids are related to their functions:

Triglycerides are mainly used as energy storage molecules. They're good for this because:

1) The long hydrocarbon tails of the fatty acids contain lots of chemical energy
— a load of energy is released when they're broken down. Because of these ^ CP
tails, lipids contain about twice as much energy per gram as carbohydrates. q ^
2) They're insoluble, so they don't affect the water potential (see p. 40) of r,
the cell and cause water to enter the cells by osmosis (which would make them ^ ^
swell). The triglycerides clump together as insoluble droplets in cells because ^ {/
the fatty acid tails are hydrophobic (water-repelling) — the tails face inwards, es &
shielding themselves from water with their glycerol heads.

Phospholipids make up the bilayer of cell membranes (see p. 36).

Cell membranes control what enters and leaves a cell.

1) Their heads are hydrophilic and their tails are hydrophobic, so they form
a double layer with their heads facing out towards the water on either side.
2) The centre of the bilayer is hydrophobic, so water-soluble substances can't
easily pass through it — the membrane acts as a barrier to those substances.

Use the Emulsion Test for Lipids

If you wanted to find out if there was any fat in a

s
particular food you could do the emulsion test:
1) Shake the test substance with ethanol for
about a minute so that it dissolves, then pour
the solution into water.
2) Any lipid w ill show up as a milky emulsion.
3) The more lipid there is, the more noticeable Test substance Shake Add to Milky colour
the milky colour w ill be. and ethanol water indicates lipid