physiology, carrier proteins

Question

In general, what happens if the amount of solute being transported exceeds the number of carrier proteins?

Answer 1

Generally, when the amount of solutes exceed the amount of carrier proteins, the rate of proteins being carried will plateau. In other words, all of the carrier proteins will be saturated with proteins and the protein transport rate will plateau.

If you were to graph this out, starting at the bottom left of a typical x (amount of solutes) and y (rate OR amount of carrier proteins) graph at zero, the rate will steadily increase in the x and y position, but it'll eventually plateau on the y axis. It'll essentially resemble a logarithmic curve.