Antiporter

A transporter that uses the energy stored in the electrochemical gradient of one solute to drive the movement of another solute 'uphill' against its electrochemical gradient. The tight coupling of the transport of two different solutes allows the protein to harvest the free energy released from the 'downhill' movement to power the movement of the other solute up its electrochemical gradient in the opposite direction^[1]. For example, the transport of glucose against its concentration gradient can be coupled to the movement of sodium ions down their electrochemical gradient, where glucose moves in the opposite direction across the membrane to sodium^[2].

Also see symporter.

References

1. ↑ Alberts et al.(2008)Molecular Biology of the Cell,5th Edition: p656
2. ↑ Alberts et al.( 2008 )Molecular Biology of the Cell,5th Edition: p657, figure 11-9