The Cell

Monday, 29 August 2022 2:24 pm

Modern Cell Theory

• The cell is the smallest living unit in all organisms.
• All living things are made of cells.
– Unicellular - has one cell
– Multicellular - multiple cells
• All cells come from other, pre-existing cells.
- Cells carry genetic information
- Cells can divide

Two major groups

• Prokaryote
• Bacteria
• Archaea
- Have genetic material
- Have ribosomes
- Have cell membranes
- Have no nucleus
- Have no membrane bound organelles
• Eukaryote
• Fungi
• Plants
• Protists
• Animals
- Have genetic material
- Have ribosomes
- Have cell membranes
- Have membrane bound organelles

• Cell membranes control what goes in and out of the cell.

- Also called plasma membrane.
- It’s selectively permeable which means that it only lets certain select materials in and
- out.
- By doing so, it keeps things in the cell stable, also known as keeping homeostasis.
• Ribosomes are small organelles that make proteins.
They are NOT membrane bound organelles
Ribosomes can be free in the cytoplasm.
They can be attached to another organelle.
• Nucleus which holds the genetic material and controls the cell’s activities.
- All cells have DNA but if you’re an eukaryote, you have a nucleus to put it in.
- The nucleus controls the cell activities.
- Inside it, it has a nucleolus, which is where ribosomes can be produced.
• Membrane-bound organelles are fancy organelles like the nucleus and mitochondria and
Golgi.
• Cytoplasm is a jelly like material that surrounds all of these internal cell structures, and
you’ll find it inside both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
• Cytoskeleton is a collection of fibers that will provide support for the cell and its
organelles.
- It can even play a major role in movement.
- Its organization varies depending on what kind of cell you’re looking at.
• Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) does a lot of processing of molecules for the cell, like
protein folding.

Biology 1 Page 1
 protein folding.
- It also is highly involved in actually transporting those molecules around.
- Attached to the membrane of the nucleus, or nuclear membrane.
– Rough ER which has ribosomes attached to it
- Specifically tends to be involved with protein producing and transporting, because
remember that ribosomes make protein.
- The ribosomes could be attached to the Rough ER.
- The Rough ER highway would provide a vesicle to send us to the Golgi apparatus where
the sorting can take place and if we’re tagged for being secreted, we’re sent off thru a
vesicle from the Golgi to the membrane.
– Smooth ER has many additional roles including detoxification, which is one reason why
your liver cells tend to have a lot of smooth ER.
- Additional role of smooth ER is that it can make some types of lipids.
• Golgi apparatus is the ultimate packaging center.
- It can receive items from the transport vesicles that pinched off of the ER.
- It has enzymes that can modify molecules it may receive and it sorts the materials it
- receives as well.
- It can determine where to send those molecules, including some that may eventually be
sent to the membrane so they can be secreted, which means, items that can sent out of the
cell.
• Mitochondria (mitochondrion) make ATP energy in a process called cellular respiration.
- It runs on glucose, which is a sugar, and needs the presence of oxygen to efficiently make
ATP energy.

→ Animal cells can have differences from plant cells.

→ Animal cells tend to be more round and plant cells tend to be more rectangular in structure.
→ Both plant and animal cells can have vacuoles.
→ vacuoles can have a lot of different functions but many types act as storage of materials.
→ Plant cells can have one large vacuole called a central vacuole while animal cells can have
→ several smaller vacuoles.
→ Plant cells additionally have a cell wall which is a layer that offers additional protection and
shape maintenance that animal cells do not.
→ Plant cells not only have mitochondria, but they also can have these awesome organelles
→ called chloroplasts.
• Chloroplasts actually make glucose by using light energy in a process known as
photosynthesis.
- They tend to have a green look to them because they have a pigment that captures light
energy and reflects green light.

Biology 1 Page 2