Cells and Their Function

Cell
● the structural and functional unit of all known
living organisms
● the smallest unit of an organism that is
classified as living, and is often called the
building brick of life
● Humans have an estimated 100 trillion or 1014
cells; a typical cell size is 10 µm; a typical cell
mass is 1 nanogram.) The largest known cell is
an unfertilized ostrich egg cell.
● In 1835 before the final cell theory was
developed, a Czech Jan Evangelista Purkyně
observed small "granules" while looking at the
plant tissue through a microscope.
● The word cell comes from the Latin cellula,
meaning, a small room.
● The descriptive name for the smallest living
biological structure was chosen by Robert
Hooke in a book he published in 1665 when he
compared the cork cells he saw through his
microscope to the small rooms monks lived in.
 Cell wall
● The outer covering of the plant cell
● a tough, flexible and sometimes fairly rigid layer
that surrounds some types of cells
● located outside the cell membrane and provides
these cells with structural support and
protection, and also acts as a filtering
mechanism
● major function of the cell wall is to act as a
pressure vessel, preventing over-expansion
when water enters the cell
 Cell membrane
● also called the plasma membrane or
plasmalemma
● biological membrane separating the interior of a
cell from the outside environment
● a semipermeable lipid bilayer
● contains a wide variety of biological molecules,
primarily proteins and lipids, which are involved
in a vast array of cellular processes such as cell
adhesion, ion channel conductance and cell
signaling
 Phagocytosis
● the cellular process of phagocytes and protists
of engulfing solid particles by the cell
membrane to form an internal phagosome,
which is a food vacuole, or pteroid
● specific form of endocytosis involving the
vesicular internalization of solid particles, such
as bacteria
● involved in the acquisition of nutrients for some
cells, and in the immune system it is a major
mechanism used to remove pathogens and cell
debris
 Pinocytosis
● a form of endocytosis in which small particles
are brought into the cell suspended within small
vesicles which subsequently fuse with
lysosomes to hydrolyze, or to break down, the
particles
● primarily used for the absorption of extracellular
fluids (ECF), and in contrast to phagocytosis,
generates very small vesicle
ORGANELLES
 Endoplasmic Reticulum
● forms an interconnected network of tubules,
vesicles, and cisternae within cells
● general structure of the endoplasmic reticulum
is an extensive membrane network of cisternae
(sac-like structures) held together by the
cytoskeleton
● Two types of ER
– Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
– Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum
● Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
– studded with protein-manufacturing ribosomes
giving it a "rough" appearance
– Responsible for protein synthesis
● Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum
– functions in several metabolic processes, including
synthesis of lipids and steroids, metabolism of
carbohydrates, regulation of calcium concentration,
drug detoxification, attachment of receptors on cell
membrane proteins, and steroid metabolism
 Golgi Body
● called the Golgi body, Golgi complex,
dictyosome, or more colloquially Golgi
● was identified in 1898 by the Italian physician
Camillo Golgi and was named after him
● process and package macromolecules, such as
proteins and lipids, after their synthesis and
before they make their way to their destination
 Lysosomes
● organelles containing digestive enzymes
● found in animal cells, while in plant cells the
same roles are performed by the vacuole
● digest excess or worn-out organelles, food
particles, and engulfed viruses or bacteria
● frequently nicknamed "suicide-bags" or
"suicide-sacs" by cell biologists due to their role
in autolysis
● discovered by the Belgian cytologist Christian
de Duve in 1955
 Peroxisomes
● Small sacs from the endoplasmic reticulum that
contain enzymes called oxidases and destroy
hydrogen peroxides
● Zellweger syndrome
– Caused by failure of the peroxisome to remove the
hydrogen peroxide
– A disease associated with progressive degeneration
of the liver, kidney, and the brain
 Mitochondria
● described as "cellular power plants" because
they generate most of the cell's supply of
adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a
source of chemical energy
● Also involved in a range of other processes,
such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell
death, as well as the control of the cell cycle
and cell growth
 Nuclear Membrane
● serves as the physical barrier, separating the
contents of the nucleus (DNA in particular) from
the cytosol (cytoplasm)
● many nuclear pores are inserted in the nuclear
envelope, which facilitate and regulate the
exchange of materials (proteins such as
transcription factors, and RNA) between the
nucleus and the cytoplasm
 Ribosomes
● Non-membrane organelles that contain RNA
and the sites of protein synthesis or where
amino acids are assembled into proteins
 Microtubules
● Numerous and extremely long tubular bodies
scattered around the cell arranged in tightly
packed bundles
● Associated in cell division, especially in the
movement of chromosomes
● Building units of cilia and flagella
 Plastids
● major organelles found in plants and algae
● the site of manufacture and storage of
important chemical compounds used by the cell
● often contain pigments used in photosynthesis,
and the types of pigments present can change
or determine the cell's color
 Types of plastids
● Chloroplasts: for photosynthesis
● Chromoplasts: for pigment synthesis and
storage
● Leucoplasts: for monoterpene synthesis;
leucoplasts sometimes differentiate into more
specialized plastids:
– Amyloplasts: for starch storage
● Statoliths: for detecting gravity
– Elaioplasts: for storing fat
– Proteinoplasts: for storing and modifying protein
 Chloroplast
● found in plant cells and other eukaryotic
organisms that conduct photosynthesis
● capture light energy to conserve free energy in
the form of ATP and reduce NADP to NADPH
through a complex set of processes called
photosynthesis
Chloroplast
Animal Vs. Plant cells
● Animal cells don't have cell wall where as plant
cells do
● Plant cells have chloroplast for photosynthesis
whereas animal cells to not have chloroplasts
● animal cells is that animal cells are round
whereas plant cells are rectangular
● all animal cells have centrioles whereas only
some lower plant forms have centrioles in their
cells
● Animal cells have one or more small vacuoles
whereas plant cells have one large central
vacuole that can take up to 90% of cell volume
● In plant cells, the function of vacuoles is to store
water and maintain turgidity of the cell.
Vacuoles in animal cells store water, ions and
waste
Eukaryotes vs Prokaryotes