Active Transport

The action of the sodium-potassium pump is an

example of primary active transport.
Active transport is the transportation of things
from a region of lower concentration to a higher
concentration. If the process uses chemical
energy, such as from adenosine triphosphate
(ATP), it is termed primary active transport.
Secondary active transport involves the use of an
electrochemical gradient. Active transport uses
energy, unlike passive transport, which does not
use any energy.
 Specialized trans-membrane proteins recognize the
substance and allows it access (or, in the case of
secondary transport, expend energy on forcing it) to
cross the membrane when it otherwise would not,
either because it is one to which the lipid bilayer of
the membrane is impermeable or because it is
moved in the direction of the concentration gradient
. The last case, known as primary active transport,
and the proteins involved in it as pumps, uses the
chemical energy of, usually, ATP. The other cases,
which usually derive their energy through
exploitation of an electrochemical gradient, are
known as secondary active transport and involve
pore-forming proteins that form channels through
the cell membrane.
 Sometimes one substance is transported in one
direction at the same time as another substance
is being cotransported in the other direction.
This is called antiport. Symport is the name if
two substrates are being transported in the
same direction across the membrane. Antiport
and symport are associated with
secondary active transport, meaning that one of
the two substances are transported in the
direction of their concentration gradient utilizing
the energy derived from the transport of the
second substance (mostly Na+, K+ or H+) down
its concentration gradient.
 When particles are being moved from areas of low
concentration to areas of high concentration (i.e.,
in the opposite direction as the concentration
gradient) then specific trans-membrane carrier
proteins are required to move these particles.
These proteins have receptors that bind to specific
molecules (e.g., glucose) and thus transport them
into the cell. Because energy is required for this
process, it is known as 'active' transport. Examples
of active transport include the transportation of
sodium out of the cell and potassium into the cell
by the sodium-potassium pump. Active transport
often takes place in the internal lining of the small
intestine.
 Plants need to absorb mineral salts
from the soil, but these salts exist in
very dilute solution. Active transport
enables these cells to take up salts
from this dilute solution aggainst the
direction of the concentration gradient.
 Transport small molecules
across membranes.
 Water, ethanol, and chloroform are simple molecules
that do not require active transport to cross a
membrane.
 Metal ions, such as Na+, K+, Mg2+, or Ca2+, require
ion pumps or ion channels to cross membranes and
distribute through the body
 The pump for sodium and potassium is called
sodium-potassium pump or Na +/K+-ATPase
 In the epithelial cells of the stomach, gastric acid is
produced by hydrogen potassium ATPase, a
proton pump[citation needed]
 Endocytosis
 Endocytosis is the process by which cells ingest
materials. The cellular membrane folds around
the desired materials outside the cell. The
ingested particle is trapped within a pouch,
vacuole or inside the cytoplasm. Often enzymes
from lysosomes are then used to digest the
molecules absorbed by this process.
 Endocyctosis can be split up into two main types:
pinocytosis and phagocytosis In pinocytosis, cells
engulf liquid particles (in humans this process
occurs in the small intestine, cells there engulf fat
droplets)
 In phagocytosis, cells engulf solid particles.
 Active transport

 A kind of transport wherein ions or molecules move

against a concentration gradient, which means
movement in the direction opposite that of diffusion –
or – movement from an area of lower concentration to
an area of higher concentration. Hence, this process
will require expenditure of energy, and the assistance
of a type of protein called a carrier protein.

Supplement
 Active transport is important so that substances can
move in and out of a cell across the selectively
permeable cell membrane against a concentration
gradient.