Active Transport
Life cannot exist under equilibrium conditions (page 93).
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the imbalance of oppositely
disposed—the Na concentration is about 150 mM outside the cell and 10–20 mM inside the cell.
The concentration difference for Ca2 is even greater; the typical cytosolic concentration of 107 M is 10,000 times less than that outside the cell.
The ability of a cell to generate such steep concentration gradients across its plasma membrane
cannot occur by either simple or facilitated diffusion.
Rather, these gradients must be generated by active transport.
Like facilitated diffusion, active transport depends on integral membrane proteins that selectively bind a particular solute and move it across the membrane in a process driven by changes in the protein’s conformation.
Unlike facilitated diffusion, however, movement of a solute against a gradient requires the coupled input of energy.
Consequently, the endergonic movement of ions or other solutes across the membrane against a concentration gradient is coupled to an exergonic process, such as the hydrolysis of ATP, the absorbance of light, the transport of electrons, or the flow of other substances down their gradients.
Proteins that carry out active transport are oftenreferred to as “pumps.”