IES GREGORIO PRIETO BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4º ESO

UNIT 1. THE CELL

CELL THEORY

Robert Hooke (1665) was the first one who observed a cell, with a microscope he
observed a Cork cell

Robert Brown (1831) was the first one who observed the nucleus

Purkinje studied the cell content

Schleiden and Schwann proposed the cell theory:

1. All living things are made of one or more cells
2. The cell is the structural and functional unit of life
3. New cells come from old cells
4. The activity of an organism depends on the activity of their cells

CELLULAR FUNCTIONS

The cell carries out the three vital functions:

a) NUTRITION: it consists of nutrient uptake from the exterior in order to

transform them into matter and energy through a set of biochemical processes
called metabolism. As a result of it, waste products are generated and must be
expelled.

b) REPRODUCTION: “Omnis cellula ex cellula”. All cells come from another cell
through a process of cellular division, so that all cells have got the same genetic
information as their parents.

c) INTERACTION: Cells interact either as its external environment with other

cells in order to adapt themselves to its environment. For that reason, cells have
got mechanisms to capture stimuli and for responding to them.

CELLULAR STRUCTURE

Due to all cells have got the same origin, they share the same basic structure:

a) CELLULAR MEMBRANE: it isolates the cell from its external environment

and regulates the transit of molecules through it.

b) CYTOPLASM: it is the internal medium where is carried out all biochemical

reactions.

c) GENETIC MATERIAL: It is made up of nucleic acids that contain all the

information to carry out all the vital functions
IES GREGORIO PRIETO BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4º ESO

TYPES OF CELLS

a) CELLS TYPES BY SIZE: they are measured in micrometer. The eukaryotic

cells are 100 times bigger than prokaryotic cells

b) CELL TYPES BY SHAPE: depending on their function, though plant cells use
to have polygonal shape, the shape in animal cells can be very different
(spherical, flattening, binoculars, stars, …)

c) CELL TYPES BY COMPLEXITY: There are two types:

- Prokaryotic cells: they were the first to appear, they are all bacteria and
haven´t got organelles but ribosomas. Have circular chromosome ,
plasma membrane and bacterial wall. Don´t have membranous
organelles. Types:
1. Archaea: the most primitive and they are extremophiles
2. Cyanobacteria: were the first autotrophic organism of the Earth
3. Bacteria: are enormously diversed
- Eukaryotic cells: they come from prokaryote, they have got a defined
nucleus and all the organelles. They make up protists, fungi, plants and
animal

CYTOPLASMIC ORGANELLES

Vacuolar system:

a) Endoplasmic Reticulum: it is a set of tubules that store, processing and

synthesizing different biomolecules, specially proteins. There are two types:

I) Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum (RER), with ribosomes on its surface

II) Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum (SER), without ribosomes

b) Golgi Apparatus: it is a set of cisterne that processing and transport the

biomolecules coming from ER

c) Lysosome: they are organelles that contain enzymes to break down waste
materials and cellular debris (restos)

d) Vacuole: they are organelles that store all kind of substances. The plant vacuoles
can occupy the 90% of the whole cytoplasm.

e) Ribosome: they are cytoplasmic units without membrane and composed by

nucleic acid and proteins. They carry out the process of traduction ( RNA -----
proteins). They can be free or attached to RER.

f) Cytoskeleton: it is a grid (red) of protein filaments that maintain the cellular

shape, the inner organization and the organelle movements

ENERGETIC ORGANELLES
IES GREGORIO PRIETO BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4º ESO

a) MITOCHONDRIA: they are double-membraned and composed of

compartiments organelle. Because this organization we can absorb:

- outer membrane
- intermembrane space
- inner membrane, in which we find numerous cristae and encloses the
mitochondrial matrix that contains ribosomes, genetic material and
enzymes. In this place is where cellular respiration is carried out by
which the energy that the cell needs is produced.

b) CHLOROPLAST: they are also double-membraned organelles that contains th

estroma where there are stacks ccalled thylakoids that have got chlorophyla
which takes part in the photosynthesis.

MOVEMENT STRUCTURES

Cells can move with two different ways:

a) Through cilia and flagella: both of them are made up of proteins resulting in
short and numerous elements (cilium) and long and scarce elements (flagellum).
These two structures are formed and led by the centriole (a pair of perpendicular
structures) that also is involved in the organization of the mitotic spindle during
mitosis.

b) By changes in viscosity: It is a process that is carried out by several types of

cells (amoeba, phagocytes) and permit them to capture microorganisms,
nutrients, cellular wastes, … by surrounding them with pseudopods ( cytopasmic
projections originated by changes in the cytoplasm viscosity thanks to the
reorganization of cytoskeleton). Pseudopods permit cells also move.

THE NUCLEUS
IES GREGORIO PRIETO BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4º ESO

Eukaryote means “true nucleus”. The appearance of this organelle was essential for the
life evolution, because it protected the genetic material from the stress caused by the
cytoskeleton.

This structure only appears during interphase (when the cell is not dividing).

Inside the nucleus we find the nucleolus, composed by proteins and nucleic acids, this
condensation takes part in ribosome synthesis.

DNA during interphase is forming chromatin that during the cellular division will
organize in chromosomes.

The nucleus is enveloped by two cellular membranes (outer and inner) which present
nuclear pares that allow the transport of molecules across the nuclear envelope to the
cytoplasm. This nuclear envelope is formed by the rough encoplasmic reticulum.

CHROMOSOMES

They are the result of chromatin condensation during the cellular division thereby,
genetic material can be splitted up between the two cells fairly.

THE REPRODUCTION OF THE CELLS

Cells reproduce by cellular division that is carried out due to several reasons (increasing
of size, chemical, stimulation,…). This process is divided into 2 parts:

MITOSIS

All cells, but sexual cells, divide by this process which permits to cells to split up fairly
the genetic material between daughter cells.

Before mitosis, the genetic material is duplicated.

Mitosis is a continous process that we divide into 4 phases for better study.

1. PROPHASE:

- Chromatin condenses and forms chromosomes

- The nuclear envelope disorganizes and nucleolus disappears
- Centrioles move to both cellular pales and the mitotic spindle is formed
IES GREGORIO PRIETO BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4º ESO

2. METAPHASE:

- Chromosomes join with the mitotic spindle fiber through their

centromeres
- The higher level of chromosome condensation is reached (this phase is
when they can be seen better)
- All chromosomes situate along the equatorial plane with their
chromatides aimed at opposite poles.

3. ANAPHASE:

- Chromosomes split up through their centromeros when fibers of mitotic

spindle break them along the equatorial plane.
- The fibers get shorter and cause the migration of chromatides to both
poles.

4. TELOPHASE: it is opposite of prophase

- The mitotic spindle disappears

- The nuclear envelope reorganizes
- Chromosomes unfold back into chromatin and nucleolus forms again

CYTOKINESIS

It happens during anaphase and consists into split up the cytoplasm between the two
daughter cells. This process depends on the type of cell:

a) in animal cells: it is produced a contractile ring which produces a constriction

that divides the cell

b) in plant cells: due to the presence of a cell wall, it can not be constricted, so that
they construct a cell plate in the middle of the cell (fusion of vesicles)

MEIOSIS

It is a special type of cell division of sexual cells (spermatozoids and ovules), that have
got the half of genetic charge (haploid = n) than somatic cells (diploid = 2n) in order to
recover the genetic charge when sexual cells join during fecundation.

Therefore, the meiosis function is to discharge sexual cells of their half of genetic
material.

This process occurs in 2 phases:

a) MEIOSIS I: it is also called reductional division (R!) because it generates

haploid cells. It is divided into 4 phases:

1º) PROPHASE I: it appears homologous chromosomes couples (they are

chromosomes with the same information) that are going to exchange genetic
information as a result of chromosomal crossover (genetic recombination)
IES GREGORIO PRIETO BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4º ESO

2º) METAPHASE I: homologous chromosomes join to the mitotic spindle

3º) ANAPHASE I: homologous chromosomes split up and each chromosome

moves to a distinct pole

4º) TELOPHASE I: nucleus reorganizes.

b) MEIOSIS II: it is a normal mitosis but multiplied by two, so that appears 4 haploid
cells because during this phase chromatids split up.