Intracellular Transport (PDF)

Intracellular Transport is a collection of papers that examines the processes of and the mechanisms underlying intracellular transport. One paper describes that all active transport processes in the amoeba are intracellular and depend on dynamic transformations of membrane into cytoplasm, and of cytoplasm into membrane. Another paper discusses the kinetics of membrane transport, of which the phenomena of counterflow can become a "mobile carrier" system. The paper notes that the specific transport properties of membranes are conferred by the proteins of the surfaces that are grouped as macromolecular complexes, probably similar to those of enzymes. One paper describes the concept of parametric pumping, an oscillation-driven separation process, as a possible model for active transport in biological cells. Another paper compares the fine-scale diffusion effects that happen in a mixture without large-scale concentration gradients and where the effect are on a large scale. The homogenous kinetic law can be used in the large-scale situation; the law already can account for any of the fine-scale diffusion effects. The paper notes that without large-scale concentration gradients, the transport event is from a local region to a nearby reaction site only. Where the effects are on a large scale, the diffusion results in a gross transport of over distances larger than molecular dimensions. This collection can prove useful for mathematicians, cellular biologists, physical chemists, physiologists, electron microscopicists, geneticists, and engineers.