Introduction - This is the electron crystal structure of bacteriorhodopsin from H. halobium.  The script shows the structure of the rhodopsin in a bilayer. Scroll down until the text corresponding to the view is visible. (Based on 2bdr.pdb, N.Grigorieff et al. J. Mol. Biol. 259 393 (1996)).

Here is rhodopsin (GREEN) complexed to several lipid molecules (cpk).

Here is one transmembrane helix. The backbone is WHITE, the polar groups are YELLOW and the hydrophobic groups are RED

   Here are two phospholipid molecules bound to the transmembrane helix.Note that the hydrophobic side chains interact with the fatty acid chains.

Here is another view of rhodopsin complexed to phospholipids.

Notice in this cut away that hydrophobic amino acid side chains interact with the fatty acid chains.