In: Biology
How do protein pumps move ions and small molecules across a cell membrane?
Cell membrane is mostly impearmeable to lot of ions and charged molecules.
Protein pumps are ATP powered pumps, or ATPases which use the power of ATP hydrolysis to transport small molecules and ions across the cell membrane which is against their concentration gradient or electrochemical gradient. This mechanism of transport is termed as active transport since it requires energy.
The cell maintains low concentration of Na+ and Ca2+ ions inside the cell by using this kind of transport. It is also important in creating the reducing environment inside the cell and also for creating low pH in organelles such as lysosomes, endosomes etc.
Protein pumps are composed of a ligand binding region and a ATP binding domain. ATP binds to the domains and undergo hydrolysis which acts a s pushing energy for the ligand (ions ) to move across the membrane. There are different kind of protein pumps including Sodium potassium pumps which is involved in maintaining low concentration of sodium ions inside the cell and Proton pumps , which pumps H+ ions from the matrix of mitochondria to the inner membrane space during Electron transport chain.