Mixed Systems
Bilayers need not be composed of a single type of lipid and, in fact, most natural membranes are a complex mixture of different lipid molecules. Such mixtures often exhibit properties intermediate to their components, but are also capable of a phenomenon not seen in single component systems: phase separation. If some of the components are liquid at a given temperature while others are in the gel phase, the two phases can coexist in spatially separated populations. This phase separation plays a critical role in biochemical phenomena because membrane components such as proteins can partition into one or the other phase and thus be locally concentrated or activated.
Read more about this topic: Lipid Bilayer Phase Behavior
Famous quotes containing the words mixed and/or systems:
“The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and gray,
and mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (19111979)
“People stress the violence. Thats the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it theres a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. Theres a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, theres a satisfaction to the game that cant be duplicated. Theres a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)