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Practice problem

Lipids — Overview & Importance in Biology

By Jasper Brown
A diagram of cis and trans confirmations of double bonds. The cis confirmation produces a kink while the trans does not.

When a double bond forms, it can take 2 different confirmations--either cis or trans. As shown in the figure above, if it is the cis confirmation, it will form a kink, while the trans variant will. Lipids are able to take the trans confirmation (called trans fats), and can have serious health complications. In what way would a cis-unsaturated fat differ from a trans-unsaturated fat?

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Type a concept, like “slope” or “photosynthesis”.

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