Proteolipid

A proteolipid is a protein covalently linked to lipid molecules, which can be fatty acids, isoprenoids or sterols. The process of such a linkage is known as protein lipidation, and falls into the wider category of acylation and post-translational modification. Proteolipids are abundant in brain tissue, and are also present in many other animal and plant tissues. They include ghrelin, a peptide hormone associated with feeding. Many proteolipids are composed of proteins covalenently bound to fatty acid chains,^[1] often granting them an interface for interacting with biological membranes.^[2] They are not to be confused with lipoproteins, a kind of spherical assembly made up of many molecules of lipids and some apolipoproteins.