My professor tells us that carbohydrate is an important part of phospholipid, but phospholipid is composed of Choline, Phosphate, Glycerol and two Fattyacid, and I don't think even one of them is carbohydrate.
What's wrong with my statements?
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asked Sep 28, 2014 at 18:22
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$\begingroup$ Question: What is a fatty acid and which elements do you find in it? $\endgroup$– Chris ♦Sep 28, 2014 at 18:57
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$\begingroup$ Similar question: what are the elements in glycerol? $\endgroup$– MattDMoSep 28, 2014 at 19:14
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$\begingroup$ @Chris Sir, fatty acid is a kind of lipids and I find C,H,O in it. $\endgroup$– Ave MaleficumSep 28, 2014 at 19:30
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$\begingroup$ There you have the carbohydrate part you are looking for. $\endgroup$– Chris ♦Sep 28, 2014 at 20:08
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1$\begingroup$ Phospholipids have lipids, of course, but those are bound to glycerol, a 3 carbon carbohydrate that is usually derived from glucose. Glycerol is the only carbohydrate (or even carbohydrate-like) part of the phospholipid. $\endgroup$– Jason PattersonSep 29, 2014 at 17:34
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2 Answers
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Your thinking is correct based on typical carbohydrates, but glycerol, the backbone of the phospholipid, is a 3-carbon carbohydrate that is usually derived from glucose. It is not a sugar, but it does fall into the general class of polyols (aka sugar alcohols) that are a type of carbohydrate.
A carbohydrate definitely is an important structural part of the phospholipid, but your instructor probably should have been more clear in describing why that is the case; I can definitely understand your confusion here.
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There's nothing wrong in your statements! Maybe your professor was talking about glycolipids, that are lipids (also phospholipids) with a carbohydrate attached; they can be found on the outer surface of all eukaryotic cell membranes. They are important because they work as a recognition site for specific chemicals or for antibodies.
