Talk:Cell membrane

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Use another website a cell wall is a biological membrane that helps the cell seperate all the interior of a cells. come on people gosh just stupid I mean like what the heck.

Not written by the above writer. If the cell membrane (plasma membrane) "is a biological membrane that separates the interior of all cells from the outside environment," then does such a definition make it seem that the cell wall of a cell is in the "outside environment"? Perhaps the definition should be concerned with the cytoplasm--for example, "the plasma membrane surrounds the cytoplasm."

Also, if the cell in the associated diagram contains cholesterol, then must it not be some type of animal cell? And if it is an animal cell, then should the diagram be entitled "Animal-cell membrane" rather than "Cell membrane"? And should "Illustration of a Eukaryotic cell membrane" read instead "Illustration of a Eukaryotic animal-cell membrane"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yurugu (talk • contribs) 12:58, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

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Caveolae

Can someone well-versed on this topic incorporate Caveolae into this article? Kingturtle 00:08 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

No I can't help you out, Kingturtle...I'm sorry. If you are a teacher, I strongly recommend this site to your students. I am a high schooler in biology and have found this site very helpful in looking up words and information. Plus, it's free!! I strongly recommend it! Happy exploring with Wikipedia!!!!

I think it's worth having a separate article; research in the field is ongoing and the caveolae article could potentially expand considerably. It should be linked from here, though; it it? I'll check. --Chinasaur 00:39, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

ERE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.130.100.59 (talk) 03:42, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Transport

I can't do it right now, but someone should add a section to this article about: 1) junctions between the cell membrane (i.e. desmosomes, tight junctions, hemidesmosomes, etc.) 2) all three transports (right now there are only two - all three are simple, facilitated, and active).

I also can't do it right now, but someone should add a section on apical and basolateral membrane, and redirects too. --Eleassar777 14:34, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Artificial outer membranes

I added today an article about polymersomes and checked out the liposome article. Both are currently stubs. I don't have the expertise required to write about them beyond what I already wrote (and that's not much and probably lacking in various aspects) but it would be nice if someone qualified could write them.

Link to this article should be added as well, as should links to them be added to this article. I'd also be very pleased if someone could start an article about artificial cells. --Khokkanen 10:34, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Structure of biological membranes

This needs to be improved. I inserted a few phrases, please fell free to edit anything. Note that biological membranes include carbohydrate component, in addition to lipids and proteins. Biophys 02:45, 30 January 2007 (UTC) I HATE IT — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.26.75.13 (talk) 21:38, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Fluid mosaic model

Fluid mosaic model redirects here. I think it might be better to add that topic to biological membrane though, for the simple reasion that it is more general while this article is the more specific case. A cell has other membranes besides its plasma membrane, but the lipid bilayer/fluid mosaic model applies to all of them. - tameeria 04:24, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I would like to make a small article describing the fluid mosaic model, and will be working on this over the next week. This article already exists in other languages. - charnixon 14:25, 28 November 2014 (PT)

Illustration of a cell membrane

This picture is not correct. The legend of this figure sounds weird to me. I've got the impression it mixes different systems of protein classification: the integral protein is globular, the transmembrane helix is intergral, the channel protein is a transport protein, peripheral protein are different from surface protein... that's very confusing! The term "globular" is rarely, if not never, used for membrane proteins. It qualifies the shape of (soluble) proteins. Actually, this is the opposite of "fibrous proteins". The integral proteins, as shown on the picture, are bi/polytopic proteins in fact. Integral means "tighly bound to the membrane", and not necessarly transmembrane. In the same idea, "peripheral" means "not tighly bound to the membrane". Only biochemical tests can say if the case for a specific protein... So the "peripheral" protein showm in the picture is in fact a monotopic protein. That's all you can say without performing tests. Actually, the surface protein is probably also a peripheral proteins. Finally, cholesterols look oriented in the wrong sense with their aliphatic tails oreitned toward the hydrophilic heads of phospholipids. cheers. -- 22:56, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

also, "peripheral" is spelt wrong Crana 11:10, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Protein functions in cell membranes

I'm proposing to merge the contents of the article Protein Function in Cell Membranes either into this one or into membrane protein. - tameeria (talk) 02:22, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm behind you on that. I think that membrane protein would be the more appropriate place to merge it. – ClockworkSoul 05:13, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

I just did it, there was very little in "Protein Function" to salvage.Biophys (talk) 00:43, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Cell Membrane Difference

In the article, it says there are different type of cell membrane in different cells. In effect, does it mean a plant cell's membrane have the different composition than an animal's cell's membrane? And should we state it?Rider555 (talk) 02:25, 19 April 2008 (UTC) Rider555

New diagram of cell membrane

I did significant work on the cell membrane image when it was a Featured Picture Candidate and thought that the article could benefit from it. It shows the membrane more clearly and places it in context within the cell. Also shown are a more detailed view of the bilayer and phospholipids that make up a critical part of the membrane. If you have any corrections or suggestions I would like to hear them. Dhatfield (talk) 15:43, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

A non-technical alternative?

This page is a very in depth view of the cell membrane, scientifically precise etc. But it's hugely daunting to someone without a deep biological background. There's no link to an alternative laymans version of the page, and simple english wikipedia's version[1] has barely any content. Any chance of some of you working on either a laymans wiki page under a slight variant name (I'm not sure how standard they are, but maths articles often do so) or working on the Simple English version? -94.192.232.74 (talk) 16:19, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. This is a subject I do understand, but I still think it should be more accessible. There's no point in having an article if the only people who can understand it are the people who already know the topic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.78.98.200 (talk) 17:14, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Membrane Cholesterol

The high molecular percentage of cholesterol required by membranes (20% molecular) and lipid rafts (up to 50% molecular)makes its absence from lipid membrane text and diagrams one of the huge enigmas of modern cell membrane science. Most trans-membrane functions will seriously slow down if cholesterol is reduced by 9%.
example: Author: Waseem, Tatyana V;Kolos, Viktoriya A;Lapatsina, Liudmila P;Fedorovich, Sergei V Title: Influence of cholesterol depletion in plasma membrane of rat brain synaptosomes on calcium-dependent and calcium-independent exocytosis Journal: Neurosci Lett Volume: 405 Year: 2006 Pages: 106-10 http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16835010
Glynwiki (talk) 16:49, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

mandoflorpes

I've never heard the term "mandoflorpes", let alone in conjunction with the plasma membrane. A Google search for the term yields no results apart from this page and pages that have obviously copied this page word-for-word. Is this a typo, perhaps? M0rg4n (talk) 03:56, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Just gibberish added by an IP editor. Removed. Tim Vickers (talk) 23:10, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

sizes of elements are missing

Sizes of the various membrane elements are missing. Please add. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.203.95.161 (talk) 15:04, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from 96.248.222.240, 24 January 2011

{{edit semi-protected}} under the section "in simpler terms" talking about the lipid bilayer, it is written that the tails are hydrophilic and the heads are hydrophobic. this is the opposite of the truth and should be changed. it is even written elsewhere on the article that the tails are hydrophobic and the heads are hydrophilic

96.248.222.240 (talk) 02:36, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Done Stickee (talk) 06:02, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

cell membrane - plasma membrane - Synonyms?

Plasma membrane is a redirect to this article, and is used later in it - but there isnt any definition - synonyms? Christian75 20:11, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

This article is somewhat confusing - cell membranes actually include internal membranes. Plasma membrane is the outer membrane and is generally different (contains glycolipids and glycoproteins on the outer side) than many of the inner membranes. This should be clarified. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Membrane-biologist (talk • contribs) 02:51, 26 August 2012 (UTC)

a cytoplasm is the gel like material that surrounds the internal parts of the cell!!! knowledge speaks to me and don't ask what im talking about but if you know you are smart if you didn't know you are stupid — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.13.250.4 (talk) 23:50, 2 October 2013 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 December 2014

Please change

Fluid mosaic model

According to the fluid mosaic model of

to

Fluid mosaic model

According to the fluid mosaic model of

as I created a page describing the fluid mosaic model.

Charnixon (talk) 04:50, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

 Done - Arjayay (talk) 09:45, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 March 2016

165.155.200.91 (talk) 16:56, 23 March 2016 (UTC) the logs are not updated and can get lots of changes in the new time

Not done; request incomprehensible. Pinkbeast (talk) 17:20, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Cell membrane/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Fluid mosaic model should get the top importance rating; it currently redirects here, which is not completely correct as it applies to biological membranes and not just the plasmalemma - tameeria 17:13, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 18:46, 21 October 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 11:07, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Cell Biology Article Editing

This article was written well. All of the paragraphs flowed into each other and were easy to follow. Under the "function" heading, it was easy to understand the different types of transport through the membrane. I liked that it was broken down into four sections, and that each was described in detail. All of the information presented was relevant to cell membranes except the last part of the paragraph under “Cytoskeleton”. The last part was all about cilia and their function on the cell, which is not relevant to the main focus of the cytoskeleton. Also, there were some places in the article where terms were not defined. This made it hard to understand what the information was talking about. For instance, under the "function" heading, in the second paragraph it says "The membrane also maintains the cell potential" it would help if the cell potential was defined, and describe how the membrane maintains it. All of the citation links provided in the references worked properly. However, most of the paragraphs in the article did not have a citation. A lot of facts were presented without a reference link of any kind. It would make the information more credible if they were supported with references. Other than the suggestions above, the article was very informative. There were no opinions or biased statements made. Maggiehager (talk) 02:34, 1 October 2016 (UTC)

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cell bio Section 101 suggested edits

Stephanie: Wants to elaborate on what transmembrane protein channels are, their structure, how they contribute to membrane function Brittani: Greater detail on what structures of the membrane are involved in diffusion, what mechanisms and structures allow for diffusion across a membrane Zach: Osmosis- describe structures, process, method of osmosis, how is it different from just diffusuion Peyton: What membrane structures allow for endocytosis, how are caveoli involved

Oolemma

The article states that the oolemma is not the plasma membrane of the egg cell. Maybe this is an outdated meaning of the word. At least, the contrary seems to be the major meaning, [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

The 6th one references a book that is funny in that it uses the term (as do the books referenced above) for the plasmalemma but has a Glossary stating the other definition. Note that also WP articles use the term as (or explicitly state it as equivalent to) 'plasmalemma', e.g. Vitelline membrane.

I suggest changing Oolemma from a redirection page to a disambiguation page linking this page and maybe ZP as per this dictionary. --Rainald62 (talk) 17:07, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 August 2018

Smart person's ing (talk) 07:56, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

because it is all wrong

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Danski454 (talk) 10:42, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

Hook misled a theory?

At the start of the History section, the phrase “Hooke misled the cell membrane theory ...” is grammatically incorrect. People get misled, not theories. I’m not sure what the intent was, but I’m guessing it’s something like Hook made an error in his version of (or contribution to) the theory. Or maybe it was that Hook misunderstood or misinterpreted someone else’s version of (or contribution to) the theory. Regardless, it needs fixed. I’d do it but: a) I, a non expert, would need to go figure out what the correct meaning is, whereas one of y’all bio types will probably know that already, and b) the page is edit locked. Oh, and when someone does fix it, you’ll probably want to drop the definite article (the word “the”) as well. That is, it should probably be just “cell membrane theory” rather than “the cell membrane theory”. (Either that, or “cell membrane theory” would need to be in title case — “Cell Membrane Theory”, But I don’t think that’s what we’re looking for. Again, I’d defer to the bio people.) 2600:387:A:15:0:0:0:C4 (talk) 13:39, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 30 September 2018

Mingdao107 (talk) 08:55, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 14:19, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 February 2019 ;

2604:2000:1201:50D:1DE:D142:6A1B:8DDC (talk) 21:16, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. NiciVampireHeart 21:52, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 September 2019

Lipids

Examples of the major membrane phospholipids and glycolipids: phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho), phosphatidylethanolamine (PtdEtn), phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns), phosphatidylserine (PtdSer). The cell membrane consists of three classes of amphipathic lipids: phospholipids, glycolipids, and sterols. The amount of each depends upon the type of cell, but in the majority of cases phospholipids are the most abundant, often contributing for over 50% of all lipids in plasma membranes.[21][22] Glycolipids only account for a minute amount of about 2% and sterols make up the rest. In RBC studies, 30% of the plasma membrane is lipid. However, for the majority of eukaryotic cells, the composition of plasma membranes is about half lipids and half proteins by weight.

Change "for a minute" into "for a minimum" because the word minute seems out of place. PaulvanDoorenmalen (talk) 16:47, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

 Not done. It's a bit awkward, but see wikt:minute#Adjective. Changing it would change the meaning, possibly inappropriately. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 01:43, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 September 2019

Variations The cell membrane has different lipid and protein compositions in distinct types of cells and may have therefore specific names for certain cell types.

Sarcolemma in myocytes: “Sarcolemma” is the name given to the cell membrane of myocytes (also known as muscle cells).[43] Although the sarcolemma is similar to other cell membranes, it has other functions that set it apart. For instance, the sarcolemma transmits synaptic signals, helps generate action potentials, and is very involved in muscle contractions.[44] Unlike other cell membranes, the sarcolemma makes up small channels called “t-tubules” that pass through the entirety of muscle cells. It has also been found that the average sarcolemma is 10 m thick as opposed to the 4 m thickness of a general cell membrane.[45][43] Oolemma is the cell membrane in oocytes: The oolemma of oocytes, (immature egg cells) are not consistent with a lipid bilayer as they lack a bilayer and do not consist of lipids.[46] Rather, the structure has an inner layer, the fertilization envelope, and the exterior is made up of the vitelline layer, which is made up of glycoproteins; however, channels and proteins are still present for their functions in the membrane. Axolemma: The specialized plasma membrane on the axons of nerve cells that is responsible for the generation of the action potential. It consists of a granular, densely packed lipid bilayer that works closely with the cytoskeleton components spectrin and actin. These cytoskeleton components are able to bind to and interact with transmembrane proteins in the axolemma.[47][48]

Replace "that pass through the entirety of muscle cells. It has also been found that the average sarcolemma is 10 m thick as opposed to the 4 m thickness of a general cell membrane."

into

"that pass through the entirety of muscle cells. It has also been found that the average sarcolemma is 10 nm thick as opposed to the 4 nm thickness of a general cell membrane."

Cause nanometer is a far more believable scale then the opposed meter. PaulvanDoorenmalen (talk) 17:57, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

 Done https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966Natur.211..534R/abstract states "the sarcolemma is regarded as a semi-permeable unit membrane about 100 Å thick". Based on an Angstrom being 0.1nm, that would make it 10 nm. NiciVampireHeart 23:25, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Use of 'inner membrane' to mean inner lipid layer

In the subsection headed 'Lipid bilayer' it says 'Flippases and scramblases concentrate phosphatidyl serine, which carries a negative charge, on the inner membrane.' Shouldn't this be 'on the inner lipid layer' to distinguish lipid layers from the complete membrane? Strayan (talk) 01:31, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Organelle membranes

I think students would like to know the membranes or organelles may differ structurally from the cell membrane. Specifically the tonoplast. I was surprised that it is not even mentioned in the article. Numerous high school biology teachers seem to use this term; perhaps it's outdated and not used at higher academic and research levels? Strayan (talk) 03:48, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Badly written article

This whole article is badly written and desperately needs to be made more readable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.157.234.81 (talk) 21:23, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

Mention of oolemma seems wrong

I'm not an expert on this topic and just heard about oolemmas for the very first time, but if I'm not mistaken the mention of the oolema in the "variations" section in the article doesn't make much sense (which is 1/3 of the topics in the variations section). The introductory sentence makes it seem like this is about variations of a cell membrane. However the oolemma is probably a structure ON TOP of a cell membrane, right? It is more like a ECM or cell wall type of structure, and not a variation of of a cell membrane. ScienceEel (talk) 22:33, 11 August 2023 (UTC)