- The fluidity of membranes allows materials to be taken into cells by endocytosis or released

by exocytosis.
 Allows structures surrounded by a membrane to change shape and move
- A vesicle is a small sac of membrane with a droplet of fluid inside.

Endocytosis

- To form a vesicle, a small region of a membrane is pulled from the rest of the membrane and
is pinched off.
- Proteins in the membrane carry out this process, using energy from ATP.
- The vesicle is formed on the inside of the plasma membrane, containing extracellular fluid.
- It contains material that was outside the cell, so this is a method of taking materials into the
cell.
- Vesicles taken in by endocytosis contain water and solutes from outside the cell but they also
often contain larger molecules needed by the cell that cannot pass across the plasma
membrane.

For example:

→ In the placenta, proteins from the mother’s blood, including antibodies, are absorbed into the
fetus by endocytosis.
→ Some cells take in large undigested food particles by endocytosis. This happens in unicellular
organisms including Amoeba and Paramecium.
→ Some types of white blood cells take in pathogens including bacteria and viruses by
endocytosis and then kill them, as part of the body’s response to infection.

Exocytosis

Vesicles can be used to release materials from cells.

- Digestive enzymes are released from gland cells by exocytosis.

 The polypeptides in the enzymes are synthesized by the rER, processed in the Golgi
apparatus and then carried to the membrane in vesicles for exocytosis.
 In this case the release is referred to as secretion, because a useful substance is being
released, not a waste product.
- Exocytosis can also be used to expel waste products or unwanted materials (removal of excess
water from the cells of unicellular organisms, for example)
 The water is loaded into a vesicle, sometimes called a contractile vacuole, which is then
moved to the plasma membrane for expulsion by exocytosis.
 This can be seen quite easily in Paramecium, using a microscope.
 Vesicular Transport:

- Vesicles can be used to move materials around inside cells.

Either:

- the contents of the vesicle that need to be moved

OR
- proteins in the membrane of the vesicle need to be transported

Example of moving cell contents: Secretory cells

- Protein designed for extracellular use is synthesized by ribosomes on the rough endoplasmic
reticulum (rER) and accumulates inside the rER.
- Vesicles containing the proteins bud off the rER and carry them to the Golgi apparatus, which
processes the protein into its final form.

 The vesicle fuses to the internal (cis) face of the complex

 Materials move via vesicles from the internal cis face of the Golgi to the externally
oriented trans face

- While within the Golgi apparatus, materials may be structurally modified (e.g. truncated,
glycosylated, etc.)

 Released immediately into the extracellular fluid (constitutive secretion)

 Stored within an intracellular vesicle for a delayed release in response to a cellular

signal (regulatory secretion)

- When this has been done, vesicles bud off the Golgi apparatus and move to the plasma
membrane, where the protein is secreted.
- The vesicle will fuse with the cell membrane and its materials will be expelled into the
extracellular fluid

Example of protein in vesicle membrane being transported: Growing cells

- In a growing cell, the area of the plasma membrane needs to increase.

- Phospholipids are synthesized next to the rER and become inserted into the rER membrane.
- Ribosomes on the rER synthesize membrane proteins which also become inserted into the
membrane.
- Vesicles bud off the rER and move to the plasma membrane. They fuse with it, each
increasing the area of the plasma membrane by a very small amount.
- This method can also be used to increase the size of organelles in the cytoplasm such as
lysosomes and mitochondria.
 Simple Diffusion

Net movement of particles form an area of high concentration to low concentration (down a
concentration gradient) until a state of dynamic equilibrium is reached (even dispersal of particles).
- Passive process: The cell does not have to expend energy for diffusion to occur.
- Energy source: Diffusion occurs due to the kinetic energy possessed by the particles

Particles transported through simple diffusion:

Simple diffusion across membranes involves particles passing between the phospholipids in the
membrane

∴ It can only happen if the phospholipid bilayer is permeable to the particles.

- Small and non-polar (lipophilic) molecules (e.g. O2, CO2, glycerol) freely diffuse across cell
membranes
- Polar molecules can diffuse at low rates between phospholipids of the membrane
 Polar molecules, which have partial positive and negative charges over their surface
 The centre of membranes is hydrophobic [ions with positive or negative charges cannot
easily pass through]
 Small polar particles such as urea or ethanol pass through more easily than large
particles.

Factors influencing rate of diffusion:

- Temperature (affects kinetic energy of particles in solution)
- Molecular size (larger particles are subjected to greater resistance within a fluid medium)
- Steepness of gradient (rate of diffusion will be greater with a higher concentration gradient)

Facilitated diffusion

Large, polar molecules and ions cannot be transported across the plasma membrane through simple
diffusion as they cannot diffuse between phospholipids

However, transmembrane channels and carrier proteins allow these particles to cross the plasma
membrane.

- This is facilitated diffusion: These membrane proteins help particles to pass through the
membrane, from a higher concentration to a lower concentration

Channel Proteins
- These channels are integral lipoproteins which contain a pore with a very narrow diameter.
- Channel proteins only move molecules along a concentration gradient (i.e. are not used in
active transport)
- Ion-selective: The diameter and chemical properties of the channel ensure that only one type
of particle passes through, for example sodium ions, or potassium ions, but not both.
- Cells control which types of channel are synthesized and placed in the plasma membrane,
controlling which substances diffuse in and out.

Carrier Proteins
- Integral glycoproteins which bind to a solute particle and undergo a conformational change to
transfer it across the membrane
- Solute-specific: Only bind a specific molecule (via an attachment similar to an enzyme-
substrate interaction)
- Used in active transport: May move molecules against concentration gradients in the presence
of ATP (i.e. are used in active transport)