Cytoplasmic membrane permeability

Macronutrients (N, K, P, Ca, Mg, S) are added in concentrations up to SOOOmgx dm- in the form of inorganic salts. For induction of somatic embryogenesis it is necessary to maintain balance between cations - NH4+ and anions - NO3-. Macronutrients are necessary for synthesis of proteins, nucleic acids and for proper functioning of the water balance of plant cells. They ensure appropriate cytoplasmic membrane permeability and are involved in the synthesis of chlorophyll. 

These results outline the sophisticated survival responses induced by bacteria when they are subjected to deleterious changes of pH, temperature, or osmotic pressure. Under stress, the bacterial defense mechanisms are tightly coupled to the cell s metabolism and homeostatic mechanisms. When stimulating the metabolism of S. aureus with D-(+)-glucose in the presence of highly concentrated salts, a significant current response is measured by SECM in spite of the low cytoplasmic membrane permeability to hydrophilic mediators, such as ferricyanide. One explanation for the presence of this current enhancement implies that the bacteria to survive the osmotic stress, changes the cytoplasmic membrane structure or membrane-associated protein profile to promote ferrocya-nide production. 

Figure 1 General pathways through which molecules can actively or passively cross a monolayer of cells. (A) Endocytosis of solutes and fusion of the membrane vesicle with the opposite plasma membrane in an active process called transcytosis. (B) Similar to A, but the solute associates with the membrane via specific (e.g., receptor) or nonspecific (e.g., charge) interactions. (C) Passive diffusion between the cells through the paracellular space. (C, C") Passive diffusion (C ) through the cell membranes and cytoplasm or (C") via partitioning into and lateral diffusion within the cell membrane. (D) Active or carrier-mediated transport of an otherwise poorly membrane permeable solute into and/or out of a cellular barrier.

The answer is c. (Hardman, pp 1143-1144.) Bacitracin, cycloserine, cephalothin, and vancomycin inhibit cell-wall synthesis and produce bacteria that are susceptible to environmental conditions. Polymyxins disrupt the structural integrity of the cytoplasmic membranes by acting as cationic detergents. On contact with the drug, the permeability of the membrane changes. Polymyxin is often applied in a mixture with bacitracin and/or neomycin for synergistic effects. 

Living cells visualization of membranes, lipids, proteins, DNA, RNA, surface antigens, surface glycoconjugates membrane dynamics membrane permeability membrane potential intracellular pH cytoplasmic calcium, sodium, chloride, proton concentration redox state enzyme activities cell-cell and cell-virus interactions membrane fusion endocytosis viability, cell cycle cytotoxic activity... 

The loss of certain cell characteristics, such as membrane integrity, has been exploited as a means by which to determine the viability of cells. Damage to the cell membrane resulting from interference with normal cell function by an anticancer macromolecule renders the membrane permeable to marker dyes, such as trypan blue [174] or fluorescent dyes [201], and allows radiolabeled proteins within the cytoplasm to be released [194],... 

Heat treatment, on the other hand, elevated cytoplasmic immunoreactivity of Bcl-2. However, nuclear and mitotic Bcl-2 immunoreactivity was clearly present when these cells were fixed with formaldehyde (3.6%), followed by postfixation with methanol for 10 min at -20°C. Treatment with ice-cold methanol makes the cell membrane permeable, allowing antibody access to intranuclear antigens without protein relocalization. Extensive protein crosslinking with formaldehyde is required for maintenance of intranuclear Bcl-2 immunoreactivity. In contrast to Bcl-2, Bax immunoreactivity was detected in nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments regardless of the duration of formaldehyde fixation used. 

Conventional liposomes and lipid complexes. Liposomes were used initially as a model system for cellular membranes to study the biochemistry of membrane proteins.85 Consequently, when liposomes were first tried as a drug delivery system, their bilayers were composed of un-derivatized naturally occurring lipids. Most of such conventional liposomes are taken up by the MPS phagocytes within a few hours of injection, mostly by liver Kupffer cells and spleen macrophages.9 Inside the endosomes and lysosomes of those cells, liposomes are degraded. If the liposomal drugs are membrane permeable, they then can diffuse from the endosomal compartments to the cytoplasm of the macrophage cells and slowly reenter the blood circulation. Because such a clearance... 

A two-color dot plot (Fig. 8.23) of cells stained with propidium iodide and annexin V FITC will indicate cells in three of the four quadrants. Unstained cells are alive and well and are the double negatives they neither express phosphatidylserine on their surface nor take up propidium iodide through leaky membranes. Cells that stain just with annexin V are apoptotic they have begun to express phosphatidylserine on their surface, but have not yet gone through the process that leads to permeabilization of their cytoplasmic membrane. Cells that stain both with propidium iodide and annexin V are necrotic (that is, dead) they take up propidium iodide and also stain with annexin Y. With a permeable cell, the flow cytometer cannot tell us whether the annexin V is on the outside of the membrane (because the cells have gone through apoptosis before membrane permeabilization) or on the inside of the membrane (because the cells have died by the necrotic pathway without apoptosis). 

The antimicrobial activity of eugenol may be associated with structural damage and alteration of the permeability mechanism of microsome, lysosome, and cell walls. The substance acts primarily on cytoplasm membranes, causing alteration of its permeability, and thus allowing leakage of essential bacterial cell constituents with subsequent death of the bacteria. 

Calcium and magnesium are very abundant in soils, and soils deficient in Ca are rare, calcium status is maintained when lime is added to correct acidity. Plant cells contain relatively large concentrations of Ca, but most of it is bound in the cell-wall as the pectate (about 60%) or sequestered in different organelles (Clarkson, 1984). Ca affects the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane and its deficiency leads to malformation of the growing parts of the plant. Hewitt and Smith (1975) have discussed the early experiments on the morphological effects of Ca deficiency. Calcium is often found in combination with organic acids, for example oxalic acid, a soluble, toxic metabolic by-product is converted to insoluble calcium oxalate. 

Purple bacteria (Rb. sphaeroides) were also investigated by SECM [72, 162], Unlike mammalian cells, Rb. Spheroides have two membranes (outer and cytoplasmic) and no nucleus (Fig. 23b). The outer membrane is permeable to both hydrophilic and hydrophobic redox species, while the cytoplasmic membrane is impermeable to hydrophilic species and contains redox centers. Because of this difference, the intracellular potential encountered by hydrophobic and hydrophilic redox mediator were significantly different, that is, —110 mV versus Ag/AgCl was found from regeneration rates of hydrophobic redox mediators, and 180 mV, for hydrophilic redox species [72]. 

The depolarization that accompanies the action potential induces an increase in membrane permeability to calcium ions. A large inward electrochemical gradient exists for calcium and it moves into the terminal. The calcium that enters the terminal activates enzymes that cause the attachment of some of the vesicles to releasing sites on the terminal membrane, membrane fusion, and the release of the vesicular contents into the synaptic cleft. Transmitter release is terminated by the removal of calcium from the terminal cytoplasm, either via a calcium pump, which pumps it out of the cell, or by uptake into the endoplasmic reticulum or into mitochondria. 

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