LECTURE PRESENTATIONS

For CAMPBELL BIOLOGY, NINTH EDITION

Jane B. Reece, Lisa A. Urry, Michael L. Cain, Steven A. Wasserman, Peter V. Minorsky, Robert B. Jackson

Chapter 7

Membrane Structure and

Function

Lectures by
Erin Barley
Kathleen Fitzpatrick

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Membrane Proteins and Their Functions
• A membrane contains different proteins, often
grouped together, embedded in the fluid
matrix of the lipid bilayer
• Proteins determine most of the membrane’s
specific functions

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The Two Major Types of Membrane Proteins

• Peripheral proteins are bound to the surface

of the membrane
• Integral proteins penetrate the hydrophobic
core (within the membrane)

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 • Six major functions of membrane proteins
– Transport
– Enzymatic activity
– Signal transduction
– Cell-cell recognition
– Intercellular joining
– Attachment to the cytoskeleton and
extracellular matrix (ECM)

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• Transport protein
– Allow passage of hydrophilic substances across the membrane
– Some have a hydrophilic channel that certain molecules or ions can
use as a tunnel
– Channel proteins called aquaporins facilitate the passage of water.
A cell would die without aquaporins.
– Other T proteins, called carrier proteins, bind to molecules and change
shape to shuttle them across the membrane.
– A transport protein is specific for the substance it moves.

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• Enzymatic activity
– Has active site exposed to substances in the
adjacent solution.

– In some cases many enzymes in a membrane are

organized as a team that carries out series of steps
of a metabolic pathway.

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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 (outside the cell)
• Membrane carbohydrates may be covalently
bonded to lipids (forming glycolipids) or more
commonly to proteins (forming glycoproteins)
• Basically a tag for identification.

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Concept 7.2: 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

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The Permeability of the Lipid Bilayer
• Hydrophobic (nonpolar) molecules, such as
hydrocarbons, can dissolve in the lipid bilayer
and pass through the membrane rapidly
• Polar molecules, such as sugars, do not cross
the membrane easily

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Concept 7.3: 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

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 • 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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 Animation: Membrane Selectivity
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 Animation: Diffusion
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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

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Figure 7.14
Lower Higher Same concentration
concentration concentration of solute
of solute (sugar) of solute

Sugar
molecule

H2 O

Selectively
permeable
membrane

Osmosis
Water Balance of Cells Without Walls
• Tonicity is the ability of a surrounding solution
to cause a cell to gain or lose water (depends
on both solute concentration and membrane
permeability.
• 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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 • Hypertonic or hypotonic environments create
osmotic problems for organisms which do not
have a cell wall.
• 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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 Video: Chlamydomonas

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 Video: Paramecium Vacuole

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Figure 7.16

50 m
Contractile vacuole
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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 Video: Plasmolysis

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 Video: Turgid Elodea

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 Animation: Osmosis
Right-click slide / select “Play”

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Facilitated Diffusion v/s Active Transport
• In facilitated diffusion,
transport proteins speed the passive movement of
molecules across the plasma membrane (moving down
the concentration gradient) requires no energy.

• Active transport moves substances against their

concentration gradients
• Active transport requires energy
• Active transport is performed by carrier proteins
embedded in the membranes

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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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 Animation: Active Transport
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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
Concept 7.5: 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

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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

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 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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 • 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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