week 2 Flashcards
Lipid bilayer
Dynamic and selectively permeable
Contains membrane proteins enables signalling, communication and selective permeability
What do membrane proteins do
Signalling, communication and selective permeability
What do the fatty acids chains in membrane determine
Fluidity of membrane
What does amphipathic mean
Both hydrophobic and hydrophilic
Phospholipids are amphipathic
Intracellular signal transduction lipids
Rapidly generated/ destroyed by enzymes in response to a specific signal
Spatially and temporally generated - highly specific signal
Bind specifically to conserved regions found within many different proteins and once bound induce conformational and/or localisation and activity changes within these proteins
How does cholesterol alter properties of lipid bilayers
Cholesterol inserts between membrane phospholipids
This tightens packing in the bilayer/ membrane rigidity and decreases membrane permeability to small molecules
what does the fluidity of membranes allow
Signalling lipids and membrane proteins to rapidly diffuse in the lateral plane and interact with one another
Ensures membranes are equally shared between daughter cells following cell division
Allows membranes to fuse with other membranes e.g. exocytosis
Integral and peripheral membrane proteins
Single pass- integral
Multi pass transmembrane protein- integral : hydrophobic amino acids with side chains interacting with lipid mono layer
B-barrel- integral
Lipid-linked -peripheral
Peripheral membrane protein -peripheral
What are functions of membrane proteins
Transport
Enzymatic activity
Signal transduction
Cell-cell recognition
Intercellular joining- connecting neighbouring epithelial cells
Attachment to cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix ECM
Types of passive transport
Simple diffusion: no membrane proteins involved, driven by concentration gradients
Facilitated diffusion- membrane proteins involved, driven by concentration gradients
No energy input ATP required for either
What does the ability of a solute to cross membrane by simple diffusion depend on
Concentration gradient
Hydrophobicity/ charge
Size
Membranes highly impermeable to ions- hydrophobic molecules can pass through
What are the two classes of facilitated diffusion
Channels- discriminates mainly on size and charge
Uniporter carrier proteins- involves a binding site for solutes, highly specific, binding of molecule to specific site causes conformational change resulting in movement of molecule from inside to outside
Transport inorganic ions/ small molecules across the membrane passively along their concentration/electrochemical gradient
What are channel proteins
Membrane proteins that form hydrophilic pores through plasma membrane
Most are non-directional ion channels
Show some selectivity based on size and charge
Fast
Gated channels offer more control than a simple membrane pore
What’s an electrochemical gradient
Combines the concentration gradient and membrane potential
The force driving a charged solute across a membrane is the concentration gradient and membrane potential
Why do cells maintain electrochemical gradients
To drive transport across membranes
To maintain osmotic balance
Electrical forces must be balanced
Without active transport to maintain electrochemical gradients ions would flow down their gradients through leak channels disturbing osmotic balance which results in cell death
How do cells carry out active transport
ATP driven pumps (primary active transport)- couple the transport of a solute against its gradient to the hydrolysis of ATP
Coupled transporters (secondary active transport)- couple the transport of one solute with the gradient to another against gradient
Light driven pumps found in plants and bacteria not humans -couple the transport of a solute against its gradient to the input of energy from light
How do coupled transporters work
Move solutes against concentration/ electrochemical gradient by coupling transport to Na+ gradient created by Na+/K+ ATPase
Do not depend directly on the hydrolysis of ATP (secondary active transport)
Symport- same directions
Antiport- opposite directions
Couple the transport of one solute with the gradient to another against gradient
Cell cycle
G1 and G2 are gap phases between mitosis and DNA synthesis
In G1 cells monitor their intracellular and extracellular environment to determine if conditions are correct during interphase cells continue with transcription and grow in mass
What is the restriction point in cell cycle
During G1
Decides whether to go into the cell cycle
G0 normal state for most cells (quiescence) not going through cell cycle
No growth factors
G1/S checkpoint
Will stop cell cycle if DNA is damaged
What do cyclin dependent kinases Cdks do
Regulate cell cycle checkpoint transitions
Are themselves regulated by feedback
Activating molecules are cyclins, proteins that cyclically fluctuate in concentration in cell cycle
What is a kinase
An enzyme which activates/ deactivates a protein by phosphorylating them
How do different cyclin-Cdk complexes regulate entry into different phases of cell cycle
Cyclins accumulate during the G1 S and G2 phases of cell cycle
By the G2 checkpoint enough cyclin is available to form M-Cdk (maturation promoting factor) complexes which initiate mitosis
Later in mitosis M-Cdk switches itself off by initiating a process which leads to destruction of cyclin
Cdk persists in cell as inactive until it associates with new cyclin synthesised during interphase
Consequences of checkpoint failure
Proliferation of cells in absence of growth factors
Replication of damaged DNA
Segregation of incompletely replicated chromosomes
Division of cells with wrong number of chromosomes
What is metabolism
The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life
What do catabolic pathways do
Break down complex molecules into simple molecules and release energy
What do anabolic pathways do
Build complex molecules from simple molecules and require energy usually in form of ATP