If a scientist wanted to know whether a particular hydrocarbon was in use in a cell's plasma membrane, they could search the organism's:
A) metabolome.
B) lipidome.
C) glycome.
D) proteome.
E) genome.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The plasma membrane is primarily composed of lipids, so to determine whether a specific hydrocarbon is present in the membrane, the scientist should search the lipidome of the organism. The metabolome refers to all the small molecules present in a cell or organism, the glycome refers to all the sugars present (which are not a major component of the plasma membrane), the proteome refers to all the proteins present, and the genome refers to the DNA sequence of the organism (which does not necessarily directly indicate the presence of a specific hydrocarbon in the plasma membrane).

If a Scientist Wanted to Know Whether a Particular Hydrocarbon