Question

Where do you think the sodium-potassium pumps are made in the cell, and how do you think they become inserted into the lipid bilayer of the plasma membrane?

Answer 1

The sodium-potassium pump system moves sodium and potassium ions against high concentration gradients. It moves two potassium ions into the cell where the potassium level is high and pumps three sodium ions out of the cell and into the extracellular fluid.

Complete answer:
Active transport is the energy-requiring process of pumping molecules and ions across "uphill" membranes-against a concentration gradient. A carrier protein is needed to move these molecules against their concentration gradient. Carrier proteins may work with a concentration gradient (during passive transport), but some carrier proteins may move solutes against a concentration gradient (from low concentration to high concentration) with an energy input.

In active transport, since carrier proteins are used to move materials against their concentration gradient, these proteins are known as pumps. As in other types of cellular activities, ATP supplies most active transport energy. One way ATP enables active transport is by transferring the phosphate group directly to the carrier protein. This can cause the carrier protein to change its shape, which moves the molecule or ion to the other side of the membrane.

Since they are proteins, they must have been made by ribosomes. They are made by the ribosomes attached to the RER and then went to the golgi apparatus to become part of the vesicle, which in turn is mixed with the cell membrane by the process of exocytosis. The protein that was embedded in the vesicle cell membrane became part of the cell membrane.

Sodium and potassium gradients function in physiological processes of various organ systems. The kidneys have a high level of expression of the Na, K-ATPase, with up to 50 million pumps per cell in the distal convoluted tubule. This sodium gradient is necessary for the kidney to filter waste products in the blood, to reabsorb amino acids, to reabsorb glucose, to regulate blood electrolyte levels,and to maintain pH.

Note: Both RNA and DNA viruses can directly affect the function of Na, K-ATPase, particularly viral infections targeting host cell components. Na, K-ATPase has been promised as an antiviral strategy to minimise antiviral drug resistance and has been shown to be effective.