Use Figure 23.1 to identify the family of lipids to which each of these molecules belongs.
b.

Question

Use Figure 23.1 to identify the family of lipids to which each of these molecules belongs.

b. Chemical structure diagram of fatty acids, illustrating lipid families with molecular formulas and bonds.

Accepted Answer

Hi, everyone. Our next question says to which family of lipids does the following molecule belong and were given a chemical structure with the choices A tri ayl Glycerol B, glycerophosphate C Sphingomyelin or D glycol lipids. Well, I don't know about you, but sometimes I panic a little bit when having questions about classifying lipids. You've got long chains, you've got similar sounding names, it can feel a bit intimidating. But if we just look at our molecule and its characteristics, one by one, we can get there sort of in a flow chart kind of way. So first of all, we're looking especially at membrane lipids, we want to note, is there a phosphate group which we do have here? So looking at our structure, we have a three carbon backbone, three oxygens there. So we're looking at a Glycerol backbone. So it had three carbons, three alcohol groups originally on those three carbons. And the we have groups attached to where those alcohol groups were. And now we see we also have this phosphate group that's down on the bottom carbon three and on carbons, one and two, we see that we have ester linkages. So we'll write that in there. And another thing to note is that these are pretty short uh chains on here. We've got these extra linkages to just, we've got 1234 carbons in the first chain and 12345 carbons in the second chain. So we often in lipid, see really long uh carbon chains there. And then of course, we mentioned we have our phosphate group down on carbon three. So we could expect we'll probably see a phospho in the name somewhere. Not always. Um but that's a pretty good bet if we're looking at multiple choice questions. So right away, our eye should be drawn to choice B Glycerol phospho lipids, not only does it have that phospho in there, but it has the beginning of Glycerol indicating a Glycerol backbone. So on a mobile choice question, I definitely would just pick B and move on. We don't have any other answers with phospho in them. Uh But we don't have a speed imperative here. So we want to go thoroughly. So let's just think about our other answer choices and make sure this is correct. But we know given the name, we have, we have a Glycerol backbone, a phosphate group and their lipids. We have these astra linkages to hydrocarbon chains. So we have another molecule here that has a Glycerol backbone choice, a tri aal Glycerol. These are more well known as triglycerides and can include fat, fats, waxes and oils if you've got unsaturated chains there. And yes, these involve a Glycerol backbone, but they don't have a phosphate group. Instead, they have three fatty acid chains attached by tra linkages. And just depending on the characteristics of those chains, they could be solids or liquids. Thus, the fats waxes oils categories. But that's not what we're looking at here because we don't have three chains, but two plus a phosphate group. Now, when we look at choice C sphingomyelin, sphingomyelin actually have phosphate as well, but they don't have a Glycerol backbone. They have a sphingosine backbone. Now, this is the other type of backbone we see in membrane phospholipids, but his Fingen backbone is huge. It's an 18 carbon amino alcohol. So it's really quite easy to distinguish between a sphingosine backbone and a Glycerol backbone, even with a quick glance at a molecule. So any time you see singo, you're gonna be expecting to see this big old chain, an amino group, an alcohol group that also has one unsaturated um carbon carbon bond in that backbone. And specifically sphingomyelin, as well as the sphingosine backbone also have phospholine. So that pho there's that phosphate group and a fatty acid chain as well, but pretty obviously not what we have here. And then finally choice D glycol lipids. And this is, I know for me, I shouldn't, but sometimes, you know, it's easy to mix up just looking real quickly between Glyco and Glycerol. But Glyco of course, means a carbohydrate group and gly glycol lipids are lipid molecules with a carbohydrate group. There's the glyco covalent attached to the polar head. So these can actually have either glycerol or sphingosine backbones. So any lipids you might find in a cell membrane and then you usually see these carbohydrate or you see these carbohydrate groups on the surface of the cell membrane. So choice d not correct, be careful. You don't mix up glyco and glycerol. But here we go in the case of our molecule again, when looked at closely. And then compared to our answer choices this molecule with its Glycerol backbone, two uh tra linkages, two hydrocarbon chains and one phosphate group is choice B A glycophos lipid. See you in the next video.

Use Figure 23.1 to identify the family of lipids to which each of these molecules belongs.
b.

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Lipid Classification

Structure of Lipids

Biological Functions of Lipids

Use Figure 23.1 to identify the family of lipids to which each of these molecules belongs.b.

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Lipid Classification

Structure of Lipids

Biological Functions of Lipids

Use Figure 23.1 to identify the family of lipids to which each of these molecules belongs.
b.