Membranes and Transport

Membranes contain specialized

lipids and proteins
 Membranes are fluid mosaics
• Proteins/specialized structures as the tiles
• Lipids as the mortar
• Components are constrained to a plane but can diffuse laterally
• Individual components diffuse, associate, dissociate in 2D
 Lipid Bilayer Structure
• Lipids assemble to segregate polar end nonpolar substituents
• Micelles are globular
– Exterior polar head group, Interior hydrophobic tail
– Favored by single acyl chains
• Vesicles or liposomes have an internal aqueous compartments
– Inner and Outer leaflets
• Bilayers are locally planar structures
– Inner and Outer leaflets are asymmetrical
– Bio membranes are ~3 nm (30 Angstroms) thick
 Membrane Proteins
• Peripheral membrane
proteins
– Associate with the membrane
surface (lipids or protein)
– Can be dissociated by changes
in solution conditions (salt, pH)
• Integral membrane proteins
– Interact with hydrophobic bilayer
core
– Membrane Spanning
– Lipid Anchors
 Integral membrane proteins
• Specific structure and orientation
• Topology and orientation can be
probed in intact membranes
Protease digestion
Chemical reactivity (lysine, cysteine
modifications)
• Membrane spanning segments
expose nonpolar surfaces to
bilayer interior
• Structures of a few transmembrane
proteins reveal common helical
membrane spanning elements
• Post translational modification of
Amino acids with Lipid
Fatty Acids -- Palmitate, Myristate anchors
Isoprenoids -- Farnesyl, geranyl (Inner
leaflet)
Sterols
Glycosyl Phosphatidyl Inositol (GPI) -
(Outer leaflet)
 Acyl Chains - order-disorder
transition
• Sterols and straight chains
favor order
• Double bonds and short
chains favor disorder
• Lipid composition is adjusted
to maintain constant fluidity
High temperature - more saturated
FAs, sterols
Low temperature - more
unsaturated FAs, shorter chains
 Transbilayer
transport by
flippases
• Barriers to
transbilayer lipid
movement are high
• Lipid biosynthesis on
one side of a
membrane is
coupled to catalyzed
transport
 Solute Transport Across Membranes

Simple Diffusion
Facilitated Diffusion
Pores,
Channels
Ionophores
Active Transport
Direct
Coupled
 Energetics of Transport -
Electro-chemical Potential
• ΔG = RTln(Cinn/Cout) + ZF Δψ
• If you forget the signs,
remember:
Free energy of a spontaneous
reaction is negative
Diffusion is spontaneous from high
concentration to low
Electrical transport is spontaneous
for charges (Z) with signs
opposite the potential difference
(Δψ)
Passive transport - facilitated
diffusion by proteins
• Simple diffusion
Rate determined by lipid/aqueous solubility
Driving force is the sum of
• Simple chemical potential and
• electrochemical potential
Not saturable (no Vmax)
• Facilitated Diffusion - "passive transport”
Transporters or Permeases are proteins
Directionality determined by concentration and
electrochemical gradients
 Active Transport
• Energy coupling can transport against a
concentration gradient

Primary
Transport is coupled to a
chemical process (ATP
hydrolysis)

Secondary
Transport is coupled to a
favorable transport process
 Transport superfamilies
• Carriers
– Bind specific ligands
– Catalyze transport across the membrane
– In a sense they are enzymes
– Transport is saturable
• Channels
– Less specific (often size specific)
– Can be fluid filled
– Transport may not be easily saturable
 Bacterial Cell Walls
• The rigid cell walls of bacteria
determine the characteristic shapes of
different kinds of bacterial cells.
• Peptidoglycan is the principal
component of the cell walls of both
Gram-positive and Gram-negative
bacteria.
• Interestingly, the unique structure of
their cell walls also makes bacteria
vulnerable to some antibiotics.
Bacterial cell walls
The peptidoglycan of E. coli
 Eukaryotic Cell Walls
• The cells walls of eukaryotes are
composed principally of polysaccharides
cellulose .
• Chitin is the basic structural
polysaccharide of fungal cell walls; it
also forms the shells of crabs and the
exoskeletons of insects and other
arthropods.
Polysaccharides of cell walls
The cytoskeleton and cell movement
The cytoskeleton is a series of intercellular proteins that help a cell with
shape, support, and movement.

• The cytoskeleton is composed of three principal types of protein

filaments

actin filaments
intermediate filaments
microtubules
Function:
It gives the cell shape and mechanical resistance to deformation through
association with extracellular connective tissue and other cells it stabilizes entire
tissues.
can actively contract, thereby deforming the cell and the cell's environment and
allowing cells to migrate.
involved in the uptake of extracellular material (endocytosis).
segregates chromosomes during cellular division.
is involved in cytokinesis - the division of a mother cell into two daughter cells.
provides a scaffold to organize the contents of the cell in space and for intracellular
transport (for example, the movement of vesicles and organelles within the cell).
can be a template for the construction of a cell wall.
forms specialized structures such as flagella, cilia, lamellipodia and podosomes.