Lecture 1B

Cells as organisms versus cells

in a social system (i.e.,
multi-cellular organisms)
Lets start by looking at a simple Eukaryotic Cell - Paramecium
- This cell is an organism by itself. This is a distant
ancestor of the cells that exist in our body.

- It lives in pond water we saw in one of the Lecture

videos.

-This cell has to do everything for itself,

for example, find food, find shelter, find a mate,
reproduce, etc.

- It also has to escape from predators.

- What limits this cell is the number of biomolecular

machines that it can contain within itself.
A Paramecium uses cilia for?
feeding

Technology: Bright field light microscopy

Figure 28.16 Anatomy of Paramecium

This single-celled organism has to do it all – all by itself.

It has to find food, shelter, a mate to reproduce…..
All with a limited number of biomolecular machines
inside it.
Technology:
Psuedocolored
SEM
Technology : SEM Pseudocolored SEM

The predator
Eating a Paramecium (yellow)
Individual cells have a limited number of biomolecular
machines. In a multi-cellular organism (an advancement
due to evolution) you get a division of labor between
different cell types so that the whole can do more than the
sum of the parts with a similar number of biomolecular
machines per cell.

Multi-cellular organisms that live in complex social

system also exhibit this division of labor.

What are the minimum functions that cells have? They are the
same ones that are characteristics of life. You probably
learned this in an Ecology segment of introductory biology.

When cell work together they behave in a social system. We

call that social system a “multi-cellular organism”. You are
a multi-cellular organism……
 When a cell changes a
function
it changes its engineering

 Each cell has a

limited number of
parts
 When a cell changes a
function
it changes its engineering

 The same number of parts

can give rise to a different
structure
 When you have a multicellular organism not every cell
cell has to do “everything”. You can have a division of
labor. This enables the multicellular organism to do more,
much more, than a single cell. The “whole” becomes
greater than the “sum of its parts”.
MULTI- CELLULAR
ORGANISM like you.

SEM of a cracked-
open lymph node.
Different shapes of
cells show different
cell types.

Each of these cell

types has a different
function, because they
have different
biomolecular machines
in them, even though
their DNA is identical.
 SEM of a macrophage eating two bacteria

This is part of our

nonspecific immune
system

What does the Labster Microscopy lab state as a limitation of SEM?

How do you process a specimen for SEM as described in the Labster microscopy lab?
This is a natural killer cell – part of the nonspecific immune system
The frame at the
upper left shows the
epithelial cells lining
the bronchi. Each
one of these has a
nucleus in them just
like the chicken
intestinal cells of the
Labster lab for this
week. Using the
techniques in the
Labster lab for this
week, how would
you stain the nuclei if
you were going to
view this with a
light microscope?
- Cells exist in many different shapes in multicellular
organisms as well as in single-celled organisms

-In multicellular organisms the shape of cell is a

reflection of it cell type. You learn about some
of these cell types in this class, but you learn much
more about them when you take a histology class such
as the one offered at ASU.
Psuedocolored SEM – A pancake-shaped macrophage walking (extending a lamellipodium) towards a bacterium
it is going to eat.
Prokaryotic
Cells
- Can cause infections in our
bodies. One cell can
divide rapidly after a brief
lag into an exponential growth
phase.

-Macrophages are one of

the cell types that evolved
to destroy these infecting
cells as part of the
nonspecific immune system.

Psuedocolored
SEM
Figure 28.7 Diversity among Cells

Cells can walk in many different ways (see Book videos). The
Book videos assigned for today show several examples of cells
that are individual organisms as well as some cell removed from
the body that also can walk.
Technology
Why is it important to know about the technology used
in collecting data?

Why is it even more important to know about the

limitations of the technology used?