MA'AM

Cards (7)

  • A long time ago, there was a sophisticated creature named Cell Membrane. Her parents sometimes fondly called her Plasma Membrane. Her entire body is made of phospholipid bilayer that makes her semi-permeable which simply means that she does not allow everything to pass freely inside-out of her. Is she likely to be choosy about who she allows into her life or is she just simply looking for "Mr. Right"?
  • A Phospholipid has a hydrophilic head and two hydrophilic tails. Therefore, it is always interesting when Cell Membrane takes a bath. She loves to soak her head with water while her two tails are always hiding inside her because she hates it when water touches them. Nobody in the community was able to peep on her tails on how they look like thus, these remain mysterious to them.
  • Phospholipid's head has alcohol and glycerol group while chains of fatty acids comprised her tails. These make Plasma Membrane more elegant. Her body is pampered with another type of lipid called cholesterol. Just like phospholipid, cholesterol is also amphipathic. Cell Membrane calls cholesterol as "sterol" because it is composed of alcohol and steroid which give her more fluid. This characteristic is most admired by friends because it makes her body soft and huggable
  • Proteins are perhaps Cell Membrane's lovely personal assistants (PA) since they transport materials into and out of the cell. Integral proteins or "transmembrane proteins" that go all the way through the bilayer controls what enter and exit the Cell. Peripheral proteins are only on one side and sometimes attached to integral protein.
  • Protein makes Cell Membrane talk of the town as "cool but fearful" since she attacks to death some of her invading enemies. What make Cell Membrane more vigilant is the presence of carbohydrates with 2-60 monosaccharides unit.
  • Plasma Membrane has twins of carbohydrates attached to her lipid which she called "glycolipid" and the other is linked to the protein named "glycoprotein". Glycoprotein helps Cell Membrane in recognizing who her neighbors are whether they are of the same kind, friends, or enemies. These chains of carbohydrates serve as antenna or CCTV that are constantly monitoring and spying the surroundings keeping her most loved cell organelles protected.
  • Just like her parents, Cell Membrane or "Plasma Membrane" loves to call her allies on their nicknames such as: integral protein as "transmembrane protein"; cholesterol as "sterol"; carbohydrates attached to lipid as "glycolipid"; and carbohydrates attached to protein as "glycoprotein". Sophisticated, choosy, attacker, are just some of Cell Membrane's attributes. All these are made possible because of her treasures: phospholipid bilayer, cholesterol, proteins, and carbohydrates which the illustrators J Singer and G. Nicolson painted her as a "Fluid Mosaic Model".