Unique properties of different kinds of membranes are due to membrane proteins, and these makeup around 1/3 rd of the proteins in living organisms. Membrane proteins are the proteins that are adhered to or associated with the biological membrane. A significant fraction (20-30%) of all genes in genomes encode for membrane proteins, and thus, these are targets and potential candidates for medicinal drug discovery. Ion channels, transporter, receptors, and enzymes represent membrane proteins. Lipid bilayer provides the structural framework of the cell membrane, while membrane proteins facilitate many biological processes such as cell adhesion, cell signaling, cell recognition, energy transduction, and cellular transport. Thus, their amount and types vary with different types of membrane. Similarly, internal organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplast that are involved in energy transduction constitute around 75% of proteins. Lipids and proteins are the major constituents of most plasma membranes which account for approximately 50-50% each by weight, with carbohydrate portion of glycolipids and glycoproteins comprising 5 to 10% of the membrane mass.
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