Question

As we ride the glucose molecule into the small intestine we see a curious rod shaped organism. Upon further inspection we notice that it has an outer membrane with lipopolysaccharide. We barely have time to contemplate what this means before we feel the pull of transport. We ride past the cell wall (outer membrane and peptidoglycan) and are pulled through a transporter and into the cytoplasmic membrane of the cell. We ride through the transporter’s hydrophilic center, down the concentration gradient and into the cytoplasm.

1. What type of protein is this transporter?

Membrane transport protein

2. What type of transport are we experiencing?

Answer 1

So, it's clear that the above transporter is a Membrane Transport Protein. Across the biological membranes, the movement of ions, small molecules and macromolecules is mainly done through these membrane proteins. These proteins are the integral part of that biological membrane. Active and facilitates transfer of biomolecules and ions occurs through these kind of proteins. Carriers and Channels are the two main proteins which are involving in the transportation across the membrane.

In the Active Transportation, there is a movement of biomolecules and ions against its concentration whereas in facilitated transportation, there are specific transport proteins which will facilitates the movement and doesn't require no input energy.

Various types of membrane transport proteins are involved in the movement of these biomolecules and ions across the membrane such as Channels/pores which involves in the movement of biomolecules and ions through the specific channels and pores, Electrochemical potential driven transporters or simply Carrier proteins are those which facilitates movement via the specific carrier protein molecules.