Question

• Explain how the movement of a SUY TINYAIFA • Describe the factors that must be taken into account when considering whether the transport of a charged solute across a membrane is endergonic or exergonic NEXT

Answer 1

Answer:

Transport of charged solute across a membrane is the endergonic process:

Firstly exergonic process means the process where energy is released and reactants seem to have less chemical energy than products and for endergonic the opposite is true.

If we consider small non-polar molecules (like O2 or CO2), they can easily get transported across a membrane bilayer. Polar and uncharged molecules such as water or urea, the tendency for them to diffuse is although slower but they can diffuse without the involvement of energy simply by the process of diffusion. Whereas, the lipid bilayer which forms the structure of membrane are highly impermeable membrane that allows only selective molecules to pass through it. The typical structure of lipid bilayer which is made up of phospholipids does not allow charged molecules (ions) despite its size being small or big, it prevents the entry of such charged molecules restricted across the membrane. So, some special proteins are needed for example membrane transport proteins, these special proteins that occur in many forms act against the concentration gradient and involve the ATP, the hydrolysis of energy allows the movement of a molecule like ions, sugars, or amino acids to be transported across the membrane. This is usually against the concentration gradient and requires ATP i.e. the energy currency. Due to this involvement of energy, the process of transporting a charged molecule across a membrane becomes endergonic process.