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Cell Membrane

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CELL BIOLOGY AND GENETICS ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: CELL MEMBRANE [pic]

INTRODUCTION

Cell membranes are crucial to the life of the cell. It encloses the cell defines its boundaries, and maintains the essential difference between the cytosol and the extra cellular environment. Inside the cell the membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and other membrane bound organelles in a eukaryotic cell maintain the characteristic differences between the contents of each organelle and the cytosol. Ion gradients across membranes, established by the activities of specialized membrane proteins, can be used to synthesize ATP to drive the transmembrane movement of selected solutes, or in nerve and muscle cells, to produce and transmit electrical signals. In all cells the plasma membrane also contains proteins that act as sensors of external signals allowing the cell to change its behavior in response to environmental cues; these protein sensors, or receptors, transfer information rather than ions or molecules across the membrane.

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THE STRUCTURE OF THE CELL MEMBRANE

All biological membranes have a common general structure: each is a very thin film of lipid and protein molecules, held together mainly by non covalent interactions. Cell membranes are dynamic, fluid structures, and most of their molecules are able to move about in the plane of the membrane. The lipid molecules are arranged as a continuous double layer about 5nm thick. This lipid bilayer provides the basic structure of the membrane and serves as a relatively impermeable barrier to the passage of most water-soluble molecules. Protein molecules “dissolved” in the lipid bilayer mediate most of the other functions of the membrane, transporting specific molecules

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