Carrier transport uphill. I. General

A quantitative treatment of a carrier pump operating with two carrier forms C and Z is presented. Asymmetric metabolic reactions are assumed to transform Z into C on one and C into Z on the other side of the membrane, establishing a carrier cycle. The kinetical consequences of this mechanism are worked out with respect to net transport rate, initial rate, unidirectional fluxes including back-flow through the pump, maximum accumulation ratio, competitive inhibition and acceleration, counter transport, and metabolic poisoning.

The energetics of the system are treated. The fact that the system concords with equilibrating carrier systems in all characteristic kinetical features is taken to indicate that the carrier mechanism contributes more to the characteristic transport features than the connection with metabolism.