Lipids: structure and classification

spinqualitylabelsall models Show:Asymmetric Unit Biological Assembly Drag the structure with the mouse to rotate   Export Animated Image   Print3D Lipids. Fatty acids.- Palmitic acid, a saturated 16 carbon fatty acid. Look its carboxyle group, an its long hydrocarbon chain. Oleic acid, a monounsaturated 18 carbon fatty acid. Most monounsaturated natural fatty acids are cis-unsaturated. Linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated 18 carbon fatty acid. This fatty acid has two double bounds with cis configuration. Linolenic acid, another polyunsaturated 18 carbon fatty acid with three double bounds Saponifiable lipids.- Triglycerides.- Zoom on triglyceride structure. Waxes.- for instance bee wax. Phosphoglycerides.- lipids composed of glycerol, two fatty acids, phosphoric acid and a polar compound like ethanolamine. Sphingolipids.- all of them include in their structure the amino alcohol sphingosine. Sphingosine bind to a fatty acid to yield ceramide, the common structural feature of all sphingolipids. Unsaponifiable lipids.- Terpenes.- they are polymers of the 5 carbon unsaturated hydrocarbon named isoprene (2-methyl-1,3 butadiene). Some terpenes are beta-carotene, lycopene, geraniol, resveratrol, and tetrahydrocannabinol. Steroids.- Some steroids are cholesterol, testosterone and estradiol. vitamin D is also a steroid. Eicosanoids.- They are derived from unsaturated 20 carbon fatty acid named arachidonic acid. Prostaglandins are a class of eicosanoids.

See Also

• Lipid bilayers and gramicidin channel

References

• Molecular models in this page were created or modified from pdb files by Alejandro Porto using the tool JSME Molecular Editor [1]

Proteopedia Page Contributors and Editors (what is this?)

Alejandro Porto, Eric Martz, Joel L. Sussman, Karsten Theis