effect of enzymes on cell membrane - (Apr/13/2006 )
im in yr 12 doing bio coursework titled 'the effect of detergent on cell membrane permeability'
with most of this im fine i understand surfactants and all that, its the enzymes from bio detergent that are puzzling me. would the protease in bio detergent be able to affect the intrinsic/extrinsic proteins in the bi-layer? or would it be the phopholipids be affected by another enzyme? if its affected at all
i know this is way below you levels of expertise but this would be a great help
thanks
what do you mean by 'biodetergent'? do you have the composition of what it contains?
the surfactants will disrupt the lipid bilayer then the proteases will digest the proteins (from the membrane and the released cytosol).
I too thought the same but the title of course work is kinda mismatch here then. See if detergents are disrupting the membranes then it seems alien to talk about the permiability of the disrupted membrane!
For very low conc. of detergents the membr won't get disrupted.
So i think they ask how the permeability varies for non-disrupting conc's of the detergent.
IS it so?
hrushikesh
low concentrations of detergent will partially disrupt the memrane making it more permeable (kind of like punching holes in a bag). the proteases will digest the exposed proteins.