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5. THE FUNDAMENTAL UNIT OF LIFE
While examining a thin slice of cork, Robert Hooke saw that the cork resembled the structure of a honeycomb consisting of many little compartments. Cork is a substance which comes from the bark of a tree. This was in the year 1665 when Hooke made this chance observation through a self-designed microscope. Robert Hooke called these boxes cells. Cell is a Latin word for ‘a little room’.
This may seem to be a very small and insignificant incident but it is very important in the history of science. This was the very first time that someone had observed that living things appear to consist of separate units. The use of the word ‘cell’ to describe these units is used till this day in biology. Let us find out about cells.
5.1 What are Living Organisms Made Up of ?
What do we observe as we look through the lens? Can we draw the structures that we are able to see through the microscope, on an observation sheet? Does it look like Fig. 5.2?
Fig. 5.2: Cells of an onion peel
We can try preparing temporary mounts of peels of onions of different sizes. What do we observe? Do we see similar structures or different structures?
What are these structures?
These structures look similar to each other. Together they form a big structure like an onion bulb! We find from this activity that onion bulbs of different sizes have similar small structures visible under a microscope. The cells of the onion peel will all look the same, regardless of the size of the onion they came from.
These small structures that we see are the basic building units of the onion bulb. These structures are called cells. Not only onions, but all organisms that we observe around are made up of cells. However, there are also single cells that live on their own.
The invention of magnifying lenses led to the discovery of the microscopic world. It is now known that a single cell may constitute a whole organism as in Amoeba, Chlamydomonas, Paramoecium and bacteria. These organisms are called unicellular organisms (uni = single). On the other hand, many cells group together in a single body and assume different functions in it to form various body parts in multicellular organisms (multi = many) such as some fungi, plants and animals. Can we find out names of some more unicellular organisms?
Every multi-cellular organism has come from a single cell. How? Cells divide to produce cells of their own kind. All cells thus come from pre-existing cells.
Some organisms can also have cells of different kinds. Look at the following picture. It depicts some cells from the human body.
Fig. 5.3: Various cells from the human body
The shape and size of cells are related to the specific function they perform. Some cells like Amoeba have changing shapes. In some cases the cell shape could be more or less fixed and peculiar for a particular type of cell; for example, nerve cells have a typical shape.
Each living cell has the capacity to perform certain basic functions that are characteristic of all living forms. How does a living cell perform these basic functions? We know that there is a division of labour in multicellular organisms such as human beings. This means that different parts of the human body perform different functions. The human body has a heart to pump blood, a stomach to digest food and so on. Similarly, division of labour is also seen within a single cell in many cases. In fact, each such cell has got certain specific components within it known as cell organelles. Each kind of cell organelle performs a special function, such as making new material in the cell, clearing up the waste material from the cell and so on. A cell is able to live and perform all its functions because of these organelles. These organelles together constitute the basic unit called the cell. It is interesting that all cells are found to have the same organelles, no matter what their function is or what organism they are found in.
- Who discovered cells, and how?
- Why is the cell called the structural and functional unit of life?
5.2 What is a Cell Made Up of ? What is the Structural Organisation of a Cell?
We saw above that the cell has special components called organelles. How is a cell organised?
If we study a cell under a microscope, we would come across three features in almost every cell; plasma membrane, nucleus and cytoplasm. All activities inside the cell and interactions of the cell with its environment are possible due to these features. Let us see how.
5.2.1 PLASMA MEMBRANE OR CELL MEMBRANE
This is the outermost covering of the cell that separates the contents of the cell from its external environment. The plasma membrane allows or permits the entry and exit of some materials in and out of the cell. It also prevents movement of some other materials. The cell membrane, therefore, is called a selectively permeable membrane.
How does the movement of substances take place into the cell? How do substances move out of the cell?
Some substances like carbon dioxide or oxygen can move across the cell membrane by a process called diffusion. We have studied the process of diffusion in earlier chapters. We saw that there is spontaneous movement of a substance from a region of high concentration to a region where its concentration is low.
Something similar to this happens in cells when, for example, some substance like CO2 (which is cellular waste and requires to be excreted out by the cell) accumulates in high concentrations inside the cell. In the cell’s external environment, the concentration of CO2 is low as compared to that inside the cell. As soon as there is a difference of concentration of CO2 inside and outside a cell, CO2 moves out of the cell, from a region of high concentration, to a region of low concentration outside the cell by the process of diffusion. Similarly, O2 enters the cell by the process of diffusion when the level or concentration of O2 inside the cell decreases. Thus, diffusion plays an important role in gaseous exchange between the cells as well as the cell and its external environment.
Water also obeys the law of diffusion. The movement of water molecules through such a selectively permeable membrane is called osmosis. The movement of water across the plasma membrane is also affected by the amount of substance dissolved in water. Thus, osmosis is the passage of water from a region of high water concentration through a semi-permeable membrane to a region of low water concentration.
What will happen if we put an animal cell or a plant cell into a solution of sugar or salt in water?
One of the following three things could happen:
1. If the medium surrounding the cell has a higher water concentration than the cell, meaning that the outside solution is very dilute, the cell will gain water by osmosis. Such a solution is known as a hypotonic solution.
Water molecules are free to pass across the cell membrane in both directions, but more water will come into the cell than will leave. The net (overall) result is that water enters the cell. The cell is likely to swell up.
2. If the medium has exactly the same water concentration as the cell, there will be no net movement of water across the cell membrane. Such a solution is known as an isotonic solution.
Water crosses the cell membrane in both directions, but the amount going in is the same as the amount going out, so there is no overall movement of water. The cell will stay the same size.
3. If the medium has a lower concentration of water than the cell, meaning that it is a very concentrated solution, the cell will lose water by osmosis. Such a solution is known as a hypertonic solution.
Again, water crosses the cell membrane in both directions, but this time more water leaves the cell than enters it. Therefore the cell will shrink.
Thus, osmosis is a special case of diffusion through a selectively permeable membrane.
Now let us try out the following activity:
We can also try a similar activity with dried raisins or apricots.
Unicellular freshwater organisms and most plant cells tend to gain water through osmosis. Absorption of water by plant roots is also an example of osmosis.
Thus, diffusion is important in exhange of gases and water in the life of a cell. In additions to this, the cell also obtains nutrition from its environment. Different molecules move in and out of the cell through a type of transport requiring use of energy in the form of ATP.
The plasma membrane is flexible and is made up of organic molecules called lipids and proteins. However, we can observe the structure of the plasma membrane only through an electron microscope.
The flexibility of the cell membrane also enables the cell to engulf in food and other material from its external environment. Such processes are known as endocytosis. Amoeba acquires its food through such processes.
- How do substances like CO2 and water move in and out of the cell? Discuss.
- Why is the plasma membrane called a selectively permeable membrane?
5.2.2 CELL WALL
Plant cells, in addition to the plasma membrane, have another rigid outer covering called the cell wall. The cell wall lies outside the plasma membrane. The plant cell wall is mainly composed of cellulose. Cellulose is a complex substance and provides structural strength to plants.
When a living plant cell loses water through osmosis there is shrinkage or contraction of the contents of the cell away from the cell wall. This phenomenon is known as plasmolysis. We can observe this phenomenon by performing the following activity:
What do we infer from this activity? It appears that only living cells, and not dead cells, are able to absorb water by osmosis.
Cell walls permit the cells of plants, fungi and bacteria to withstand very dilute (hypotonic) external media without bursting. In such media the cells tend to take up water by osmosis. The cell swells, building up pressure against the cell wall. The wall exerts an equal pressure against the swollen cell. Because of their walls, such cells can withstand much greater changes in the surrounding medium than animal cells.
Remember the temporary mount of onion peel we prepared? We had put iodine solution on the peel. Why? What would we see if we tried observing the peel without putting the iodine solution? Try it and see what the difference is. Further, when we put iodine solution on the peel, did each cell get evenly coloured?
According to their chemical composition different regions of cells get coloured differentially. Some regions appear darker than other regions. Apart from iodine solution we could also use safranin solution or methylene blue solution to stain the cells.
We have observed cells from an onion; let us now observe cells from our own body.
The nucleus has a double layered covering called nuclear membrane. The nuclear membrane has pores which allow the transfer of material from inside the nucleus to its outside, that is, to the cytoplasm (which we will talk about in section 5.2.4).
The nucleus contains chromosomes, which are visible as rod-shaped structures only when the cell is about to divide. Chromosomes contain information for inheritance of features from parents to next generation in the form of DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) molecules. Chromosomes are composed of DNA and protein. DNA molecules contain the information necessary for constructing and organising cells. Functional segments of DNA are called genes. In a cell which is not dividing, this DNA is present as part of chromatin material. Chromatin material is visible as entangled mass of thread like structures. Whenever the cell is about to divide, the chromatin material gets organised into chromosomes.
The nucleus plays a central role in cellular reproduction, the process by which a single cell divides and forms two new cells. It also plays a crucial part, along with the environment, in determining the way the cell will develop and what form it will exhibit at maturity, by directing the chemical activities of the cell.
In some organisms like bacteria, the nuclear region of the cell may be poorly defined due to the absence of a nuclear membrane. Such an undefined nuclear region containing only nucleic acids is called a nucleoid. Such organisms, whose cells lack a nuclear membrane, are called prokaryotes (Pro = primitive or primary; karyote ≈ karyon = nucleus). Organisms with cells having a nuclear membrane are called eukaryotes.
Prokaryotic cells (see Fig. 5.4) also lack most of the other cytoplasmic organelles present in eukaryotic cells. Many of the functions of such organelles are also performed by poorly organised parts of the cytoplasm (see section 5.2.4). The chlorophyll in photosynthetic prokaryotic bacteria is associated with membranous vesicles (bag like structures) but not with plastids as in eukaryotic cells (see section 5.2.5).
Fig. 5.4: Prokaryotic cell
When we look at the temporary mounts of onion peel as well as human cheek cells, we can see a large region of each cell enclosed by the cell membrane. This region takes up very little stain. It is called the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is the fluid content inside the plasma membrane. It also contains many specialised cell organelles. Each of these organelles performs a specific function for the cell.
Cell organelles are enclosed by membranes. In prokaryotes, beside the absence of a defined nuclear region, the membrane-bound cell organelles are also absent. On the other hand, the eukaryotic cells have nuclear membrane as well as membrane-enclosed organelles.
The significance of membranes can be illustrated with the example of viruses. Viruses lack any membranes and hence do not show characteristics of life until they enter a living body and use its cell machinery to multiply.
5.2.5 CELL ORGANELLES
Every cell has a membrane around it to keep its own contents separate from the external environment. Large and complex cells, including cells from multicellular organisms, need a lot of chemical activities to support their complicated structure and function. To keep these activities of different kinds separate from each other, these cells use membrane-bound little structures (or ‘organelles’) within themselves. This is one of the features of the eukaryotic cells that distinguish them from prokaryotic cells. Some of these organelles are visible only with an electron microscope.
We have talked about the nucleus in a previous section. Some important examples of cell organelles which we will discuss now are: endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, lysosomes, mitochondria, plastids and vacuoles. They are important because they carry out some very crucial functions in cells.
5.2.5 (i)ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM (ER)
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a large network of membrane-bound tubes and sheets. It looks like long tubules or round or oblong bags (vesicles). The ER membrane is similar in structure to the plasma membrane. There are two types of ER– rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) and smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER). RER looks rough under a microscope because it has particles called ribosomes attached to its surface. The ribosomes, which are present in all active cells, are the sites of protein manufacture. The manufactured proteins are then sent to various places in the cell depending on need, using the ER. The SER helps in the manufacture of fat molecules, or lipids, important for cell function. Some of these proteins and lipids help in building the cell membrane. This process is known as membrane biogenesis. Some other proteins and lipids function as enzymes and hormones. Although the ER varies greatly in appearance in different cells, it always forms a network system.
Fig. 5.5: Animal cell
Thus, one function of the ER is to serve as channels for the transport of materials (especially proteins) between various regions of the cytoplasm or between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. The ER also functions as a cytoplasmic framework providing a surface for some of the biochemical activities of the cell. In the liver cells of the group of animals called vertebrates (see Chapter 7), SER plays a crucial role in detoxifying many poisons and drugs.
Fig. 5.6: Plant cell
5.2.5 (ii) GOLGI APPARATUS
The Golgi apparatus, first described by Camillo Golgi, consists of a system of membrane-bound vesicles arranged approximately parallel to each other in stacks called cisterns. These membranes often haveconnections with the membranes of ER and therefore constitute another portion of a complex cellular membrane system.
The material synthesised near the ER is packaged and dispatched to various targets inside and outside the cell through the Golgi apparatus. Its functions include the storage, modification and packaging of products in vesicles. In some cases, complex sugars may be made from simple sugars in the Golgi apparatus. The Golgi apparatus is also involved in the formation of lysosomes [see 5.2.5 (iii)].
Camillo Golgi was born at Corteno near Brescia in 1843. He studied medicine at the University of Pavia. After graduating in 1865, he continued to work in Pavia at the Hospital of St. Matteo. At that time most of his investigations were concerned with the nervous system, In 1872 he accepted the post of Chief Medical Officer at the Hospital for the Chronically Sick at Abbiategrasso. He first started his investigations into the nervous system in a little kitchen of this hospital, which he had converted into a laboratory. However, the work of greatest importance, which Golgi carried out was a revolutionary method of staining individual nerve and cell structures. This method is referred to as the ‘black reaction’. This method uses a weak solution of silver nitrate and is particularly valuable in tracing the processes and most delicate ramifications of cells. All through his life, he continued to work on these lines, modifying and improving this technique. Golgi received the highest honours and awards in recognition of his work. He shared the Nobel prize in 1906 with Santiago Ramony Cajal for their work on the structure of the nervous system.
5.2.5 (iii) LYSOSOMES
Lysosomes are a kind of waste disposal system of the cell. Lysosomes help to keep the cell clean by digesting any foreign material as well as worn-out cell organelles. Foreign materials entering the cell, such as bacteria or food, as well as old organelles end up in the lysosomes, which break them up into small pieces. Lysosomes are able to do this because they contain powerful digestive enzymes capable of breaking down all organic material. During the disturbance in cellular metabolism, for example, when the cell gets damaged, lysosomes may burst and the enzymes digest their own cell. Therefore, lysosomes are also known as the ‘suicide bags’ of a cell. Structurally, lysosomes are membrane-bound sacs filled with digestive enzymes. These enzymes are made by RER.
5.2.5 (iv) MITOCHONDRIA
Mitochondria are known as the powerhouses of the cell. The energy required for various chemical activities needed for life is released by mitochondria in the form of ATP (Adenosine triphopshate) molecules. ATP is known as the energy currency of the cell. The body uses energy stored in ATP for making new chemical compounds and for mechanical work. Mitochondria have two membrane coverings instead of just one. The outer membrane is very porous while the inner membrane is deeply folded. These folds create a large surface area for ATP-generating chemical reactions.
Mitochondria are strange organelles in the sense that they have their own DNA and ribosomes. Therefore, mitochondria are able to make some of their own proteins.
5.2.5 (v) PLASTIDS
Plastids are present only in plant cells. There are two types of plastids – chromoplasts (coloured plastids) and leucoplasts (white or colourless plastids). Plastids containing the pigment chlorophyll are known as chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are important for photosynthesis in plants. Chloroplasts also contain various yellow or orange pigments in addition to chlorophyll. Leucoplasts are primarily organelles in which materials such as starch, oils and protein granules are stored.
The internal organisation of the plastids consists of numerous membrane layers embedded in a material called the stroma. Plastids are similar to mitochondria in external structure. Like the mitochondria, plastids also have their own DNA and ribosomes.
5.2.5 (vi) VACUOLES
Vacuoles are storage sacs for solid or liquid contents. Vacuoles are small sized in animal cells while plant cells have very large vacuoles. The central vacuole of some plant cells may occupy 50-90% of the cell volume.
In plant cells vacuoles are full of cell sap and provide turgidity and rigidity to the cell. Many substances of importance in the life of the plant cell are stored in vacuoles. These include amino acids, sugars, various organic acids and some proteins. In single-celled organisms like Amoeba, the food vacuole contains the food items that the Amoeba has consumed. In some unicellular organisms, specialised vacuoles also play important roles in expelling excess water and some wastes from the cell.
- Can you name the two organelles we have studied that contain their own genetic material?
- If the organisation of a cell is destroyed due to some physical or chemical influence, what will happen?
- Why are lysosomes known as suicide bags?
- Where are proteins synthesized inside the cell?
Each cell thus acquires its structure and ability to function because of the organisation of its membrane and organelles in specific ways. The cell thus has a basic structural organisation. This helps the cells to perform functions like respiration, obtaining nutrition, and clearing of waste material, or forming new proteins.
Thus, the cell is the fundamental structural unit of living organisms. It is also the basic functional unit of life.