1. Q 1
Liposomes and black membranes are two major tools to the study the basic properties of biological membranes (Figs. 10-9, 10-10). Please list several potential usages for each of these two model systems. Explain your answers.

2. Q 2
Phospholipids and glycolipids are distributed asymmetrically in the plasma membrane bilayer.
How can the lipid asymmetry in plasma membrane be detected?
(How a cell generates this type of lipid asymmetry will be introduced in Ch. 12)

3. Q 3
Mild nonionic detergents can be used for solubilizing, purifying and reconstituting functional membrane proteins
How can you test if they are really functional? 3

4. Q 4
What do these events have anything to do with osmosis and ion channels?

5. Q 5
In the central nervous system, many synapses are “inhibitory.” Please describe the ionic basis explaining how a synapse generates an inhibitory signal.

6. Q 6
The neuromuscular junction (Fig ) is very efficient (it takes a very short time to pass the signal from the motor neuron to the muscle), very faithful (an action potential always generates a contraction), and it can fully control the innervated skeletal muscle (one skeletal muscle only follows the “order” from one motor neuron). Explain how these characteristics are achieved. 6