Explain the association of carbohydrate to the plasma membrane and its significance.

Explanation

Sugar residues or carbohydrates attaches either with proteins or lipids usually making UP less than 10% of the membrane weight, they can give rise to a wide variety of structures in relatively short chains. They give individual cell types a distinguishing features. Therefore, they may be involved in.
Cell Recognition e.g., surface of RBC have carbohydrates arranged in branched chains: differences in the arrangement give rise to different blood group antigens (i.e., AB and 0).
Cell surface differences are also responsible for the specificity of action of cells with hormones, drugs, viruses or bacteria. The cause of cell surface differences is related to characteristic surface due to carbohydrate component.