Cell Transport

Mechanisms
Plasma Membrane
Overview
 It serves as a barrier and a gateway between the
cytoplasm and its external environment.
 It is selectively permeable - allows both the solvent
and the solutes to pass through it.
It is amphipathic - possess polar hydrophilic head
and non-polar hydrophobic tails.
The transport of substances into and out of the cell can be
classified in two ways:

Passive Active
Transport Transport
does not require ATP require energy ATP
energy

Sodium-
Diffusion Osmosis Exocytosis Endocytosis Potassium
Pump
vesicular transport

facilitated
Isotonic hypotonic hypertonic
diffusion

receptor-
phagocytosis pinocytosis
mediated
Passive Transport
• It is the net movement of
molecules from an area of high
concentration to an area of
lower concentration.

• It can be described as the

random movement of particles
down a concentration
gradient.
 Diffusion
It is the constant movement of molecules from an area of higher
concentration to an area of lower concentration.
 Diffusion
It is the constant movement of molecules from an area of higher
concentration to an area of lower concentration.
 Some Significant Examples of Passive Transport (Diffusion)

Gas exchange in the lungs of humans Gas exchange in the stomata of plant cells
 Facilitated
Diffusion
• It has a carrier-mediated
transport (channel proteins)
of a solute through the
plasma membrane.
• Transports large molecules of
solutes such as glucose that
cannot pass through the
membrane.
 Osmosis
It is the diffusion of water across the plasma membrane from an area of
higher concentration to an area of lower concentration.
The diffusion of water down its concentration gradient, through a
selectively permeable membrane that separates solutions with
different concentration of solutes.
Water Potential
Tonicity
measure of the
measure of strength
tendency of water to
of a solution in
move from one place
relation to osmosis
to another
 Different Solutions to Describe Tonicity

a) A hypotonic solution with b) An isotonic solution with c) A hypertonic solution,

a low solute
concentration results in
swelling of the RBC
placed into the solution.
Water enters the cell by
osmosis, and the RBC
lyses (bursts).
a concentration of
solutes equal to that
inside the cells results in
a normal shaped RBC.
Water moves into and
out of the cell at the
same rate, but there is
no net water movement.
with a high solute
concentration, causes
shrinkage (crenation) of
the RBC as water moves
by osmosis out of the
cell and into the
hypertonic solution.
Is it hypotonic solution, hypertonic solution, or isotonic solution?
Active Transport
• It is the net movement of
molecules from an area of
lower concentration to an area
of higher concentration.

• It can be described as the

random movement of particles
against a concentration
gradient.
 Some Significant Examples of Active Transport

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https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2-160110102135/95/movement-in-and-out-of-cells-38-638.jpg?cb=1452421401
Active Transport
• Moves large particles, droplets of fluid, or numerous molecules at once
through the membrane, contained in bulblike vesicles of membrane or
proteins.

• Endocytosis – bringing matter into the cell

Phagocytosis – cell eating
Pinocytosis – cell drinking
Receptor Mediated Endocytosis – molecule binds to the surface of the
protein through receptor proteins

• Exocytosis – releasing material from the cell

• Sodium-Potassium Pump
An active transport in living cells
that binds three Na+
simultaneously on the
cytoplasmic side of the
membrane, releases these to the
ECF, and releases these into the
cell.

Each cycle of the pump

consumes one ATP and
exchanges three Na+ for two K+.
Thank You!