Translocation Processes N.B. This chapter is still under construction. In particular, some of the equations have not yet been inserted. A single e-mail request is all it would take to get these equations added. Use your power.
Translocation is the third broad class of biological processes.
Since it includes all process that move chemical species from one physical place to another, we need to develop rate laws for processes as diverse as diffusion, endocytosis, blood flow, and transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm through the nuclear pore complex. Diffusion is arguably the simplest of these special cases. It is a process that occurs in inanimate systems just as readily as it occurs in living systems. No specialized proteins are required, unless the diffusing molecule must cross a lipid membrane, and even then a nonpolar, lipid soluble molecule can cross without proteinacious assistance. Imagine a molecule of glucose in the cytoplasm of a mammalian cell.