Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Simple carrier kinetics in complex membrane transporters

J A Hernández¹

¹Sección Biofisica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay.

The Journal of Membrane Biology

|October 10, 1998

Summary

The simple carrier model (SCM) may not fully capture complex membrane transport. A general carrier model (GCM) shows that SCM-like behavior can arise from more intricate transporter designs.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Using biological control in free-range laying hens to prevent infections by digestive endoparasites. Effects on productivity, welfare and health.

Poultry science·2026

Same author

Field-Induced Magnon Decay, Magnon Shadows, and Rotonlike Excitations in the Honeycomb Antiferromagnet YbBr_{3}.

Physical review letters·2025

Same author

Radiographic features of cardiogenic pulmonary oedema in dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy.

The Journal of small animal practice·2025

Same author

New Constraints on the Melting Temperature and Phase Stability of Shocked Iron up to 270 GPa Probed by Ultrafast X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy.

Physical review letters·2025

Same author

Artificial neural networks with conformable transfer function for improving the performance in thermal and environmental processes.

Neural networks : the official journal of the International Neural Network Society·2022

Same author

OPTN/SRTR 2020 Annual Data Report: VCA.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons·2022

Area of Science:

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Membrane Transport Mechanisms

Background:

The four-state simple carrier model (SCM) is widely used to explain ligand transport across biological membranes via mobile carriers or protein conformational changes.
Complex membrane proteins may mediate transport through mechanisms not strictly described by the elementary SCM.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if facilitative transporters with complex kinetic designs can exhibit macroscopic kinetic properties indistinguishable from the SCM.
To determine if the kinetic parameters of a general carrier model (GCM) are subject to the same restrictions as the SCM.

Main Methods:

Development and analysis of a general carrier model (GCM) for membrane transport.
Evaluation of kinetic parameters within the GCM framework.
Comparison of GCM predictions with the established SCM.

Main Results:

A fundamental finding is the existence of a general kinetic design with SCM-like properties, applicable to a wide range of transporters.
The classical SCM is identified as a specific instance within the broader GCM.
The GCM demonstrates that complex transporters can exhibit macroscopic kinetics resembling the SCM.

Conclusions:

Macroscopic SCM-like kinetic behavior in facilitative transport does not exclusively support simple carrier mechanisms.
The presence of SCM-like kinetics is insufficient evidence to confirm a specific mechanism, such as a two-conformational single-site carrier.
The GCM provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding the diversity of transporter kinetics.

Related Experiment Videos