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(7) membrane structure and function

Healthcare workers

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11 views

(7) membrane structure and function

Healthcare workers

Uploaded by

sesaeedhaniyah.d
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 36

Life at the Edge

• The plasma membrane is the boundary that separates the living cell from
its surroundings

• The plasma membrane exhibits selective permeability, allowing some


substances to cross it more easily than others

• Transport proteins are often responsible for controlling passage across


cellular membrane
Cellular membranes are fluid mosaics of lipids and proteins
• Lipids and proteins are the staple ingredients of membranes, although
carbohydrates are also important.

• Phospholipids are the most abundant lipid in the plasma membrane

• Phospholipids are amphipathic molecules, containing hydrophobic and


hydrophilic regions

• The fluid mosaic model , the membrane is a mosaic of protein molecules


bobbing in a fluid bilayer of phospholipids.
Membrane Models:

The plasma membrane must


be a phospholipid bilayer

The polar heads face toward


the inside and outside of the
cell.

The nonpolar tails face


inward toward each other.
The Fluidity of Membranes
A membrane is held together mainly by hydrophobic interactions (weak
interaction)

Phospholipids in the plasma membrane can move within the bilayer


• Most of the lipids, and some proteins, drift laterally (Sideways) within the
membrane
• Rarely does a molecule flip-flop transversely across the membrane
The Fluidity of Membranes
• A membrane remains fluid as temperature decreases until the
phospholipids settle into a closely packed arrangement and the membrane
solidifies

• A membrane solidifies depends on the types of lipids it is made of

• Membranes rich in unsaturated fatty acids are more fluid than those rich
in saturated fatty acids

• Membranes must be fluid to work properly, the fluidity of a membrane


affects both its permeability and the ability of membrane proteins to
move to where their function is needed.
The steroid cholesterol has different effects on membrane fluidity at
different temperatures
Membrane Proteins and Their Functions
• A membrane is a collage of different proteins, often grouped together,
embedded in the fluid matrix of the lipid bilayer

• Proteins determine most of the


membrane’s specific functions
• There are two major populations of membrane
proteins
• Peripheral proteins are bound to the surface
of the membrane

• Integral proteins penetrate the hydrophobic


core (span the membrane are called
transmembrane proteins)
Six major functions of membrane proteins
1. Transport
2. Enzymatic activity
3. Signal transduction
4. Cell-cell recognition
5. Intercellular joining

6. Attachment to the cytoskeleton


and extracellular matrix (ECM)
The Role of Membrane Carbohydrates in Cell-Cell Recognition

• Cells recognize each other by binding to surface molecules, often


containing carbohydrates, on the extracellular surface of the plasma
membrane

Membrane carbohydrates may be covalently bonded to lipids (forming


glycolipids) or more commonly to proteins (forming glycoproteins)

• Carbohydrates on the external side of the plasma membrane vary


among species, individuals, and even cell types in an individual
Membrane structure results in selective permeability
• A cell must exchange materials with its surroundings, a process controlled by
the plasma membrane

• Plasma membranes are selectively permeable, regulating the cell’s molecular


traffic

• small molecules and ions moves across the plasma membrane in both
directions
• Sugars, amino acids, and other nutrients enter the cell, and metabolic waste
products leave it.
• The cell takes in O2 for use in cellular respiration and expels CO2
• the cell regulates its concentrations of inorganic ions, such as Na+, K+, Ca2+,
and Cl-, by shuttling them one way or the other across the plasma membrane
The Permeability of the Lipid Bilayer
• Hydrophobic (nonpolar) molecules, such as hydrocarbons, CO2, and O2,
can dissolve in the lipid bilayer and pass through the membrane rapidly,
without the aid of membrane proteins

• Hydrophilic molecules (Polar molecules, ions) such as sugars and water,


do not cross the membrane easily

• Proteins built into the membrane play key roles in regulating transport
Transport Proteins: (specific substance)
• Transport proteins allow passage of hydrophilic substances across the
membrane

• Channel proteins, have a hydrophilic


channel that certain molecules or ions
can use as a tunnel
Channel proteins called aquaporins
facilitate the passage of water

• Carrier proteins, hold onto their


passengers and change shape in a way
that shuttles them across the
membrane.
example, a glucose carrier protein
Cell Transport
Substances can enter cells in three ways.

1. Passive transport

2. Active transport

3. Bulk transport
Passive transport is diffusion of a substance across a membrane
with no energy investment
• 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
• a substance will diffuse from where it is more concentrated to where it
is less concentrated. (a substance diffuses down its concentration
gradient)
• Substances diffuse down their concentration gradient, the region along
which the density of a chemical substance increases or decreases

• The diffusion of a substance across a biological membrane is passive


transport because no energy is expended by the cell to make it happen
Effects of Osmosis on Water
Balance

• 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 until the solute
concentration is equal on both
sides
Water Balance of Cells

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
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

• In a hypertonic environment, plant cells lose water; eventually, the


membrane pulls away from the wall, a usually lethal effect called
plasmolysis
• 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

The vacuole collects fluid


from canals in the
cytoplasm. When full, the
vacuole and canals
contract, expelling fluid
from the cell
Facilitated Diffusion: Passive Transport Aided by Proteins

• Many polar molecules and ions blocked by the lipid bilayer of the
membrane diffuse passively with the help of transport proteins that span
the membrane

• In facilitated diffusion, transport proteins speed the passive movement of


molecules across the plasma membrane (the solute moves down its
concentration gradient, and the transport requires no energy)

• Transport proteins include :


• Channel proteins
• Carrier proteins
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 facilitate
the transpogated
channels rt of ions
that open or close in
response to a
stimulus
Carrier proteins undergo a subtle change in shape that translocate the
solute-binding site across the membrane

This change in shape can be


triggered by the binding and
releases of the transported
molecules

Carrier proteins, such as the


glucose transporter
Active transport uses energy to move solutes against their gradients

Some transport proteins, however, can move solutes against their


concentration gradients

Active transport requires energy, usually in the form of ATP hydrolysis, to


move substances against their concentration gradient across the plasma
membrane from the side where they are less concentrated to the side where
they are more concentrated.

All proteins involved in active transport are carrier proteins

The sodium-potassium pump is one type of active transport system


Bulk transport across the plasma membrane occurs by 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

• Bulk transport across the plasma membrane occurs by exocytosis and


endocytosis
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
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
In receptor-mediated endocytosis,
binding of ligands to receptors
triggers vesicle formation
In phagocytosis a cell engulfs a
In pinocytosis, molecules are A ligand is any molecule that binds
particle in a vacuole. The vacuole
taken up when extracellular fluid specifically to a receptor site of
fuses with a lysosome to digest the
is “gulped” into tiny vesicles another molecule
particle

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