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Related Concept Videos

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane01:24

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane

Proteins show rotational as well as lateral diffusion across the membrane. The lateral diffusion of proteins was confirmed through the cell fusion experiment where mouse and human cells were fused, resulting in hybrid cells. When the human and mouse cells fused, the specific membrane proteins on human and mouse cells were marked with the red and green-fluorescent markers, respectively. Initially, the red and green fluorescence was located on the respective hemisphere of the cell. As time...
The Significance of Membrane Transport01:44

The Significance of Membrane Transport

The transport of solutes across the cell membrane is essential for metabolic processes, like maintaining cell size and volume, generating the action potential, exchanging nutrients and gases, etc. Membrane transport can be either passive or active. It can be simple diffusion, facilitated, or mediated transport aided by transport proteins such as transporters and channels.
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
Diffusion01:12

Diffusion

Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...
Diffusion01:21

Diffusion

Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...
Facilitated Diffusion01:16

Facilitated Diffusion

The plasma membrane, a critical structure in cellular biology, houses an array of transporters, or carrier proteins, interspersed within its lipid bilayer. These proteins play a crucial role in solute transport through facilitated diffusion, a form of passive diffusion that uses transporters to move the molecules across the membrane.
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
Cellular Membranes and Drug Transport01:24

Cellular Membranes and Drug Transport

Drugs must traverse multiple biological barriers, such as multi-layered skin, single-layered intestinal epithelium, and the plasma membrane, to reach their target sites within the body. The plasma membrane, a highly structured composite of phospholipids, carbohydrates, and proteins, is the cell's protective boundary, facilitating selective substance exchange.
Phospholipids arrange themselves into a bilayer, with hydrophilic heads oriented outward and hydrophobic tails facing inward.

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Mapping Molecular Diffusion in the Plasma Membrane by Multiple-Target Tracing (MTT)
12:19

Mapping Molecular Diffusion in the Plasma Membrane by Multiple-Target Tracing (MTT)

Published on: May 27, 2012

Exploring transmembrane diffusion pathways with molecular dynamics.

Yi Wang1, Saher A Shaikh, Emad Tajkhorshid

  • 1Department of Biochemistry, Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.

Physiology (Bethesda, Md.)
|June 17, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Molecular dynamics simulations reveal how lipid and protein interactions facilitate the passage of water and gas molecules across cell membranes, aiding challenging experimental studies.

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Last Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Mapping Molecular Diffusion in the Plasma Membrane by Multiple-Target Tracing (MTT)
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Mapping Molecular Diffusion in the Plasma Membrane by Multiple-Target Tracing (MTT)

Published on: May 27, 2012

Unraveling Entropic Rate Acceleration Induced by Solvent Dynamics in Membrane Enzymes
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Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
07:31

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies

Published on: September 1, 2023

Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Cell Biology
  • Computational Biology

Background:

  • Transmembrane material exchange is vital for cellular function.
  • Permeation of small, uncharged molecules across membranes is experimentally challenging.
  • Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations offer high-resolution insights into membrane transport.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review recent MD simulation studies on small molecule permeation.
  • To elucidate the roles of lipid-mediated and protein-mediated transport mechanisms.
  • To highlight advancements in understanding membrane permeability.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.
  • Analyzing simulation data for molecular interactions and transport pathways.
  • Focusing on the permeation of water and gas molecules.

Main Results:

  • MD simulations provide detailed mechanistic insights into membrane transport.
  • Both lipid bilayers and membrane proteins significantly influence molecule permeation.
  • Specific lipid-protein interactions can modulate transport efficiency.

Conclusions:

  • Molecular dynamics is a key tool for studying membrane transport.
  • Understanding lipid- and protein-mediated mechanisms is crucial for membrane science.
  • Recent simulations advance the comprehension of fundamental biological transport processes.