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Cell and Molecular Biology: Concepts and Experiments

Gerald Karp

Chapter 4

The Structure and Function of the Plasma Membrane - all with Video Answers

Educators


Chapter Questions

04:40

Problem 1

What types of integral proteins would you expect to reside in the plasma membrane of an epithelial cell that might be absent from that of an erythrocyte? How do such differences relate to the activities of these cells?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
04:06

Problem 2

Many different types of cells possess receptors that bind steroid hormones, which are lipid-soluble molecules. Where in the cell do you think such receptors might reside? Where in the cell would you expect the insulin receptor to reside? Why?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
05:00

Problem 3

When the trilaminar appearance of the plasma membrane was first reported, the images (e.g., Figure 4.1a) were taken as evidence to support the Davson-Danielli model of plasma membrane structure. Why do you think these micrographs might have been interpreted in this way?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
03:26

Problem 4

Suppose you were planning to use liposomes in an attempt to deliver drugs to a particular type of cell in the body, for example, a fat or muscle cell. Is there any way you might be able to construct the liposome to increase its target specificity?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
03:33

Problem 5

How is it that, unlike polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, the oligosaccharides on the surface of the plasma membrane can be involved in specific interactions? How is this feature illustrated by determining a person's blood type prior to receiving a transfusion?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
02:43

Problem 6

Trypsin is an enzyme that can digest the hydrophilic portions of membrane proteins, but it is unable to penetrate the lipid bilayer and enter a cell. Because of these properties, trypsin has been used in conjunction with SDS-PAGE to determine which proteins have an extracellular domain. Describe an experiment using trypsin to determine the sidedness of proteins of the erythrocyte membrane.

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
03:48

Problem 7

Look at the scanning electron micrograph of erythrocytes in Figure $4.32 a .$ These cells, which are flattened and have circular depressions on each side, are said to have a biconcave shape. What is the physiologic advantage of a biconcave erythocyte over a spherical cell with respect to $\mathrm{O}_{2}$ uptake?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
06:32

Problem 8

Suppose you were culturing a population of bacteria at $15^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$ and then raised the temperature of the culture to $37^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$. What effect do you think this might have on the fatty acid composition of the membrane? on the transition temperature of the lipid bilayer? on the activity of membrane desaturases?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
05:50

Problem 9

Looking at Figure $4.6,$ which lipids would you expect to have the greatest rate of flip-flop? which the least? Why? If you determined experimentally that phosphatidylcholine actually exhibited the greatest rate of flip-flop, how might you explain this finding? How would you expect the rate of phospholipid flip-flop to compare with that of an integral protein? Why?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
05:52

Problem 10

What is the difference between a two-dimensional and a threedimensional representation of a membrane protein? How are the different types of profiles obtained, and which is more useful? Why do you think there are so many more proteins whose two-dimensional structure is known?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
03:03

Problem 11

If you were to inject a squid giant axon with a tiny volume of $s 0^{-}$ lution containing $0.1 \mathrm{M} \mathrm{NaCl}$ and $0.1 \mathrm{M} \mathrm{KCl}$ in which both the $\mathrm{Na}^{+}$ and $\mathrm{K}^{+}$ ions were radioactively labeled, which of the $\mathrm{ra}^{-}$ dioactively labeled ions would you expect to appear most rapidly within the seawater medium while the neuron remained at rest? after the neuron had been stimulated to conduct a number of action potentials?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
03:56

Problem 12

It has been difficult to isolate proteins containing water channels (i.e., aquaporins) due to the high rate of diffusion of water through the lipid bilayer. Why would this make aquaporin isolation difficult? Is there any way you might be able to distinguish diffusion of water through the lipid bilayer versus that through aquaporins? The best approach to studying aquaporin behavior has been to express the aquaporin genes in frog oocytes. Is there any reason why the oocytes of a pond-dwelling amphibian might be particularly well suited for such studies?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
03:45

Problem 13

How is it that diffusion coefficients measured for lipids within membranes tend to be closer to that expected for free diffusion than those measured for integral proteins in the same membranes?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
05:24

Problem 14

Assume that the plasma membrane of a cell was suddenly permeable to the same degree to both $\mathrm{Na}^{+}$ and $\mathrm{K}^{+}$ and that both ions were present at a concentration gradient of the same magnitude. Would you expect these two ions to move across the membrane at the same rates? Why or why not?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
05:47

Problem 15

Most marine invertebrates show no loss or gain of water by osmosis, whereas most marine vertebrates experience continual water loss in their high-salt environment. Speculate on the basis for this difference and how it might reflect different pathways of evolution of the two groups.

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
07:12

Problem 16

How would you expect the concentrations of solute inside a plant cell to compare to that of its extracellular fluids? Would you expect the same to be true of the cells of an animal?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
04:34

Problem 17

What would be the consequence for impulse conduction if the $\mathrm{Na}^{+}$ channels were able to reopen immediately after they had closed during an action potential?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
16:27

Problem 18

What would be the value of the potassium equilibrium potential if the external $\mathrm{K}^{+}$ concentration was $200 \mathrm{mM}$ and the internal concentration was $10 \mathrm{mM}$ at $25^{\circ} \mathrm{C}^{2}$ at $37^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$ ?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
04:28

Problem 19

As discussed on page 160 , the $\mathrm{Na}^{+} / \mathrm{g}$ lucose cotransporter transports two $\mathrm{Na}^{+}$ ions for each glucose molecule. What if this ratio were 1: 1 rather than $2: 1 ;$ how would this affect the glucose concentration that the transporter could work against?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
02:28

Problem 20

A transmembrane protein usually has the following features:
(1) the portion that transits the membrane bilayer is at least
20 amino acids in length, which are largely or exclusively non-polar residues; (2) the portion that anchors the protein on the external face has two or more consecutive acidic residues; and
(3) the portion that anchors the protein on the cytoplasmic face has two or more consecutive basic residues. Consider the transmembrane protein with the following sequence:
$\mathrm{NH}_{2}-$ MLSTGVKRKGAVLLILLFPWMVAGGPLFWLA ADESTYKGS-COOH
Draw this protein as it would reside in the plasma membrane. Make sure you label the N-and C-termini and the external and cytoplasmic faces of the membrane. (Single-letter code for amino acids is given in Figure $2.26 .$

Ramesh Singh
Ramesh Singh
Numerade Educator
02:22

Problem 21

Many marine invertebrates, such as squid, have extracellular fluids that resemble seawater and therefore have much higher intracellular ion concentrations than mammals. For a squid neuron, the ionic concentrations are roughly
$$\begin{array}{lrr}
& \text { intracellular } & \text { extracellular } \\
\text { ion } & \text { conccritration } & \text { concentration } \\
\mathrm{K}^{+} & 350 \mathrm{mM} & 10 \mathrm{mM} \\
\mathrm{Na}^{+} & 40 \mathrm{mM} & 440 \mathrm{mM} \\
\mathrm{Cl}^{-} & 100 \mathrm{mM} & 560 \mathrm{mM} \\
\mathrm{Ca}^{2+} & 2 \times 10^{-4} \mathrm{mM} & 10 \mathrm{mM} \\
\mathrm{pH} & 7.6 & 8.0
\end{array}$$
If the resting potential of the plasma membrane, $V_{m},$ is $-70 \mathrm{mV}$ are any of the ions at equilibrium? How far out of equilibrium, in $\mathrm{mV}$, is each ion? What is the direction of net movement of each ion through an open channel permeable to that ion?

Patina Herring
Patina Herring
Numerade Educator
10:55

Problem 22

The membrane potential of a cell is determined by the relative permeability of the membrane to various ions. When acetylcholine binds to its receptors on the postsynaptic muscle membrane, it causes a massive opening of channels that are equally permeable to sodium and potassium ions. Under these conditions,
$$V_{m}=\left(V_{K^{*}}+V_{N_{A}^{*}}\right) / 2$$
If $\left[\mathrm{K}^{+}_{\text {in }}\right]=140 \mathrm{mM}$ and $\left[\mathrm{Na}_{\text {in }}^{+}\right]=10 \mathrm{mM}$ for the muscle cell, and $\left[\mathrm{Na}_{\text {out }}^{+}\right]=150 \mathrm{mM}$ and $\left[\mathrm{K}_{\text {cut }}^{+}\right]=5 \mathrm{mM},$ what is the membrane potential of the neuromuscular junction of an acetylcholine-stimulated muscle?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
05:03

Problem 23

Transmembrane domains consist of individual $\alpha$ helices or a $\beta$ sheet formed into a barrel. Looking at Figures 2.30 and 2.31 why is a single $\alpha$ helix more suited to spanning the bilayer than a single $\beta$ strand?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator
02:03

Problem 24

Knowing how the $\mathrm{K}^{+}$ channel selects for $\mathrm{K}^{+}$ ions, suggest a mechanism by which the $\mathrm{Na}^{+}$ channel is able to select for its ion.

Rabeya Zahid
Rabeya Zahid
Numerade Educator
05:42

Problem 25

How would you compare the rate of movement of ions passing through a channel versus those transported actively by a P-type pump? Why?

Danielle Ashley
Danielle Ashley
Numerade Educator