Cell

Transport
Mechanisms

Lecture 6
 Molecular movement
• Spontaneous movement of particles from an area of their
higher concentration to an area of their lower concentration
• Takes place via random kinetic (Brownian) movement
– Net movement stops when concentration on both sides equal (of a
membrane)
• when there is a uniform distribution of particles
• equilibrium is attained
– Molecules continue to move, but no net change in concentration
– Movement of any one compound is independent of the diffusion of
other compounds
• Rate of movement depends on:
– Size of the particle
– Electrical charge
– Concentration gradient
– Thermal energy
P-lipid movement
within the plasma
membrane
 Transmembrane movement
• Passive transport processes
– Membrane / simple diffusion
– Osmosis
– Facilitated diffusion
• Active transport processes
– 1° active transport
– 2° active transport
– Endocytosis
– Exocytosis
Membrane Transport
 Membrane diffusion
• Random motion of membrane lipids can create
Transient Hydrocarbon Pores.
– These transient hydrocarbon pores may be large enough for
small, polar molecules (e.g. water) to move across the
membrane down their concentration gradients.
• The hydrophobic properties of its core allows the
plasma membrane to be permeable to lipophilic (i.e.
lipid soluble) solutes.
– Such solutes passively diffuse down their concentration
gradients through the lipid bilayer.
– This is called Membrane Diffusion
 Membrane diffusion

• Cholesterol (in the membrane) decreases membrane

fluidity and so decreases transient hydrocarbon pore
formation, reducing the permeability of the
membrane to water
• Substances that are lipid insoluble (lipophobic) do
not usually traverse the lipid bilayer by membrane
diffusion
Membrane
Transport
 Osmosis
• The flow of water through transient hydrocarbon or
passive protein pores can be due to:
– A Hydrostatic Pressure difference (i.e., a difference in the
pressures of the intra- and extra-cellular solutions); or
– An Osmotic Concentration difference (i.e., a difference in
the concentrations of osmotically-active particles in the
intra- and extra-cellular solutions).
– The resultant movement of water across the plasma
membrane is called Bulk Flow.
• Bulk flow enhances the rate of exchange of small polar solutes
(e.g., urea) which are drawn along, across the membrane, by the
water flow.
• This enhancement of solute flux by bulk water flow is called
Solvent Drag
 Facilitated Diffusion
• Proteins act as carriers or pores permit flux of
substances that cannot diffuse directly through
the membrane
• Movement is still passive (like diffusion), from
high concentration to low
• Occurs across cell membranes only
• Saturates when substance reaches high
concentrations due to lack of available protein
• Related substances can compete for the same
carrier or pore
 Movement of Polar substances
• Some transmembrane proteins also form Passive Protein
Pores.
– These passive protein pores have hollow regions (lined by hydrophilic
groups).
– Polar solutes and water may pass through these hollow regions from
one side of the membrane to the other, down their concentration
gradients.
Facilitated Diffusion
Carrier Proteins
Saturation of a Carrier Protein
 Mediated transport
• The lipid bilayer of biological membranes is intrinsically
impermeable to ions and polar molecules
• Membrane permeability for charged particles is conferred by
two classes of membrane proteins
– pumps
– Pump action is an example of active transport
– channels
– enable ions to flow rapidly through membranes in a
downhill direction.
– Channel action facilitates passive transport / facilitated
diffusion
 Characteristics of ion channels
1. Ion channels can be highly selective for particular ions
– For example, some channels allow the flow of K+ very effectively but
do not allow appreciable levels of Na+ to cross the membrane. Other
channels transport cations but block the flow of anions
2. Ion channels exist in open and closed states
– These channels undergo transitions from the closed state, incapable of
supporting ion transport, to the open state, through which ions can flow
3. Transitions between the open and the closed states are
regulated
– Ion channels are divided into two classes:
• ligand-gated channels open and close in response to the binding of specific
chemicals,
• voltage-gated channels: open and close in response to the electrical potential
across the membrane in which they are found.
– Most ion channels do not remain in an open state indefinitely but,
instead, spontaneously transform into inactivated states that do not
conduct ions.
Facilitated Diffusion via Gated Channel Proteins
• Ligand-gated Channels:
– Protein is complexed to ionic particles
• Acetylcholine acts as an external ligand (binding to) in its role as a
+
neurotransmitter at the synapse (opens Na channels)
- -
• ATP provides for opening of the channels to allow Cl and HCO3 efflux
– internal ligand

acetylcholine
receptor
 Gated Channels
• Mechanically-gated ion Channels:
– Mechanical stimulation of the operation of the ion
channels
• Inner ear:
– sensory cells of the cochlea (sound waves)
– sensory cells of the ampullae (motion sensors)

• Voltage-gated ion channels

– Operate in neurons & muscle cells
• Channels open or close in response to changes in the
voltage potential of the cell membrane
+
– Depolarisation results in the opening of Na channels
+
– Na influx into axon continuation of impulse
 Voltage Gated channels
• Carrier proteins are highly selective about
which ion or molecule they transport.
• Carrier proteins that transport a single solute
from one side of the membrane to the other are
called Uniports
• Carrier proteins that transfer two or more
solutes simultaneously are called Coupled
Transporters:
– Symports
– Antiports
 Active Transport
• Mediated transport may take place actively
– energy-consuming process by which a substance
moves against its concentration (low
concentration high concentration).
• work through membrane pumps, within
proteins in the membrane.
 Active Transport
• Active transport may be
– Primary:
• Process directly harnesses ATP to drive the transport of
ions against their conc. gradient
+ +
– Na - K pump
– use a source of free energy such as ATP or light to drive the
thermodynamically uphill transport of ions or molecules.
• ATP-driven pumps undergo conformational changes on ATP
binding and hydrolysis that cause a bound ion to be
transported across the membrane.

– Secondary:
• Energy indirectly harnessed from ATP coupled to ion
conc. gradient spawned by the 1 process
+
– Influx of glucose & amino acids along with Na re-entering the
cell passively
 1 Active Transport
• The energy for active transport is provided by
the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate
(ATP).
– yields adenosine diphosphate (ADP), energy + Pi
• ATP hydrolysis is catalysed by the enzyme
adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase)
 Na+/K+ pump
• The most common membrane pump is Na+/K+
coupled with ATPase.
– found in the plasma membranes of all animal cells.
– transports 3 Na+ ions out of the cell and 2 K+ ions into the
cell for every molecule of ATP hydrolysed.
– As a result:
• The intracellular Na+ and K+ concentrations are low and high,
respectively; while
• The extracellular Na+ and K+ concentrations are high and low,
respectively.
– Na+/K+ ATPase is an example of an antiport.
1 Active Transport: Na-K pump
ACTIVE TRANSPORT
2° Active Transport
 Transport via vesicle formation

• Plasma membrane may participate in the ingestion

of large foreign or food particles.
• The process by which this occurs is called
endocytosis.
– The opposite of endocytosis is called exocytosis
• Role of the cytoskeleton
 Transport via vesicle formation: Endocytosis
• When endocytosis involves the ingestion of fluid material, it is
called Pinocytosis.
• When endocytosis involves the ingestion of solid material, it is
called Phagocytosis.
• In endocytosis, the fluid or solid to be ingested is surrounded
and engulfed by folds of cytoplasm.
• The fluid or solid then adheres (i.e., is adsorbed) to the plasma
membrane.
• The fluid or solid next penetrates the cell and, as it does so, is
surrounded by plasma membrane.
• The membrane-surrounded fluid or solid then pinches off from
the cell surface and a vesicle or vacuole is formed around the
fluid or solid.
• The process of vacuole formation is called vacuolisation.
ENDOCYTOSIS
 Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis
• Receptor proteins in the cell surface
membrane facilitates entry of specific
macromolecules
Coated pits Coated vesicle into cytoplasm
Lysosome Digestion Assimilation
(receptor dissociates)
– Hepatic LDL (low-density lipoprotein)
recycling
Transport via vesicle formation: Exocytosis
• In exocytosis, vacuoles with secretory
cellular products migrate from the interior
cytoplasm to the cell surface.
• At the cell surface the vacuoles fuse with
the plasma membrane and discharge their
stored products to the exterior of the cell.
• Exocytosis is characteristic all secretory
cells.
• Exocytosis is the process by which
secretory cells pass their enzymatic
secretions to the outside of the cell.
EXOCYTOSIS