glucose and hydrocarbons

[benny]

can someone please tell me what effect glucose has on hydrocarbons, in particular the hydrocarbons present in cell membranes. as well, what about it's effects on phospholipids.

[RobJim]

Why do you need to know? We're not here to do peoples' homework for them.

In general there aren't any hydrocarbons in cell membranes, and glucose wouldn't as far as I know react or even mix with hydrocarbons to any significant extent.

[benny]

i need to know because i'm on a forum where apparently you can ask questions about stuff and people who know more about that stuff can at least point me towards an answer. i'm just curious, and yes, there are hydrocarbons in cell membranes.
thanks for the info about the glucose not mixing with hc's.

[RobJim]

I didn't mean to offend you. A lot of students come here and simply copy their homework problems word for word into a thread and expect us to answer them for them. This is something I try to avoid doing.

From what I understand cell membranes are made of phospholipids arranged in a bilayer with the polar parts on the outside of the layer and the nonpolar parts on the inside of the bilayer. There are also proteins on one of the sides or going through the bilayer. Hydrocarbons are molecules with only carbon and hydrogen atoms. If there were any in the membrane, they'd be trapped inside the bilayer with the nonpolar parts of the phospholipids.

Can you explain what you mean when you say there are hydrocarbons in the membrane? What hydrocarbons are you referring to?

I suppose it's possible that unsaturated hydrocarbons might react under some conditions with sugars. I don't know offhand of such reactions between alkenes or alkynes and sugars but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

Take a look here for info about the cell membrane:

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

[Macak]

In the composition of neutral lipids of the whole cells, squalene was by far the most abundant making up 33% of total lipids. This finding was supported by the results for the plasma membrane and mitochondria, where the low content of ergosterol and markedly high content of squalene were found. Such a low content of ergosterol, resulting in the accumulation of squalene, is the consequence of strongly anaerobic conditions since the essential step in the biosynthesis of ergosterol is oxygen-requiring. Therefore, based on result of our reserch hydrocarbons are present.....the project ““ Lipid Composition of the Whole Cells, Plasma Membrane and Mitochondria of Brewer's Yeas““....