Energy Coupling in Microbial Transport

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the energy coupling in microbial transport data. The mechanism of energy coupling, a prerequisite where a substrate is concentrated within the membrane-bounded volume, has been incompletely understood and only hinted at in the various models that have been put forward in an effort to describe the transport system. The particular excitement of current studies lies in the new, or at least, developing and understanding of the molecular nature of the cellular mechanisms coupling the redox and chemical energies of metabolism to the transport and intracellular accumulation of nutrients. The chapter also discusses pattern forming out of the interactions between the various transport systems, and their function and regulation. In the simpler study of energy-coupling mechanisms, it has been this attempt to trace the outlines of a logical and integrated pattern that has directed the choice of papers and the form of discussion in the chapter. As such, no pretence can be made of a comprehensive coverage, and perhaps a personal bias may be all too obvious to some readers. It is the earnest hope of the author, however, that any such criticisms may be more than fully compensated for by an increased level of comprehension of the facts and their relevance, in an area of study that has too often in the past owed more to the imagination of the model builder than to the realism of the experimenter.