Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Fluid Movement Between Compartments01:18

Fluid Movement Between Compartments

619
The force applied by fluids against a surface, known as hydrostatic pressure, initiates the transfer of fluid among different compartments. Within our blood vessels, the blood's hydrostatic pressure is a result of the heart's pumping action. At the arteriolar end of capillaries, hydrostatic pressure (capillary blood pressure) exceeds the opposing colloid osmotic pressure created primarily by plasma proteins like albumin. This discrepancy in pressure propels plasma and nutrients from the...
619
Chemiosmosis01:32

Chemiosmosis

100.2K
Oxidative phosphorylation is a highly efficient process that generates large amounts of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the basic unit of energy that drives many cellular processes. Oxidative phosphorylation involves two processes— the electron transport chain and chemiosmosis.
Electron Transport Chain
The electron transport chain involves a series of protein complexes on the inner mitochondrial membrane that undergo a series of redox reactions. At the end of this chain, the electrons...
100.2K
ATP Driven Pumps I: An Overview01:27

ATP Driven Pumps I: An Overview

8.3K
ATP-driven pumps, also known as transport ATPases, are integral membrane proteins. They have binding sites for ATP located on the membrane's cytosolic side and the ion-conducting domain in the transmembrane region. These pumps use the free energy released from ATP hydrolysis to move the solutes across cell membranes against an electrochemical gradient.
There are four main types of ATP-driven pumps - P-type, V-type, F-type, and ABC transporter. All these pumps are of varying complexities and...
8.3K
Facilitated Transport01:19

Facilitated Transport

12.5K
The chemical and physical properties of plasma membranes cause them to be selectively permeable. Since plasma membranes have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, substances need to be able to transverse both regions. The hydrophobic area of membranes repels substances such as charged ions. Therefore, such substances need special membrane proteins to cross a membrane successfully. In  facilitated transport, also known as facilitated diffusion, molecules and ions travel across a...
12.5K
Protein Diffusion in the Membrane01:24

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane

4.4K
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...
4.4K
Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics01:17

Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics

575
Passive diffusion is a critical process that allows small lipophilic drugs to cross the cell membrane along a concentration gradient. This mechanism's efficiency depends on four primary factors: the membrane's surface area, the drug's lipid-water partition coefficient, the concentration gradient, and the membrane's thickness.
When administered orally, drugs establish a substantial concentration gradient between the gastrointestinal (GI) lumen and the bloodstream, expediting...
575

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Sequence redesign of glycosyltransferases for enhanced heterologous expression and glycosylation efficiency in Escherichia coli.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Molecular resilience of neurons to repetitive mechanical compression.

Communications biology·2026
Same author

BBATProt: a framework predicting biological function with enhanced feature extraction via interpretable deep learning.

Briefings in bioinformatics·2025
Same author

Single Molecule Kinetic Fingerprinting of Glycans on IgA1 Antibodies.

Analytical chemistry·2025
Same author

Enzymes helping enzymes: Oxaloacetate decarboxylase increases malate dehydrogenase's turnover number.

PNAS nexus·2025
Same author

Replicating PET Hydrolytic Activity by Positioning Active Sites with Smaller Synthetic Protein Scaffolds.

Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Chemotactic Response of Marine Micro-Organisms to Micro-Scale Nutrient Layers
22:38

Chemotactic Response of Marine Micro-Organisms to Micro-Scale Nutrient Layers

Published on: May 28, 2007

13.4K

Chemically-powered swimming and diffusion in the microscopic world.

Yifei Zhang1,2, Henry Hess3

  • 1Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China. yifeizhang@mail.buct.edu.cn.

Nature Reviews. Chemistry
|April 28, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Chemically-driven motion in solutions enhances object diffusion and swimming beyond Brownian motion. This phenomenon, chemomechanical coupling, is size-dependent and crucial for understanding nanoswimmers and microswimmers.

More Related Videos

Generating Controlled, Dynamic Chemical Landscapes to Study Microbial Behavior
10:07

Generating Controlled, Dynamic Chemical Landscapes to Study Microbial Behavior

Published on: January 31, 2020

6.2K
Quantitative Locomotion Study of Freely Swimming Micro-organisms Using Laser Diffraction
10:03

Quantitative Locomotion Study of Freely Swimming Micro-organisms Using Laser Diffraction

Published on: October 25, 2012

11.6K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Chemotactic Response of Marine Micro-Organisms to Micro-Scale Nutrient Layers
22:38

Chemotactic Response of Marine Micro-Organisms to Micro-Scale Nutrient Layers

Published on: May 28, 2007

13.4K
Generating Controlled, Dynamic Chemical Landscapes to Study Microbial Behavior
10:07

Generating Controlled, Dynamic Chemical Landscapes to Study Microbial Behavior

Published on: January 31, 2020

6.2K
Quantitative Locomotion Study of Freely Swimming Micro-organisms Using Laser Diffraction
10:03

Quantitative Locomotion Study of Freely Swimming Micro-organisms Using Laser Diffraction

Published on: October 25, 2012

11.6K

Area of Science:

  • Chemical physics
  • Materials science
  • Nanotechnology

Background:

  • Recent studies report enhanced motion (diffusion and swimming) of objects in chemically reactive solutions, exceeding predictions from Brownian motion.
  • Debates persist on whether this enhanced motion is a real phenomenon or an experimental artifact, with implications for chemomechanical energy conversion.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To summarize and discuss recent observations and theories regarding chemically-driven active diffusion and swimming.
  • To evaluate the size-dependence of chemomechanical coupling and diffusion enhancement.
  • To assess the reliability of diffusion measurement techniques and explore applications of nanoswimmers and microswimmers.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review and theoretical analysis of active diffusion and swimming phenomena.
  • Discussion of experimental observations and their interpretation.
  • Evaluation of size-dependent effects on chemomechanical coupling and diffusion enhancement.

Main Results:

  • Chemically-driven enhanced diffusion and swimming are observed, exceeding Brownian motion.
  • The magnitude of diffusion enhancement and chemomechanical coupling are strongly size-dependent.
  • These effects are expected to diminish as object size approaches the molecular scale.

Conclusions:

  • Active diffusion and swimming represent a real phenomenon driven by chemical energy conversion.
  • Understanding the size-dependence of chemomechanical coupling is critical for designing and interpreting experiments with microswimmers and nanoswimmers.
  • Further research is needed to refine measurement techniques and explore potential applications.