Katie Yang 7/18/11 Intro to Biomedicine A Day in the Life of a Cell

Hi! I'm Shelly the cell. I am about 0.5 micrometers tall and I know what you're probably thinking right now: wow, Shelly is really short. But I'll have you know - my life is super busy for something as tiny as I am. They don't call me the 'building block of life' for nothing. Here, let me take you on a journey of a day in my life - a day in the life of a cell. Inside me are tiny structures called organelles, which are like organs for humans, except for cells. Every day and night, my organelles are hard at work. Let's start with my most important one: the nucleus. The nucleus is like a brain. It is a very important organelle inside of me. Think of it as the 'control center' or the 'headquarters' of a cell. The nucleus contains a very important item: DNA, which determines who I am, decides what I do, and contains special genes that control the protein production within me. To protect the nucleus are two membranes known as the nuclear envelope. Usually, the nuclear envelope is dotted with nuclear pores that allow chemical messages to leave and enter the nucleus. Now do you see why the nucleus is so important? Now that we have visited my brain, let's move on to my other organelles, also known as my cytoplasm. We will now be visiting the cell membrane. The cell membrane is a membrane that surrounds the cell like a guarded gate, only allowing in selected molecules and forcing out the unwanted ones. Its purpose is to protect the cytosol inside of me - and all the other cells. With a membrane around me, I feel very safe. The cell membrane is created from a mixture of proteins and lipids. The proteins send chemical messages to inside the cell while the lipids allow membranes to be flexible. And while lipids allow the membrane to be flexible, cholesterol keeps it stiff. Attached to the proteins and lipids are tiny chains of sugar molecules that will help cells - like me - do our job. As we move away from the cell membrane, we approach the endoplasmic reticulum, also known as the ER. It's a giant group of connected sacs that are covered with tiny bumps called ribosomes - which are made up of 70 proteins and 4 strands of RNA. Ribosomes assemble the proteins in the cell. They connect chemical building blocks together and send them out into the endoplasmic reticulum, where the enzymes cover them with specialized strands of sugars. Without these proteins, you would not exist and neither would I. How terrible would that be? But only the rough ERs are covered in a lot of ribosomes, the smooth ERs are covered in little or none, hence why rough ERs are called rough ERs and smooth ERs are called smooth ERs. The proteins made on the rough ER's ribosomes, such as antibodies or hormones, leave the cell

while ones created by the smooth ER stays in the cytosol. Smooth ERs are also known for synthesizing lipids and breaking down harmful substances with special enzymes. Next, we move on to the Golgi complex. It receives the newly made proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum, places the finishing touches on them, and sends them out to their final destinations. Some of these proteins may end up in lysosomes. Lysosomes are like the recycling or garbage places inside the cell. I think that it's pretty cool that my own body recycles itself, don't you. I mean, all the unwanted waste just go straight to the lysosomes where they are either recycled to be used as nutrients or building blocks, or dumped outside of the cell. So now that we're done visiting the Golgi complex and the lysosomes, let's continue to the mitochondria, a very mighty organelle for something so small in size. Why is it so mighty? Let me explain this to you; it's a very simple process. Every time you eat, you get energy from your food. But how does the food turn into energy? Well that's where the mitochondria comes into play, and I must say, I am very proud to be the owner of one. You see, the mitochondria gathers the energy from the food you ate and converts it into ATP, or adenosine triphosphate. Every time you move your fingers or wiggle your toes, the energy comes from the ATP, which is created in the mitochondria. So the reason you have the energy to move and breathe is because of the mitochondria. Okay, we're almost finished, but there's one last thing I have to show you. It's my cytoskeleton! Yes, cells have skeletons too. How else would we be able to move? And not only does the cytoskeleton help us move, but it also gives us our oval-like shape, our stability, and our strength. But that's not all. Let's stop and think for a moment. As of right now, cells within your body are moving all around. In males, sperm cells use their flagella - the long tails - to swim around while in females, the newly released eggs use cilia - hairlike fibers - to move from the ovaries to the uterus. And all these cells can move because they have a cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton has three types of fibers that are constantly changing to meet the cell's needs: microtubules, intermediate filaments, and actin filaments. The microtubules are the strong ones, separating duplicate chromosomes and direct the many molecules and materials to their designated places - like train tracks. Now the intermediate filaments are totally different. They come in all different shapes and sizes, such as in nails, hair, and the epidermis. They also appear in the nerve cells and muscle cells, as well as the heart and other internal organs. The filaments are different in each of these tissues. Lastly, the actin filaments work together in bundles to allow the cell to change shape and move. Now that I've taken you on a tour of what happens within me everyday, do you see how busy I am? But that doesn't matter because I love being a cell. It makes me feel important to know that I am literally a building block for life.