What is the general structure of a lipid??

Question

What is the general structure of a lipid??

Answer 1

It is a fat-soluble molecule.. Lipids are fats, oils, waxes, steroids and cholesterol and they store energy and are components in cell walls. As far as structure, they're branches of many types of things, so heres some pictures w/info for help.

Good luck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid

Answer 2

All lipids have lots of nonpolar C-H bonds, which make them repel water. However, they're not all quite the same.

If you're thinking a triglyceride (which is your basic "fat"), it has a glycerol backbone - which is basically CH2(OH)CH(OH)CH2(OH) - plus three fatty acid chains - which are basically long CH3(CH2)nCOOH chains, which are acids which are "fatty" because have a lot of CH bonds and are therefore very nonpolar, and repel water.

The acids are joined onto the glycerol backbone with a dehydration reaction - the OH of the COOH and the -H of glycerol's OH join to make water, and the O of the OH bonds with the C of the COOH.

Tadaaa!

Saturated fatty acids have no C-H double bonds; monounsaturated have one; polyunsaturated have two or more.

Cis double bonds are found in nature, whereas trans happen in manufacturing processes, and are unnatural. That's why you hear about trans-fats being bad.

Phospholipids, like in the phospholipid bilayer of a cell membrane, have a phosphate group (like in nucleic acids) attached instead of a third fatty acid.

Sphingolipids are a special, and more rare, class of lipids. They have an "amino alcohol" - which is basically a long chain with an OH group, linked to one long chain by an O and to another by an NH.

They're found in neural tissue, for the most part.

Steroids have lots of rings instead of long chains. Sometimes they have a double bond or two in the rings.

Cholesterol is a steroid, and a precursor for many hormones (like estrogen and testosterone).