CMB Lec

The Discovery of Cells

Cells are mostly viewed via the microscope.
First spectacles regarding microscopes (Europe, 13th century)
First compound double lens light microscope (constructed, end of 16th
century) (Hooke)
1600s a lot of scientists have used their handmade microscopes

Robert Hooke (English microscopist)

Discovery of cells
(age 27) position as the curator of the Royal Society of London
Why cork stoppers were well suited to holding air in a bottle?
Examined a cork via a microscope
Said that the cork was porous like a honeycomb
Said that pores resembled cells because it reminded him of the cells
inhabited by the monks in the monastery / prison cells
Observed the empty cell walls of dead plant tissues (walls originally been
produced by living cells)
Credited for using the double lens microscope

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek (Dutchman)

Earned a living selling clothes and buttons
Wrote letters to the Royal Society of London for 50 years
First to examine a drop of pond water with floating animalcules
First to describe various forms of bacteria from water w/pepper soaked
in it and from scrapings from his teeth
Credited for using a single lens microscope (w/ biconvex lens capable of
magnifying an object approx. 270 times and providing a resolution of
approx. 1.35 um)
 Matthias Schleiden (1838)
(German lawyer turned botanist)
plants were made of cells, plant embryo arose from a single cell
Theodor Schwann (1839)
(German Zoologist)
cells of plants and animals are of similar structures

Cell theory
All organisms are composed of one or more cells
The cell is the structural unit of life
Schleiden and Schwann cells could arise from non-cellular materials
Rudolf Virchow (1855)
(German pathologist)
Third proponent for the cell theory
- Cells can arise only by division from a preexisting cell

Basic Properties of Cells

- Life ( Death is a basic property of life)
Whole Cells can be removed from either a plant or animal and cultured in a
laboratory.
Cells within a body generally die by their own hand.
First culture of human cells (George and Martha Gey of Johns Hopkins
University in 1951)
- Cells obtained from a malignant tumor
- Named HeLa cells after the donor Henrietta Lacks
HeLa cells first human cells to be kept in culture for long periods
of time and are still in use today
 Cancerous HeLa cells can be cultured indefinitely unlike normal
cells which have a finite lifetime in culture.
Cells that grow in vitro (outside the body) essential for cell and molecular
biologists

Cells are Highly Complex and Organized

Complexity order and consistency in the parts/structure of a cell.
Organized regulation/control to maintain certain systems
Cells from different species share similar structure, composition and
metabolic features
Cellular activities can be remarkably precise.
- DNA replication.
Complexity of Life
Atoms molecules polymers complexes subcellular organelles cells.
Organelles
Have a particular shape and location from one individual of a
species to another.
Consistent composition of macromolecules arranged in a
predictable pattern (ex: cells lining the intestine)
Intestine tightly connected, with microvilli at apical ends for
absorption of nutrients. Microvilli are able to project outward from
the apical cell surface w/internal skeleton w/filaments w/
protein.
Basal ends intestinal cells w/ large # of mitochondria which
provide energy to fuel membrane transport processes
Each mitochondrion w/ defined pattern of internal membranes w/
consistent proteins and electrically powered synthesizing
machine. (ATP)
Cells Possess a Genetic Program and the Means to Use It.
- Encode information via genes
 - Genes encode for cellular reproduction, cellular activities and cellular
structure
Cells are Capable of Producing More of Themselves.
Cell division contents of mother cell and transferred to the daughter cell.
Sexual Vs Asexual Reproduction
Sexual cell division
Asexual binary fission, budding, fragmentation, etc.
Cells Acquire and Utilize Energy.
Photosynthesis provides fuel for living organisms.
- Acquires energy from the sun
- Light absorbing pigments
- Photosynthetic cells
- Light energy is converted to chemical energy stored as sucrose or
starch (plants)
Animal Cells derive energy from the products of photosynthesis mainly in the
form of sugar glucose
Cell can convert glucose into ATP a substance with readily available
energy.
Cells Carry Out a Variety of Chemical Reactions.
Cells need enzymes to speed up the rates of chemical reactions.
Cell metabolism sum total of all chemical reactions.

Cells Engage in Mechanical Activities.

- Indicated by the changes in the shape of the motor proteins.

Cells are able to respond to Stimuli

- Receptors are needed for hormones, growth factors and extracellular
materials.
 - Receptors provide a pathway for external stimuli

Cells are Capable of Self-Regulation

- Robustness meaning hearty and durable
Cells Evolve
- Last Common Universal Ancestor

Prokaryotes vs Eukaryotes
- Size (organelles)
- Type of organelles
Prokaryotes existed 3.7 billon years ago
Eukaryotes include protists, animals, plants, fungi.

Features held by the two types of cells (P and E)

Plasma membrane of similar construction
Gene info is encoded in DNA, using identical gene code
Similar mechanism for transcription and translation. Includes
similar ribosomes.
Shared metabolic pathway (Glycolysis, TCA cycle)
Similar apparatus for the conservation of chemical energy as
ATP.
Similar mechanism for photosynthesis (cyanobacteria, green
plants)
Similar mechanism for synthesizing and inserting membrane
proteins.
Similar construction for Proteasomes (protein digestion
structure) in archaebacteria and eukaryotes.
Features of Eukaryotic cells not found in prokaryotes.
Division of cells into nucleus and cytoplasm separated by a nuclear
envelope w/ pore structures.
Complex chromosomes composed of DNA and associated proteins
that are capable of compacting into mitotic structures.
Complex membranous cytoplasmic organelles (Endoplasmic
reticulum, Golgi complex, endosomes, peroxisomes, glyoxisomes)
Specialized cytoplasmic organelles for aerobic respiration
mitochondria. Plants chloroplasts.
Complex cytoskeletal system. (Microfilaments, intermediate filaments,
microtubules. W/motor proteins.
Complex flagella and cilia.
Phagocytosis Ingesting particulate materials
Cellulose containing cell wall (plants)
Cell division w/ microtubule w/ mitotic spindle that separates
chromosomes.
Presence of two copies of genes per cell (diploidy)
Presence of 3 different RNA synthesizing enzymes ( RNA
polymerases)
Sexual reproduction requiring meiosis and fertilization.

Prokaryotic cell genetic material is present in a nucleoid

- Contain relatively small amounts of DNA
- DNA content of bacteria 600,000 base pairs to 8 million and encodes
between 500 and several thousands of proteins.
- Single circular chromosome
- Necessary movement of materials can be accomplished by simple
diffusion.
- Early prokaryotic cytoskeletal filaments found in bacteria.
- Prokaryotic cytoskeleton is much simpler.
- No compaction of chromosome, no mitotic spindle
- Contain only one copy of their single chromosome.
- Most are nonsexual organisms, but some are capable of conjugation.
 - More adept than eukaryotes in picking up and incorporating foreign
DNA from their environment.
Eukaryotic cell w/ nucleus enclosed in a nuclear envelope
- Bakers yeast cell 12 million base pairs to 6200 proteins
- Number of separate chromosomes, each containing a single linear
molecule of DNA.
- Chromosomal DNA of eukaryotes are tightly associated with proteins
that form a complex known as the chromatin.
- Contain an array of membrane bound organelles.
- These membrane bound organelles include :
- Mitochondria chemical energy is made available to fuel cellular
activities
- Endoplasmic Reticulum where many of a cells proteins and lipids are
manufactured.
- Golgi complex where materials are sorted, modified, and transported
to specific cellular destinations.
- The cytoplasmic membranes of eukaryotic cells form a system of
interconnecting channels and vesicles that function in the transport of
substances from one part of the cell to another.
- Tubules, filaments of cytoskeleton function in cell contractility,
movement and support.
- W/ compaction of chromosome, w/ mitotic spindle.
- More efficient in exchanging DNA
Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic
- Both have DNA containing chromosome
- Ribosomes protein synthesis
Cytosol soluble phase for your cytoplasm.
Biofilms complex multispecies communities.

Prokaryotes:
Bacteria (Eubacteria)
 - Includes the smallest known cells known as the mycoplasma (0.2 um)
diameter
- Mycoplasma only known prokaryotes which lack a cell wall and
contain a genome with fewer than 500 genes.
- The most complex prokaryotes are the cyanobacteria.
- Cyanobacteria w/ cytoplasmic membranes as sites for
photosynthesis.
- Photosynthesis in cyanobacteria is accomplished by splitting
water molecules which release molecular oxygen.
- Nitrogen fixation of cyanobacteria conversion of N2 Gas into
reduced forms ( ammonia and NH3)

Archaea (Archaebacteria) are more closely related to eukaryotes than

they are to the group of prokaryotes (Bacteria)
- Extremophiles species that live in extremely inhospitable
environments.
- Methanogens prokaryotes capable of converting CO2 and H2 gases
into methane (CH4)
- Halophiles prokaryotes that live in extremely salty environments.
- Acidophiles prokaryotes that thrive at a ph as low as 0
- Thermophiles prokaryotes that live in high temperatures.
- Hyperthermophiles which live in the hydrothermal vents of the ocean
floor. (strain 121 at a temp of 121 degrees C)

Metagenome all of the genes present in the microbes of a given habitat

can be sequenced generating a collective genome.
Human Microbiome microbes present in the intestinal tract, mouth, vagina
and skin.
Specialized cells are formed via differentiation.
Differentiation cells acquire a distinctive appearance and contain unique
materials.
 - Occurs during embryonic development in other multicellular
organisms.
- Numbers and arrangements of
organelles relate to the function of the cell.
Skeletal muscle cells aligned filaments and unique contractile proteins
Cartilage characteristic matrix w/ polysaccharides and protein collagen.
Red blood cells disk shaped with single protein named hemoglobin.
The Sizes of the Cell and their components.
Micrometer 10 ^ -6
Nanometer 10^ -9
- The Greater a cells cytoplasmic volume, the longer it will take to
synthesize the number of messages required by that cell.
- As a cell increases in size, the surface area/volume ratio decreases.
- The ability of a cell to exchange substances with its environment is
proportional to its surface area.
- Cells that are specialized for the absorption of solutes, such as those
of the intestinal epithelium typically possess microvilli.
- A cell depends to a large degree on the random movement of
molecules (diffusion)

Synthetic biology is to create some minimal type of living cell in the

laboratory essentially from scratch.
The Human Perspective: The Prospect of Cell Replacement Therapy
Stem cells are capable of self renewal and differentiation.
Adult stem cells can be used to replace damaged or diseased adult tissue.
Hematopoietic stem cells can produce blood cells in bone marrow.
Neural stem cells may be used to treat neurodegenerative disorders
Embryonic stem (ES) cells
have even greater potential for differentiation (pluripotent) than adult stem
cells.
ES cells must be differentiated in vitro.
The use of ES cells involves ethical considerations.

Induced pluripotent (iPS) cells has been demonstrated in culture.

Involves reprogramming a fully differentiated cell into a pluripotent stem
cell
These cells have been used to correct certain disease conditions in
experimental animals.

Endosymbiont theory describes how a single composite cell of greater

complexity could evolve from two or more separate simpler cells living in a
symbiotic relationship with one another.