Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
KEY CONCEPTS
5.1 Cellular membranes are fluid mosaics of lipids and proteins
5.2 Membrane structure results in selective permeability
5.3 Passive transport is diffusion of a substance across a membrane with no energy invest-
ment
5.4 Active transport uses energy to move solutes against their gradients
5.5 Bulk transport across the plasma membrane occurs by exocytosis and endocytosis
5.6 The plasma membrane plays a key role in most cell signaling
Transport of materials across the membrane is an essential cell function, so you will need to un -
derstand the component structures and their functions. There is considerable vocabulary associ-
ated with the movement of materials and concentrations on either side of the membrane, which
you will need to accurately describe transport.
STUDY TIP Make a visual study guide of the plasma membrane as suggested on p. 104 of the
textbook. Add details to the membrane as you read the chapter. Drawing the details will help
with visualizing movement of materials into and out of the membrane.
Concept 5.1 Cellular membranes are fluid mosaics of lipids and proteins
1. The interactions between the cell and its environment are summarized in the opening page di-
agram. What are the important features of each interaction?
a. Passive transport:
b. Active transport:
c. Bulk transport:
d. Exocytosis:
e. Endocytosis:
f. Cell signaling:
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
2. Phospholipids are amphipathic. Explain what this means.
3. The currently accepted model of the plasma membrane is the fluid mosaic model. Describe
this model.
4. What is meant by membrane fluidity?
5. Describe how each of the following can affect membrane fluidity:
a. decreasing temperature:
b. phospholipids with unsaturated hydrocarbon chains:
c. cholesterol:
d. increasing the number of saturated hydrocarbon tails:
6. Membrane proteins are the mosaic part of the model. Describe each of the two main
categories:
integral proteins:
peripheral proteins:
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
7. Study Figure 5.7 in your text. Use it to briefly describe the following major functions of
membrane proteins.
Function Description
Transport
Enzymatic activity
Signal transduction
Cell-cell recognition
Intercellular joining
Attachment to cytoskeleton and ECM
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
8. Membrane carbohydrates are important in cell-cell recognition. What are two examples of
this?
9. Distinguish between glycolipids and glycoproteins.
Glycolipids:
Glycoproteins:
10. Membranes have distinct inside and outside faces. How this occurs is described in Figure 5.8
on p. 109. Study the figure and follow the four steps explanatory steps. As vesicles bud from
the Golgi apparatus, how does the outside of the vesicle become part of the inner layer of the
plasma membrane’s phospholipid bilayer?
11. Putting it all together: Refer to Figure 5.2 on p. 105. To help summarize what you have
learned, label the following components of an animal cell’s plasma membrane on the figure
below. Note the role of each component.
glycolipid:
glycoprotein:
integral protein:
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
peripheral protein:
cholesterol:
phospholipid:
ECM fibers:
cytoskeleton microfilaments:
integrins (go back to Chapter 4, Figure 4.26):
Concept 5.2 Membrane structure results in selective permeability
12. What does it mean to say a biological membrane is selectively permeable?
13. There are two types of transport proteins. Name each and describe how it functions.
14. Are transport proteins specific? Cite an example that supports your response.
15. Peter Agre received the Nobel Prize in 2003 for the discovery of aquaporins. What are they?
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
16. Consider the following materials that must cross the membrane. For each, tell how it is
moved across.
Material Method of Transport
CO2
Glucose
H+
O2
H2O
Concept 5.3 Passive transport is diffusion of a substance across a membrane with no energy
investment
17. As you work through this concept, define the following terms as they are encountered:
diffusion:
concentration gradient:
passive transport:
osmosis:
isotonic:
hypertonic:
.
hypotonic:
turgid:
flaccid:
plasmolysis:
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
18. On your Study Tip diagram, add diffusion of two solutes as illustrated in Figure 5.10 (b).
How does the diffusion of one solute affect the diffusion of the second solute?
19. Using Figure 5.11 as a guide, add an example of osmosis to your Study Tip diagram.
20. In the following figure, label the hypotonic solution, isotonic solution, and hypertonic solution.
What is indicated by the blue arrows? Label them. Which cell is lysed? Turgid? Flaccid? Plas-
molyzed? Apply all these labels.
21. Why does the red blood cell burst when placed in a hypotonic solution, but the plant cell does
not?
22. What is facilitated diffusion? Is it active or passive? Add two types of facilitated diffusion
transport proteins to your Study Tip diagram.
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
Concept 5.4 Active transport uses energy to move solutes against their gradients
23. Describe active transport. What type of transport proteins are involved, and what is the role
of ATP in the process?
24. The sodium-potassium pump is an important system that demonstrates active transport. Use
the following diagram to understand how it works. Use these terms to label the figures, and
briefly summarize what is occurring in each step: extracellular fluid, cytoplasm, Na+, K+,
ATP, ADP, P, and transport protein.
SUMMARY: SODIUM-POTASSIUM PUMP
1.
2.
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
3.
4.
5.
6.
25. How many Na+ are moved out of the cell and how many K+ are moved in per cycle?
26. On the following diagram, add these labels: facilitated diffusion with a carrier protein, facil-
itated diffusion with a channel protein, active transport with a carrier protein, and simple
diffusion. Below each type of transport, give an example of a material that is moved in this
manner.
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
27. What is membrane potential? Which side of the membrane is positive?
28. What are the two forces that drive the diffusion of ions across the membrane? What is the
combination of these forces called?
29. What is cotransport? Explain how understanding it is used in our treatment of diarrhea.
30. Using Figure 5.18 as a guide, add cotransport to the Study Tip diagram.
Concept 5.5 Bulk transport across the plasma membrane occurs by exocytosis and endocytosis
31. Define each of the following, and give a specific cellular example:
exocytosis:
endocytosis:
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
receptor-mediated endocytosis:
phagocytosis:
pinocytosis:
32. What is the key feature of receptor-mediated endocytosis?
33. Are the processes you described in question 31 active or passive transport? Explain your re-
sponse.
Concept 5.6 The plasma membrane plays a key role in most cell signaling
This concept may present a special challenge. It is not that the material is difficult to understand
but that most of the material may be completely new to you. Cell communication is often not
covered in introductory high school biology courses, yet perhaps no other section of biology has
grown as much as our understanding of cell signaling in the last decade. Take your time with this
concept, and you will be rewarded with a knowledge base that will be most helpful in this course
and courses to come.
34. Cell-to-cell communication can occur over short distances (local signaling) or over long dis-
tances. What are the cytoplasmic connections that allow local signaling in plants?
35. What are the cytoplasmic connections in animal cells that allow local signaling?
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
36. What are two additional ways chemical signals may pass between animal cells?
37. Turn back to Figure 5.7d, p. 108. Describe the form of local signaling shown.
38. What are three examples of animal signaling molecules? A study of Figure 5.21 in your text
may help you answer this.
39. Chemical signals are received by specific target cells. What is required for reception by a tar-
get cell?
40. How does a hormone qualify as a long-distance signaling example?
41. A signal transduction pathway has three stages. Use Figure 5.22 in your text to label the
missing parts of the following figure.
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
42. If this were the pathway studied by Earl Sutherland, label epinephrine.
43. Describe each step in the signal transduction pathway.
signal reception:
signal transduction:
cellular response:
44. What are some examples of cellular responses?
45. Explain the term ligand. (This term is not restricted to cell signaling. You will see it in other
situations during the year.)
46. Cell-surface receptors bind to water-soluble signaling molecules. What two major transmem-
brane receptors will you study in depth?
47. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) are a large family of receptors. Study the GPCR shown
in Figure 5.23 in your text and read the accompanying text. How does a G protein receive a
signal?
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
48. What are some processes in humans that depend on GPCRs?
49. What are examples of diseases that result from GPCR interference?
50. Figure 5.23 explains how a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) leads to a cellular response
after activation. In the first figure, label the components and then describe the role of the
three components.
G protein-coupled receptor
G protein
GDP
G protein-coupled receptor:
G protein:
GDP:
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
51. Label and then describe what happens in step 2. (The yellow box at the bottom right is im-
portant!)
52. Look next at ion channel receptors (p. 121). This figure shows the flow of ions into the cell.
Ion channel receptors can also stop the flow of ions. These comparatively simple membrane
receptors are explained in three steps. Label this diagram of the first step and then explain the
role of the labeled molecules.
ligand
ligand-gated ion channel receptor
ions
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
ligand:
ligand-gated ion channel receptor:
ions:
53. Step 2 shows what has happened with the binding of the ligand to the receptor. Label and ex-
plain what occurs.
54. The ligand attachment to the receptor is brief. In step 3, the ligand dissociates. Label and ex-
plain what occurs.
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
55. Read the final paragraph below the Ion Channel Receptors figure in your text carefully. In
what body system are ligand-gated ion channels of particular importance?
56. To bind intracellular receptors, the signaling molecules must be able to pass through the
plasma membrane. What types of molecules can serve as signals? Give three examples.
57. The figure below shows how aldosterone, a hydrophobic steroid hormone, triggers a cell-sig-
naling pathway. It is important as an example of how intracellular receptors work. At each
bullet, add an explanation of what is happening in the cell.
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
58. Why is a cell-surface receptor protein not required for this steroid hormone (aldosterone) to
enter the cell?
59. Why do only kidney cells respond to aldosterone?
60. The important concept of gene regulation by activation of transcription factors is introduced
in the paragraph by Figure 5.25 in your text. Explain the function of transcription factors in
the cell.
61. What are two benefits of multistep pathways like the one in Figure 5.26 in your text?
62. Explain the role in transduction of these two categories of enzymes:
protein kinases:
protein phosphatases:
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63. Refer to Figure 5.26 to label this image. Explain what is occurring in the cell at each num-
bered step.
64. In the figure you just labeled, which protein activates protein kinase 2?
65. A phosphorylation cascade can be turned “on” and turned “off,” as shown in the figure you
just labeled.
a. How does an inactive protein kinase become activated?
b. How does an inactive protein become activated?
c. How does an active protein kinase become deactivated?
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Chapter 5: Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling
66. What is the difference between a first messenger and a second messenger?
67. Two common second messengers are cyclic AMP (cAMP) and calcium ions ( ).
Explain the role of the second messenger cAMP in Figure 5.27 in the text.
68. Consider again the discussion of how epinephrine triggers the breakdown of glycogen in the
liver, begun with the discussion of Earl W. Sutherland’s research on p. 119. For this pathway,
a. What is the first messenger?
b. What is the second messenger?
c. Why could glycogen phosphorylase be activated only when epinephrine was added to in-
tact cells?
69. What is the important relationship between the second messenger and protein kinase A?
70. The response to a cell signal can occur either in the nucleus or in the cytoplasm. Read the text
on p. 124, and study Figure 5.28. What normally happens in a nuclear response?
71. How is it that some cells do not respond to specific signaling molecules, and for the cells that
do respond, it is often in different ways?
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