Membrane Transport

Cell Biology
Lecture #4
 Objectives
By the end of this lecture you should be
familiar with:

Different mechanisms involved in

movement across cell membrane
 The cell membrane is a barrier
Nutrients must get in
Products and wastes must get out
Permeability determines what moves in and out of a cell

A membrane is:
Impermeable if it lets nothing in or out
Freely permeable if it lets anything pass
Selectively permeable if it restricts movement

Cell membranes are selectively permeable:

Allow some materials to move freely
Restrict other materials
Bases of Selective Permeability
Selective permeability restricts
materials based on:

Size
Electrical charge
Molecular shape
Lipid solubility
Keep in mind: The same molecule can be transported
via different transport types in different cells
Transport Through Cell Membranes

Transport through a cell membrane

can be:

Passive (no energy required)

Active (requiring energy)
Types of Transporters
 Cotransport (coupled transport)
Two molecules travel together, one as a
passenger, the other as a driver.
Symport
The passenger and the driver are transported
in the same direction.
Antiport
The driver and passenger travel in opposite
directions.
 Passive Transport
Passive Transport involves moving
things through membranes without the
expenditure of cell energy.

Passive transport in cells involves the

process of diffusion.
 Diffusion in Solution
All molecules are constantly in motion
Molecules in solution move randomly
Random motion causes mixing
Concentration is the amount of solute in a solvent

Concentration gradient:
More solute in one part of a solvent than another

Solutes move down a concentration gradient:

Molecules mix randomly
Solute spreads through solvent
Eliminates concentration gradient
 Factors Affecting Diffusion Rates
Distance the particle has to move
Molecule size
Smaller is faster
Temperature
More heat, faster motion
Gradient size
The difference between high and low
concentration
Electrical forces:
Opposites attract, like charges repel
 Diffusion and the Cell Membrane
Diffusion can be simple, channel, or carrier
mediated
 Facilitated Diffusion
Channel & carrier mediated diffusion are kinds of
facilitated diffusion. No energy is involved, so it is
still a passive process.

However they are:

Specific: to size, charge, & interaction with the
channel or the carrier
Subject to saturation: making the channels and
carriers rate limiting

Materials that move through membranes by

facilitated diffusion include:
Glucose, many small ions, and amino acids
 Glucose Carrier

Glucose carrier crosses the membrane and has at least 2

conformations
One conformation exposes the binding site on the outside of
the cell and the other on the inside of the cell
 How it Works
Glucose is high outside the cell so the
conformation is open to take in glucose and move
it to the cytosol where the concentration is low

When glucose levels are low in the blood,

glucagon (hormone) triggers the breakdown of
glycogen, glucose levels are high in the cell and
then the conformation moves the glucose out of
the cell to the blood stream

Glucose moves according to the concentration

gradient across the membrane
 Osmosis
Osmosis is the movement (diffusion) of
water across a differentially permeable
membrane in response to solute
(dissolved substances) gradients that are
maintained by the membrane.

The "force" to move water through

membranes is called osmotic pressure. It
is comparable to physical pressure.
Diffusion vs. Osmosis
 Osmotic Solutions
Hypertonic The solution has a higher solute
concentration (less water) than the cell so water
will leave cells by osmosis, and cells may shrink.

Hypotonic The solution has a lower solute

concentration (more water) than the cell so water
will enter cells by osmosis, causing the cells to
swell.

Isotonic Equal proportions of solutes to water on

both sides of the membrane. So there is no net
movement of water.
 In an isoosmotic environment, the volume of an animal
cell will remain stable with no net movement of water
across the plasma membrane.

In a hyperosmotic environment, an animal cell will lose

water by osmosis and crenate (shrivel).

In a hypoosmotic environment, an animal cell will gain

water by osmosis, swell and perhaps lyse (cell
destruction).
 In a hypoosmotic environment, water moves by osmosis into
the plant cell, causing it to swell until internal pressure
against the cell wall equals the osmotic pressure of the
cytoplasm. A dynamic equilibrium is established (water enters
and leaves the cell at the same rate and the cell becomes
turgid).
Turgid = Firmness or tension such as found in walled cells that
are in a hypoosmotic environment where water enters the cell
by osmosis.
Ideal state for most plant cells.
Turgid cells provide mechanical support for plants.
Requires cells to be hyperosmotic to their environment.
 In a hyperosmotic environment, walled cells will
lose water by osmosis and will plasmolyze,
which is usually lethal.

Plasmolysis = Phenomenon where a walled cell

shrivels and the plasma membrane pulls away
from the cell wall as the cell loses water to a
hypertonic environment.
 In an isoosmotic environment, there is no
net movement of water into or out of the
cell. Plant cells become flaccid or limp.
Loss of structural support from turgor
pressure causes plants to wilt.
 Active Transport
Some transport proteins (carrier proteins) can
move substances through the membrane
against the concentration gradient.

Active transport typically requires two carrier

protein active sites: one to recognize the
substance to be carried, and one to release ATP
to provide the energy for the protein carriers or
"pumps".
 Active Transport cont.
In other cases, concentration gradients of
ions, typically H+ or Na+ ions, can be used to
provide the energy needed to move something
through a membrane

For example, the substance to be moved is

"coupled" to the concentration of H+, and while
to H+ is moving "down" through the carrier
channel, the substance is transported "up".
Sodium-Potassium Exchange Pump
 Sodium-Potassium Exchange Pump
The pump, with bound ATP, binds 3 intracellular Na+ ions.

ATP is hydrolyzed, leading to phosphorylation of the pump

and subsequent release of ADP.

A conformational change in the pump exposes the Na+ ions to

the outside. The phosphorylated form of the pump has a low
affinity for Na+ ions, so they are released.

The pump binds 2 extracellular K+ ions. This causes the

dephosphorylation of the pump, reverting it to its previous
conformational state, transporting the K+ ions into the cell.

The unphosphorylated form of the pump has a higher affinity

for Na+ ions than K+ ions, so the two bound K+ ions are
released. ATP binds, and the process starts again!
Indirect Active Transport
Active transport
of a specific
solute indirectly
drives the active
transport of
another solute .

ATP is not
directly involved,
but it sets up the
electrochemical
gradient used to
propel the driver.
 Vesicular Transport
Also called bulk transport
Transport of large particles and
macromolecules across plasma membranes

Directional Descriptive Terms

Exocytosis: moves substance from the cell
interior to the extracellular space
Endocytosis: enables large particles and
macromolecules to enter the cell
 In phagocytosis, a cell engulfs a particle by
wrapping pseudopodia around it and packaging it
within a membrane-enclosed sac large enough to
be classified as a vacuole. The particle is digested
after the vacuole fuses with a lysosome containing
hydrolytic enzymes.
In pinocytosis, the cell gulps droplets of
extracellular fluid into tiny vesicles. It is not the fluid
itself that is needed by the cell, but the molecules
dissolved in the droplet. Because any and all
included solutes are taken into the cell, pinocytosis
is nonspecific in the substances it transports.
Receptor-mediated endocytosis enables the cell to acquire bulk
quantities of specific substances, even though those substances may
not be very concentrated in the extracellular fluid. Embedded in the
membrane are proteins with specific receptor sites exposed to the
extracellular fluid. The receptor proteins are usually already clustered
in regions of the membrane called coated pits, which are lined on their
cytoplasmic side by a fuzzy layer of coat proteins. Extracellular
substances (ligands) bind to these receptors. When binding occurs, the
coated pit forms a vesicle containing the ligand molecules. After this
ingested material is liberated from the vesicle, the receptors are
recycled to the plasma membrane by the same vesicle.
 In exocytosis, the transport vesicle fuses with
the plasma membrane, making the inside of the
vesicle continuous with the outside of the cell.
Exocytosis is used in secretion of protein
hormones (insulin), serum proteins, extracellular
matrix (collagen).
 Summary
Mechanism Process Factors Substance
affecting the involved
rate (site)
Molecular movement of Size of gradient, Small inorganic
Diffusion solutes: direction is ions,
size of molecule,
determined by the charge, lipid
relative concentration lipid solubility, Soluble materials
temperature (all cells)
Movement of water Concentration Water only
Osmosis molecules towards gradient, (all cells)
solutions of relatively opposing osmotic or
higher solute hydrostatic pressure,
concentrations; Number of aqua-porins
requires a selectively
permeable membrane
 Mechanism Process Factors affecting Substance
the rate involved (site)
Carrier mediated
Facilitated diffusion Carrier proteins Size of gradient, Glucose and
passively transport temperature, amino acids
solutes across availability of (all cells but
membrane down a carrier different
concentration gradient regulations)
Active transport Carrier proteins Availability of Na+, K+, Ca2+,
actively transport carrier, substrates Mg 2+ (all cells).
solutes across and ATP Other solutes
membrane often by specialized
against concentration cells.
gradient
Secondary active Carrier proteins Availability of Glucose and
transport passively transport 2 carrier, substrates amino acids
solutes, with one moving and ATP (specialized
down its concentration
cells)
gradient. The cell must
expend later ATP to
expel the driver
 Mechanism Process Factors Substance
affecting the involved
rate (site)
Vesicular transport
Endocytosis Creation of ATP. Fluids and
membranous vesicles The stimulus and nutrients (all
containing solids or the mechanics cells).
liquids are incompletely Debris and
understood pathogens
(specialized
cells.

Exocytosis Fusion of the vesicles ATP. Fluids and

containing liquids or The stimulus and debris
solid (or both) with the the mechanics (all cells).
cell membrane) are incompletely
understood