A.

Active transport
Active transport is the movement of a substance across a cell membrane against its concentration gradient (from low to high concentration). In all cells, this is usually concerned with accumulating high concentrations of molecules that the cell needs, such as ions, glucose and amino acids. If the process uses chemical energy, such as from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), it is termed primary active transport. Secondary active transport involves the use of an electrochemical gradient. Active transport uses energy, unlike passive transport, which does not use any type of energy. Active transport is a good example of a process for which cells require energy. Examples of active transport include the uptake of glucose in the intestines in humans and the uptake of mineral ions into root hair cells of plants. [1] Details Specialized trans-membrane proteins recognize the substance and allows it access[2] (or, in the case of secondary transport, expend energy on forcing it) to cross the membrane when it otherwise would not, either because it is one to which the phospholipid bilayer of the membrane is impermeable or because it is moved in the direction of the concentration gradient. The last case, known as primary active transport, and the proteins involved in it as pumps, normally uses the chemical energy of ATP. The other cases, which usually derive their energy through exploitation of an electrochemical gradient, are known as secondary active transport and involve pore-forming proteins that form channels through the cell membrane. Sometimes the system transports one substance in one direction at the same time as cotransporting another substance in the other direction. This is called antiport. Symport is the name if two substrates are being transported in the same direction across the membrane. Antiport and symport are associated with secondary active transport, meaning that one of the two substances are transported in the direction of their concentration gradient utilizing the energy derived from the transport of second substance (mostly Na+, K+ or H+) down its concentration gradient. Particles moving from areas of low concentration to areas of high concentration [3] (i.e., in the opposite direction as the concentration gradient) require specific trans-membrane carrier proteins. These proteins have receptors that bind to specific molecules (e.g., glucose) and thus transport them into the cell. Because energy is required for this process, it is known as 'active' transport. Examples of active transport include the transportation of sodium out of the cell and potassium into the cell by the sodium-potassium pump. Active transport often takes place in the internal lining of the small intestine.

Plants need to absorb mineral salts from the soil or other sources, but these salts exist in very dilute solution. Active transport enables these cells to take up salts from this dilute solution against the direction of the concentration gradient. Primary active transport Primary active transport, also called direct active transport, directly uses energy to transport molecules across a membrane.[4] Most of the enzymes that perform this type of transport aretransmembrane ATPases. A primary ATPase universal to all life is the sodium-potassium pump, which helps to maintain the cell potential. Other sources of energy for Primary active transport are redox energy and photon energy (light). An example of primary active transport using Redox energy is the mitochondrialelectron transport chain that uses the reduction energy of NADHto move protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane against their concentration gradient. An example of primary active transport using light energy are the proteins involved inphotosynthesis that use the energy of photons to create a proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane and also to create reduction power in the form of NADPH.

B. Passive transport
Passive transport means moving biochemicals and other atomic or molecular substances across membranes. Unlike active transport, this process does not involve chemical energy, because, unlike in an active transport, the transport across membrane is always coupled with the growth of entropy of the system. So passive transport is dependent on the permeability of the cell membrane, which, in turn, is dependent on the organization and characteristics of the membrane lipids and proteins. The four main kinds of passive transport arediffusion, facilitated diffusion, filtration and osmosis.

C. Osmosis
Osmosis is the net movement of solvent molecules through a partially permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in order to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides.[1][2][3] It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves, without input of energy,[4] across a semipermeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations.[5] Although osmosis does not require input of energy, it does use kinetic energy [6] and can be made to do work.[7] Net movement of solvent is from the less concentrated (hypotonic) to the more concentrated (hypertonic) solution, which tends to reduce the difference in concentrations. This effect can be countered by increasing the pressure of the hypertonic solution, with respect to the hypotonic. The osmotic pressure is defined to be the pressure required to maintain an equilibrium, with no net movement of solvent. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the osmotic pressure depends on the molar concentration of the solute but not on its identity. Osmosis is essential in biological systems, as biological membranes are semipermeable. In general, these membranes are impermeable to large and polar molecules, such as ions,proteins, and polysaccharides, while being permeable to non-polar and/or hydrophobicmolecules like lipids as well as to small molecules like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, nitric oxide, etc. Permeability depends on solubility, charge, or chemistry, as well as solute size. Water molecules travel through the plasma membrane, tonoplast membrane (vacuole) or protoplast by diffusing across the phospholipid bilayer via aquaporins (small transmembrane proteins similar to those in facilitated diffusion and in creating ion channels). Osmosis provides the primary means by which water is transported into and out of cells. The turgor pressure of a cell is largely maintained by osmosis, across the cell membrane, between the cell interior and its relatively hypotonic environment.[8] Jean-Antoine Nollet first documented observation of osmosis in 1748.[9] The word "osmosis" descends from the words "endosmose" and "exosmose", which were coined by French physician Ren Joachim Henri Dutrochet (17761847) from the Greek words (endon : within), (exo : outside), and (osmos : push, impulsion).[10][11][12][13][14]

Basic explanations
Osmosis may occur when there is a partially permeable membrane, such as a cell membrane. When a cell is submerged in water, the water molecules pass through the cell membrane from an area of low solute concentration (outside the cell) to one of high solute

concentration (inside the cell); this is called osmosis. The cell membrane is selectively permeable, so only necessary materials are let into the cell and wastes are left out.[8] When the membrane has a volume of pure water on both sides, water molecules pass in and out in each direction at exactly the same rate; there is no net flow of water through the membrane. Osmosis can be explained using the concept of thermodynamic free energy: the less concentrated solution contains more free energy, so its solvent molecules will tend to diffuse to a place of lower free energy in order to equalize free energy. Since the semipermeable membrane only allows solvent molecules to pass through it, the result is a net flow of water to the side with the more concentrated solution. Assuming the membrane does not break, this net flow will slow and finally stop as the pressure on the more concentrated side lessens and the movement in each direction becomes equal: this state is called dynamic equilibrium. Osmosis can also be explained using the notion of entropy, from statistical mechanics. A system that has two solutions of different concentrations separated by a semipermeable membrane has less entropy than a similar system having two solutions of equal concentration. The system with the differing concentrations is said to be more ordered, and thus has less entropy. The second law of thermodynamics requires the presence of an osmotic flow that will take the system from an ordered state of low entropy to a disordered state of higher entropy. Thermodynamic equilibrium is achieved when the entropy gradient between the two solutions becomes zero. Particle size has no bearing on osmotic pressure; this is the fundamental postulate of colligative properties.[15]

Examples of osmosis
Osmotic pressure is the main cause of support in many plants. The osmotic entry of water raises the turgor pressure exerted against the cell wall, until it equals the osmotic pressure, creating a steady state. When a plant cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, the water in the cells moves to an area higher in solute concentration and the cell shrinks, and in doing so, becomes flaccid. This means the cell has become plasmolyzed the cell membrane has completely left the cell wall due to lack of water pressure on it; the opposite of turgid. Also, osmosis is responsible for the ability of plant roots to draw water from the soil. Since there are many fine roots, they have a large surface area, and water enters the roots by osmosis.

Osmosis can also be seen when potato slices are added to a high concentration of salt solution. The water from inside the potato moves to the salt solution, causing the potato to shrink and to lose its 'turgor pressure'. The more concentrated the salt solution, the bigger the difference in size and weight of the potato slice. In unusual environments, osmosis can be very harmful to organisms. For example,freshwater and saltwater aquarium fish placed in water of a different salinity than that to which they are adapted to will die quickly, and in the case of saltwater fish, dramatically. Another example of a harmful osmotic effect is the use of table salt to kill leeches andslugs. Suppose an animal or a plant cell is placed in a solution of sugar or salt in water. 1. If the medium is hypotonic a dilute solution, with a higher water concentration than the cell the cell will gain water through osmosis. 2. If the medium is isotonic a solution with exactly the same water concentration as the cell there will be no net movement of water across the cell membrane. 3. If the medium is hypertonic a concentrated solution, with a lower water concentration than the cell the cell will lose water by osmosis. Essentially, this means that if a cell is put in a solution which has a solute concentration higher than its own, then it will shrivel up, and if it is put in a solution with a lower solute concentration than its own, the cell will expand and burst. Electronucleal exchange is the passivediffusion of cations and anions across a semi-permeable membrane according to electrical charge. Chemical gardens demonstrate the effect of osmosis in inorganic chemistry.

D. Diffusion
Diffusion is one of several transport phenomena that occur in nature. A distinguishing feature of diffusion is that it results in mixing or mass transport without requiring bulk motion. Thus, diffusion should not be confused with convection or advection, which are other transport mechanisms that use bulk motion to move particles from one place to another. In Latin word "diffundere" means "to spread out". There are two ways to introduce the notion of diffusion: either a phenomenological approachstarting with Ficks laws and their mathematical consequences, or a physical and atomistic one, by considering the random walk of the diffusing particles.[1] In the phenomenological approach, according to Fick's laws, the diffusion flux is proportional to the minus gradient of concentrations. It goes from regions of higher concentration to regions of

lower concentration. Later on, various generalizations of the Fick's laws were developed in the frame of thermodynamics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.[2] From the atomistic point of view, diffusion is considered as a result of the random walk of the diffusing particles. In molecular diffusion, the moving molecules are self propelled by thermal energy. Random walk of small particles in suspension in a fluid was discovered in 1827 byRobert Brown. The theory of the Brownian motion and the atomistic backgrounds of diffusion were developed by Albert Einstein.[3] Now, the concept of diffusion is widely used in science: in physics (particle diffusion), chemistry and biology, in sociology, economics and finance (diffusion of people, ideas and of price values). It appears every time, when the concept of random walk in ensembles of individuals is applicable.

E. Endocytosis
Endocytosis is a process by which cells absorb molecules (such as proteins) by engulfing them. It is used by all cells of the body because most substances important to them are large polar molecules that cannot pass through the hydrophobic plasma or cell membrane. The process which is the opposite to endocytosis is exocytosis. [1] Endocytosis pathways Endocytosis pathways could be subdivided into four categories: namely,clathrin-mediated endocytosis, caveolae, macropinocytosis, andphagocytosis.[2]

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is mediated by small (approx. 100 nm in diameter) vesicles that have a morphologically characteristic crystalline coat made up of a complex of proteins that are mainly associated with the cytosolic protein clathrin. Clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs) are found in virtually all cells and form domains of the plasma membrane termed clathrin-coated pits. Coated pits can concentrate large extracellular molecules that have different receptors responsible for the receptor-mediated endocytosis of ligands, e.g. low density lipoprotein, transferrin, growth factors, antibodies and many others.

Caveolae are the most common reported non-clathrin-coated plasma membrane buds, which exist on the surface of many, but not all cell types. They consist of the cholesterolbinding protein caveolin (Vip21) with a bilayer enriched in cholesterol and glycolipids. Caveolae are small (approx. 50 nm in diameter) flask-shape pits in the membrane that resemble the shape of a cave (hence the name caveolae). They can constitute up to a third of the plasma membrane area of the cells of some tissues, being especially abundant insmooth muscle, type I pneumocytes, fibroblasts, adipocytes, and endothelial cells.[3] Uptake of extracellular molecules is also believed to be specifically mediated via receptors in caveolae. Macropinocytosis, which usually occurs from highly ruffled regions of the plasma membrane, is the invagination of the cell membrane to form a pocket, which then pinches off into the cell to form a vesicle (0.55 m in diameter) filled with a large volume of extracellular fluid and molecules within it (equivalent to ~100 CCVs). The filling of the pocket occurs in a non-specific manner. The vesicle then travels into the cytosol and fuses with other vesicles such as endosomes and lysosomes.[4] Phagocytosis is the process by which cells bind and internalize particulate matter larger than around 0.75 m in diameter, such as small-sized dust particles, cell debris, microorganisms and even apoptotic cells, which only occurs in specialized cells. These processes involve the uptake of larger membrane areas than clathrin-mediated endocytosis and caveolae pathway.

More recent experiments have suggested that these morphological descriptions of endocytic events may be inadequate, and a more appropriate method of classification may be based upon the clathrin-dependence of particular pathways, with multiple subtypes of clathrindependent and clathrin-independent endocytosis. Mechanistic insight into non-phagocytic, clathrin-independent endocytosis has been lacking, but a recent study has shown how Graf1 regulates a highly prevalent clathrin-independent endocytic pathway known as the CLIC/GEEC pathway.[5]

F. Exocytosis
Exocytosis (/ksosatoss/; from Greek "out" and English cyto- "cell" from Gk. "receptacle") is the durable process by which a cell directs the contents of secretory vesicles out of the cell membrane and into the extracellular space. These membrane-bound vesicles contain soluble proteins to be secreted to the extracellular environment, as well as membrane proteins and lipids that are sent to become components of the cell membrane.

Types In multicellular organisms there are two types of exocytosis: 1) Ca2+ triggered non-constitutive and 2) non Ca2+ triggered constitutive. Exocytosis in neuronalchemical synapses is Ca2+ triggered and serves interneuronal signalling.Constitutive exocytosis is performed by all cells and serves the release of components of the extracellular matrix, or just delivery of newly-synthesized membrane proteins that are incorporated in the plasma membrane after the fusion of the transport vesicle. Regulated exocytosis, on the other hand, requires an external signal, a specific sorting signal on the vesicles, a clathrin coat, as well as an increase in intracellular calcium. Exocytosis is the opposite of endocytosis.
Steps

Five steps are involved in exocytosis: Vesicle trafficking Certain vesicle-trafficking steps require the transportation of a vesicle over a moderately small distance. For example, vesicles that have the duty to transport the proteins from the Golgi apparatus to the cell surface area, will be likely to use motor proteins and a cytoskeletal track to get closer than previously stated to their target. Before tethering would have been appropriate, many of the proteins used for the active transport would have been instead set for passive transport, due to the fact that the Golgi apparatus does not require ATP to transport proteins. Both the actin- and the microtubule-base are implicated in these processes, along with several motor proteins. Once the vesicles reach their targets, they come into contact with tethering factors that can restrain them.

Vesicle tethering It is useful to distinguish between the initial, loose tethering of vesicles with their objective from the more stable, packing interactions. Tethering involves links over distances of more than about half the diameter of a vesicle from a given membrane surface (>25 nm). Tethering interactions are likely to be involved in concentrating synaptic vesicles at the synapse. The vesicles are also involved in regular cell's transcription processes. Vesicle docking The term docking refers to the holding of two membranes within a bilayer's distance of one another (<5-10 nm). Stable docking probably represents several distinct, molecular states: the molecular interactions underlying the close and tight association of a vesicle with its target may include the molecular rearrangements needed to trigger bilayer fusion. A common feature of many proteins that function in vesicle tethering and docking is their propensity to form highly extended, coiled-coil structures. Tethering and docking of a transport vesicle at the target membrane precedes the formation of a tight core SNARE complex. Vesicle priming In neuronal exocytosis, the term priming has been used to include all of the molecular rearrangements and ATP-dependent protein and lipid modifications that take place after initial docking of a synaptic vesicle but before exocytosis, such that the influx of calcium ions is all that is needed to trigger nearly instantaneous neurotransmitter release. In other cell types, whose secretion is constitutive (i.e. continuous, calcium ion independent, non-triggered) there is no priming. Vesicle fusion Further information: Vesicle fusion The vesicle fusion is driven by SNARE proteins process of merging the vesicle membrane with the target one resulting in release of large biomolecules in the extracellular space (or in case of neurons in the synaptic cleft). The merging of the donor and the acceptor membranes accomplishes three tasks:

The surface of the plasma membrane increases (by the surface of the fused vesicle). This is important for the regulation of cell size, e.g., during cell growth. The substances within the vesicle are released into the exterior. These might be waste products or toxins, or signaling molecules likehormones or neurotransmitters during synaptic transmission. Proteins embedded in the vesicle membrane are now part of the plasma membrane. The side of the protein that was facing the inside of the vesicle now faces the outside of the cell. This mechanism is important for the regulation of transmembrane and transporters.

G. Phagocytosis
Phagocytosis (from Ancient Greek (phagein) , meaning "to devour", , (kytos) , meaning "cell", and osis, meaning "process") is the cellular process of engulfing solid particles by the cell membrane to form an internal phagosome by phagocytes and protist s. Phagocytosis is a specific form of endocytosis involving the vesicular internalization of solids such as bacteria, and is, therefore, distinct from other forms of endocytosis such as the vesicular internalization of various liquids. Phagocytosis is involved in the acquisition of nutrients for some cells, and, in the immune system, it is a major mechanism used to remove pathogens and cell debris. Bacteria, dead tissue cells, and small mineral particles are all examples of objects that may be phagocytosed. The process is homologous to eating only at the level of single-celled organisms; in multicellular animals, the process has been adapted to eliminate debris and pathogens, as opposed to taking in fuel for cellular processes, except in the case of the Trichoplax.

In immune system Phagocytosis in mammalian immune cells is activated by attachment to Pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPS), which leads to NFB activation. Opsonins such as C3b andantibodies can act as attachment sites and aid phagocytosis of pathogens.[1] Engulfment of material is facilitated by the actinmyosin contractile system. The phagosome of ingested material is then fused with the lysosome, leading to degradation. Degradation can be oxygen-dependent or oxygen-independent.

Oxygen-dependent degradation depends on NADPH and the production of reactive oxygen species. Hydrogen peroxide and myeloperoxidase activate a halogenating system, which leads to the creation of hypochlorite and the destruction of bacteria.[2] Oxygen-independent degradation depends on the release of granules, containing proteolytic enzymes such as defensins, lysozyme, and cationic proteins. Other antimicrobial peptides are present in these granules, including lactoferrin, which sequesters iron to provide unfavourable growth conditions for bacteria.

It is possible for cells other than dedicated phagocytes (such as dendritic cells) to engage in phagocytosis.[3]

H. Pinocytosis
In cellular biology, pinocytosis ("cell-drinking", "bulk-phase pinocytosis", "non-specific, nonabsorptive pinocytosis", "fluid endocytosis") is a form of endocytosis in which small particles are brought into the cell, forming an invagination, and then suspended within small vesicles (pinocytotic vesicles) that subsequently fuse with lysosomes to hydrolyze, or to break down, the particles. This process requires a lot of energy in the form ofadenosine triphosphate, the chemical compound is mostly used as energy in the majority of cells. Pinocytosis is used primarily for the absorption of extracellular fluids (ECF), and, in contrast to phagocytosis, generates very small vesicles. Unlike receptor-mediated endocytosis, pinocytosis is nonspecific in the substances that it transports. The cell takes in surrounding fluids, including all solutes present. Pinocytosis also works as phagocytosis, the only difference being that phagocytosis is specific in the substances it transports. Phagocytosis engulfs whole particles, which are later broken down by enzymes, such as cathepsins, and absorbed into the cells. Pinocytosis, on the other hand, is when the cell engulfs already-dissolved or broken-down food.