BIOL1006 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Protein Folding, Active Transport, Adenosine Triphosphate
Document Summary
All substances that move through the membrane do so by one of two general methods, which are categorized based on whether or not energy is required. Passive transport is the movement of substances across the membrane without the expenditure of cellular energy. During this type of transport, materials move by simple diffusion or by facilitated diffusion through the membrane, down their concentration gradient. Water passes through the membrane in a diffusion process called osmosis. Osmosis is the diffusion of water through a semi- permeable membrane down its concentration gradient. It occurs when there is an imbalance of solutes outside of a cell versus inside the cell. The solution that has the higher concentration of solutes is said to be hypertonic and the solution that has the lower concentration of solutes is said to be hypotonic. Water molecules will diffuse out of the hypotonic solution and into the hypertonic solution.