The Little Cell

Author: Zhiming Ou

Publisher: 3265 Public Way

ISBN: 978-1-0677470-6-0

Summary:

All known life on Earth is cellular. Cells are the smallest systems that can truly be considered “alive.” A cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life; it can carry out the essential metabolic processes needed for life. Cells constantly transform energy to stay alive. Plant cells capture sunlight through photosynthesis, and animal cells extract energy from food molecules.

To understand the structure and function of a cell is the first step (and also the last) step to live elegantly. Cells to biology (the study of living things) is the same as atoms to chemistry, energy to physics, and numbers to mathematics. The study of cells needs all knowledge from other sciences and mathematics.

Even though cells can only be inherited from ancestors, nowadays human can manufacture cells, at least a cellular body that can perform all functions of a cell. Scientists have created artificial genomes and inserted them into cells. But cells are not just bags of chemicals, they are highly dynamic systems. A true cell must continuously maintain itself far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Some fundamental principles should be theorized for making stable cells.

 

Content:

Chapter 1 What is a cell?           4

1 Origin of Cells         5

2 Sizes and Shapes of Cells        8

3 Classification         11

  1. By structure

Prokaryotes: simple anatomies, a wide variety of metabolic energy sources

Eukaryotes         15

3 principal zones: the plasma membrane, the nucleus, and the cytoplasm

Components in the Cytoplasm of an animal cell

Ribosomes, Mitochondria, ER and the Golgi apparatus, Lysosomes and peroxisomes, centrosome, Cytoskeleton, Central Vacuole

Plant Cells: walls, Chloroplasts             26

 

Classified by the function, there are 6-8 types of cells          29

Nerve Cells (neurons), Blood Cells (erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets), Muscle Cells (skeletal, smooth, cardiac), bone cells, eggs and sperms, immortal cells, stem cells

 

Chapter 2 The Cell Cycle          44

  • 1 The Phases 46

Interphase, Prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase

Phases in Mitosis

  • 2 Meiosis 56
  • 3 Regulation and Timing of the Cell Cycle 65
  • 4 Prokaryotic Cell Division 71

 

Chapter 3 Transport through the Membrane       74

1 Verbal Description

Selective Permeability

Passive Transport: Diffusion, Osmosis

Active Transport

Secondary Active Transport (Co-transport)

Exocytosis and Endocytosis

Phagocytosis and Pinocytosis

2 Thermodynamics of Transport           81

Kinetics of transport

Passive-Mediated transport: glucose into erythrocytes

Ionophores and Porins

 

3 Mechanism of Protein-mediated Transport         90

Passive-mediated glucose transport

ATP-driven active transport         93

Ca2+ ATPase         98

Group translocation

Ion gradient-driven active transport           102

Na+ --Glucose symport

Lactose Permease           104

ADP-ATP translocator         106

 

Chapter 4 Cellular Respiration         107

1 Glycolysis in 10 steps       109

2 Oxidation of Pyruvate and the Citric Acid Cycle (Krebs Cycle)          116

7 Steps in the Citric Acid Cycle            119

3 Electron Transport Chain            121

Complex I, Q and Complex II, Complex III, IV

4 Oxidative Phosphorylation and Chemiosmosis           125

5 Metabolism without Oxygen        127

6 Connections of Carbohydrate, Protein, and Lipid Metabolic Pathways           129

 

Chapter 5 Cell Communication              130

1 Introduction

2 Type of Cell Communication        131

3 Process for Cell Signalling: Reception, Transduction/Propagation, Response      135

Second Messengers        156

The End--Programmed Cell Death: Apoptosis        160