Chapter 3

Membrane Structure and

Transport

3.2 Movement of Substances Across

Membrane
 Learning outcomes
• Students should be able to:
 explain the process of passive and
active transports, endocytosis amd
exocytosis;
 explain the concepts of water potential.,
solute potential and pressure
potential
 calculate the water potential of a plant
cell in a solution.
Passive Transport
• A movement of biochemicals and other
atomic or molecular subtances across cell
membranes.
• It is a transport that does not require
energy in the form of ATP
• Characteristics:
• It follows the concentration gradient
(from a region of high solute
concentration to that of low solute
concentration)
Passive Transport
• Characteristics:
• Net movement of solute stops when
equilibrium is reached. The solute
concentration at both sides of the
membrane is equal.The amount of
solute molecules moving in and out its
the same
Passive Transport
• Characteristics:
• it may or may not require a transport
protein to transport solute across the
membrane
• if a transport protein is required, it is
very specific. it only transport a
particular solute and no other molecule
• Examples: diffusion, facilitated diffusion
and osmosis
Diffusion

• Diffusion is the tendency for molecules to spread

out evenly into the available space
• Although each molecule moves randomly, diffusion
of a population of molecules may be directional
• At dynamic equilibrium, as many molecules cross
the membrane in one direction as in the other

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 Animation: Membrane Selectivity
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 Animation: Diffusion
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Figure 7.13
Molecules of dye
Membrane (cross section)

WATER

Net diffusion Net diffusion Equilibrium

(a) Diffusion of one solute

Net diffusion Net diffusion Equilibrium

Net diffusion Net diffusion Equilibrium

(b) Diffusion of two solutes
Figure 7.13a

Molecules of dye
Membrane (cross section)

WATER

Net diffusion Net diffusion Equilibrium

(a) Diffusion of one solute

The membrane has pores large enough for molecules of dye to pass through.
Random movement of dye molecules will cause some to pass through the pores;
this will happen more often on the side with more dye molecules. The dye diffuses
from where it is more concentrated to where it is less concentrauted. (called
diffusing down a concentration gradient). This leads to a dynamic equilibrium. The
solute molecules continue to cross the membrane, but a roughly equal rates in
both directions.
Figure 7.13b

Net diffusion Net diffusion Equilibrium

Net diffusion Net diffusion Equilibrium

(b) Diffusion of two solutes

Solutions of two different types of dyes are separated by a membrane that is

permeable to both. Each dye diffuses down its own concentration gradient. There
will be a net diffusion of the purple dye toward the left, even though the total solute
concen tration was initially greater on the left side.
 • Substances diffuse down their concentration
gradient, the region along which the density of
a chemical substance increases or decreases
• No work must be done to move substances
down the concentration gradient
• The diffusion of a substance across a biological
membrane is passive transport because no
energy is expended by the cell to make it
happen

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 • Substances diffuse down their concentration
gradient, the region along which the density of
a chemical substance increases or decreases

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 • Small, nonpolar (uncharged) solutes move
directly through the membrane down the
concentration gradient
• Example:
– Glycerol will enter the cell if it has a higher
concentration outside. The glycerol molecules are
small and can easily slip through the phospholipid
bilayer into the cell
– Oxygen gas diffuses into the red blood cells from the
alveoli in the lung while carbon dioxide diffuses the
opposite way.

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Osmosis
• Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a
selectively permeable membrane
• Water diffuses across a membrane from the
region of lower solute concentration to the
region of higher solute concentration (from the
region of high water potential to the region lower
water potential) until the solute concentration is
equal on both sides

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 • A cell with a less negative water potential will
draw in water but this depends on pther factors
such as solute potential (pressure in the cell
e.g. solute molecules) and pressure potential
(external pressure e.g. cell wall)

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Lower Higher Same concentration
concentration concentration of solute
of solute (sugar) of solute

Sugar
molecule

H2O

Selectively
permeable
membrane

Osmosis
 • Two sugar solutions of different concentrations
are separated by a membrane that the solvent
(water) can pass through but the solute (sugar)
cannot. Water molecules move randomly and
may cross in either direction, but overall, water
diffuses from the solution with less concentrated
solute to that with more concentrated solute.
This passive transport of water, or osmosis,
makes the sugar concentrations on both sides
more nearly equal. (The concentrations are
prevented from being exactly equal due to the
effect of water pressure on the higher side).
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Water Balance of Cells Without Walls
• Tonicity is the ability of a surrounding solution
to cause a cell to gain or lose water
• Isotonic solution: Solute concentration is the
same as that inside the cell; no net water
movement across the plasma membrane
• Hypertonic solution: Solute concentration is
greater than that inside the cell; cell loses
water
• Hypotonic solution: Solute concentration is
less than that inside the cell; cell gains water

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Figure 7.15

Hypotonic Isotonic Hypertonic

solution solution solution
(a) Animal cell
H2O H2O H2O H2O

Lysed Normal Shriveled

H2O Cell wall H2O H2O H2O

(b) Plant cell

Turgid (normal) Flaccid Plasmolyzed

Osmosis
 • Hypertonic or hypotonic environments create
osmotic problems for organisms
• Osmoregulation, the control of solute
concentrations and water balance, is a necessary
adaptation for life in such environments
• The protist Paramecium, which is hypertonic to its
pond water environment, has a contractile
vacuole that acts as a pump

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Figure 7.16

50 m
Contractile vacuole

The vacuole collects fluid from a system of canals in the

cytoplasm. When full, the vacuole and canals contract,
expelling fluid from the cell.
Water Balance of Cells with Walls
• Cell walls help maintain water balance
• A plant cell in a hypotonic solution swells until
the wall opposes uptake; the cell is now turgid
(firm)
• If a plant cell and its surroundings are isotonic,
there is no net movement of water into the cell;
the cell becomes flaccid (limp), and the plant
may wilt

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 • In a hypertonic environment, plant cells lose
water; eventually, the membrane pulls away from
the wall, a usually lethal effect called
plasmolysis

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 Animation: Osmosis
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Facilitated Diffusion

• Also called carrier-mediated diffusion

• In facilitated diffusion, transport proteins speed
the passive movement of molecules across the
plasma membrane

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 • Channel proteins provide corridors that allow a
specific molecule or ion to cross the membrane
• Channel proteins include
– Aquaporins, for facilitated diffusion of water
– Ion channels that open or close in response
to a stimulus (gated channels)

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 • Many larges moleculess, such as glucose, are
insoluble in lipids and too large to fit through the
membrane pores
• It will bind with its specific carrier proteins, and
the complex will then be bonded to a receptor
site and moved through the cellular membrane

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 • Example:
– Movement of sodium ions into the nerve cell
or potassium ions out of the cell when there is
no impulse
– Glucose diffusing into and out of the red blood
cells. It requires channel proteins as glucose
is hydrophilic, insoluble in lipids and too big to
diffuse across the phospholipid layer.

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Figure 7.17
EXTRACELLULAR
FLUID

(a) A channel
protein

Channel protein
Solute
CYTOPLASM

Carrier protein Solute

(b) A carrier protein

 • Carrier proteins undergo a subtle change in
shape that translocates the solute-binding site
across the membrane

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Active transport

• Facilitated diffusion is still passive because the

solute moves down its concentration gradient,
and the transport requires no energy
• Some transport proteins, however, can move
solutes against their concentration gradients

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The Need for Energy in Active
Transport
• Active transport moves substances against
their concentration gradients
• Active transport requires energy, usually in the
form of ATP
• Active transport is performed by specific
proteins embedded in the membranes

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 Animation: Active Transport
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 • Active transport allows cells to maintain
concentration gradients that differ from their
surroundings
• The sodium-potassium pump is one type of
active transport system

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Figure 7.18-1

EXTRACELLULAR [Na] high

FLUID [K] low

Na

Na

CYTOPLASM Na [Na] low

1 [K] high
Figure 7.18-2

EXTRACELLULAR [Na] high

FLUID [K] low

Na Na

Na Na

Na

[Na] low ATP

CYTOPLASM Na P
1 [K] high 2 ADP
Figure 7.18-3

EXTRACELLULAR [Na] high Na

FLUID [K] low Na

Na Na Na

Na Na

Na

[Na] low ATP

CYTOPLASM Na P
[K] high P
1 2 ADP 3
Figure 7.18-4

EXTRACELLULAR [Na] high Na

FLUID [K] low Na

Na Na Na

Na Na

Na

[Na] low ATP

CYTOPLASM Na P
[K] high P
1 2 ADP 3

K

K

P
4 Pi
Figure 7.18-5

EXTRACELLULAR [Na] high Na

FLUID [K] low Na

Na Na Na

Na Na

Na

[Na] low ATP

CYTOPLASM Na P
[K] high P
1 2 ADP 3

K

K
K
K 

P
5 4 Pi
Figure 7.18-6

EXTRACELLULAR [Na] high Na

FLUID [K] low Na

Na Na Na

Na Na

Na

[Na] low ATP

CYTOPLASM Na P
[K] high P
1 2 ADP 3

K

K
K
K 

K

P
6 K 5 4 Pi
Figure 7.19
Passive transport Active transport

Diffusion Facilitated diffusion ATP

How Ion Pumps Maintain Membrane
Potential
• Membrane potential is the voltage difference
across a membrane
• Voltage is created by differences in the
distribution of positive and negative ions across
a membrane

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 • Two combined forces, collectively called the
electrochemical gradient, drive the diffusion
of ions across a membrane
– A chemical force (the ion’s concentration
gradient)
– An electrical force (the effect of the membrane
potential on the ion’s movement)

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 • An electrogenic pump is a transport protein
that generates voltage across a membrane
• The sodium-potassium pump is the major
electrogenic pump of animal cells
• The main electrogenic pump of plants, fungi,
and bacteria is a proton pump
• Electrogenic pumps help store energy that can
be used for cellular work

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Figure 7.20

ATP   EXTRACELLULAR
FLUID
  H 

Proton pump H
H 

H
  H

CYTOPLASM   H
Cotransport: Coupled Transport by a
Membrane Protein
• Cotransport occurs when active transport of a
solute indirectly drives transport of other
solutes
• Plants commonly use the gradient of hydrogen
ions generated by proton pumps to drive
active transport of nutrients into the cell

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Figure 7.21

ATP
H
  H

Proton pump H
H

  H

H  H

H
Sucrose-H Diffusion of H
cotransporter

Sucrose  
Sucrose
 • Example:
– uptake of glucose in the intestines in
humans
– uptake of mineral ions into root hair cells of
plants

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Exocytosis and Endocytosis

• Small molecules and water enter or leave the

cell through the lipid bilayer or via transport
proteins
• Large molecules, such as polysaccharides and
proteins, cross the membrane in bulk via
vesicles
• Bulk transport requires energy

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Exocytosis
• In exocytosis, transport vesicles migrate to the
membrane, fuse with it, and release their
contents
• Many secretory cells use exocytosis to export
their products
• Waste materials may be removed from cell,
such as solid, undigested remains from
phagocytic vacuoles, or useful materials may be
secreted

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• Examples:
• Secretion of enzymes from the pancreas
is achieved in this way
• Plant cells use exocytosis to export the
materials needed to form cell walls
 Animation: Exocytosis
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Endocytosis
• In endocytosis, the cell takes in macromolecules
by forming vesicles from the plasma membrane
• Endocytosis is a reversal of exocytosis, involving
different proteins
• There are three types of endocytosis
– Phagocytosis (“cellular eating”)
– Pinocytosis (“cellular drinking”)
– Receptor-mediated endocytosis

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 Animation: Exocytosis and Endocytosis Introduction
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 • In phagocytosis a cell engulfs a particle in a
vacuole
• The vacuole fuses with a lysosome to digest
the particle

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 Animation: Phagocytosis
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 • In pinocytosis, molecules are taken up when
extracellular fluid is “gulped” into tiny vesicles

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 Animation: Pinocytosis
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• Examples:
– Pinocytosis:
In human, occurs in the small intestine,
cells there engulf fat droplets
– Phagocytosis:
Cells engulf solid particles
 • In receptor-mediated endocytosis, binding of
ligands to receptors triggers vesicle formation
• A ligand is any molecule that binds specifically
to a receptor site of another molecule

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 Animation: Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis
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Figure 7.22

Phagocytosis Pinocytosis Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis

EXTRACELLULAR
FLUID
Solutes

Pseudopodium Receptor
Plasma Ligand
membrane
Coat proteins

Coated
“Food” or pit
other particle
Coated
vesicle

Vesicle
Food
vacuole

CYTOPLASM
Figure 7.22a

Phagocytosis EXTRACELLULAR
FLUID Solutes

Pseudopodium Pseudopodium
of amoeba

Bacterium

1 m
Food vacuole

An amoeba engulfing a bacterium “Food”

via phagocytosis (TEM). or other
particle

Food
vacuole

CYTOPLASM
• In phagocytosis, a cell engulfs a particle
by extending pseudopodia (singular,
pseudopodium) around it and packaging it
within a membranous sac called a food
vacuole. The particle will be digested after
the food vacuole fuses with a lysosome.
Figure 7.22b

Pinocytosis

0.5 m
Plasma
membrane

Pinocytosis vesicles forming

in a cell lining a small blood
vessel (TEM).

Vesicle
• In pinocytosis, a cell continuously “gulps”
droplets of extracellular fluid into tiny vesicles,
formed by infoldings of the plasma membrane.
In this way, the cell obtains molecules dissolved
in the droplets. Because any and all solutes are
taken into the cell, pinocytosis as shown here is
nonspecific for the subtances it transports. In
many cases, as above, the parts of the plasma
membrane that form vesicles are lined on the
cytoplasmic side by a fuzzy layer of coat protein;
the “pits” and resulting vesicles are said to be
“coated”.
Figure 7.22c

Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis

Plasma Receptor
Coat
membrane proteins Ligand

Coat proteins

Coated
0.25 m

pit

Coated
vesicle
Top: A coated pit. Bottom: A
coated vesicle forming during
receptor-mediated endocytosis
(TEMs).
• Receptor- mediated endocytosis is a specialized
type of pinocytosis that enables the cell acquire
bulk quantities of specific substances, even
though those substances may not very
concentrated in the extracellular fluid.
Embedded in the plasma membrane are
proteins with receptor sites exposed to the
extracellular fluid. Specific solutes bind to the
sites. The receptor proteins then cluster in
coated pits, and each coated pit forms a vesicle
containing the bound molecules.
• Notice that there are relatively more bound
molecules (purple triangles) inside the vesicle,
but other molecules (green balls) are also
present. After the ingested material is liberated
from the vesicle, the emptied receptors are
recycles to the plasma membrane by the same
vesicle.
Figure 7.22d

Pseudopodium
of amoeba

Bacterium

1 m
Food vacuole

An amoeba engulfing a bacterium via

phagocytosis (TEM).
Figure 7.22e

0.5 m
Pinocytosis vesicles forming (indicated by arrows)
in a cell lining a small blood vessel (TEM).
Figure 7.22f

Plasma Coat
membrane proteins

0.25 m
Top: A coated pit. Bottom: A coated
vesicle forming during receptor-mediated
endocytosis (TEMs).
Figure 7.UN01

Passive transport:
Facilitated diffusion

Channel Carrier
protein protein
Figure 7.UN02
Active transport

ATP