resting potential

Examples of resting potential in the following topics:

• Sodium Pumps as an Alternative to Proton Pumps

  • The Na+/K+-ATPase helps maintain resting potential, avail transport and regulate cellular volume.
  • Functions include resting potential, transport, controlling cell volume and acting as a signal transducer.

• Pathogenicity Islands and Virulence Factors

  • The GC-content of pathogenicity islands often differs from that of the rest of the genome, potentially aiding in their detection within a given DNA sequence.

• Pathogenicity Islands

  • The GC-content of pathogenicity islands often differs from that of the rest of the genome, potentially aiding in their detection within a given DNA sequence.

• Genetically Engineered Vaccines

  • The enzyme endonuclease is used to split a DNA sequence and to split the gene from the rest of the chromosome.
  • Although recombinant subunit vaccines hold great promise, they do present some potential limitations.
  • This potential problem may be overcome by employing one of the many new types of adjuvants that are becoming available for use in humans.

• Sepsis and Septic Shock

  • Sepsis is a potentially deadly medical condition characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state (called a systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS) that is triggered by an infection.
  • The therapy of sepsis rests on intravenous fluids, antibiotics, surgical drainage of infected fluid collections, and appropriate support for organ dysfunction.

• Wetland Soils

  • The redox potential describes which way chemical reactions will proceed in oxygen deficient soils and controls the nutrient cycling in flooded systems.
  • Redox potential, or reduction potential , is used to express the likelihood of an environment to receive electrons and therefore become reduced.
  • The oxidized environment has high redox potential, whereas the reduced environment has a low redox potential.
  • The redox potential is controlled by the oxidation state of the chemical species, pH and the amount of oxygen (O2) there is in the system.
  • This equation will tend to move to the right in acidic conditions which causes higher redox potentials to be found at lower pH levels.

• Proton Reduction

  • An electrochemical gradient represents one of the many interchangeable forms of potential energy through which energy may be conserved.
  • In the mitochondria and chloroplasts, proton gradients are used to generate a chemiosmotic potential that is also known as a proton motive force.
  • This potential energy is used for the synthesis of ATP by phosphorylation.
  • The electrochemical potential difference between the two sides of the membrane in mitochondria, chloroplasts, bacteria, and other membranous compartments that engage in active transport involving proton pumps, is at times called a chemiosmotic potential or proton motive force.
  • The reduced species are oxidized by a series of respiratory integral membrane proteins with sequentially increasing reduction potentials, the final electron acceptor being oxygen (in aerobic respiration) or another species (in anaerobic respiration).

• Endospores

  • While the rest of a bacterial cell may stain, the endospore is left colorless.
  • That allows the endospore to show up as red, while the rest of the cell stains blue.
  • The DNA is replicated and a membrane wall known as a spore septum begins to form between it and the rest of the cell.

• Electron Donors and Acceptors

  • These levels correspond to successively more positive redox potentials, or to successively decreased potential differences relative to the terminal electron acceptor.
  • The redox potential of the acceptor must be more positive than the redox potential of the donor.
  • Furthermore, actual environmental conditions may be far different from standard conditions (1 molar concentrations, 1 atm partial pressures, pH = 7), which apply to standard redox potentials.

• Aerobic Hydrocarbon Oxidation

  • Interest in microbial surfactants has been steadily increasing in recent years due to their diversity, environmentally friendly nature, possibility of large-scale production, selectivity, performance under extreme conditions, and potential applications in environmental protection.
  • Biosurfactants enhance the emulsification of hydrocarbons, have the potential to solubilize hydrocarbon contaminants, and increase their availability for microbial degradation.
  • These compounds can also be used in enhanced oil recovery and may be considered for other potential applications in environmental protection.