Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RESOURCES
Course Material
AUGUST 2018
Dr S. W. Makhabu
COURSE INTRODUCTION
Aim
• To give students a general appreciation of chemical, cellular and basis of life and
for them to appreciate the role of macromolecules in the life of living organisms
• Also to introduce genetics that deals with the processes and principles of
inheritance
• For this part of the course, students are expected that at the end, they should be
well conversant with the structures and functions of cell organelles and transport
of substances in and out of cells
What is Biology?
• Biology is the study of life. So, it is the science dealing with living organisms
• The term Biology was coined by J. b. de Lamarck in 1802
–Atoms
–Molecules
–macromolecules
–organelles
–cells ¬ The smallest unit of life is the cell.
–tissues
–organs
–organ systems
–individual organism
–population
–community
–ecosystem
Light microscope
• Zacharias Jansen invented the first compound microscope around 1595
• It combined 2 lenses for greater magnification
• The light microscope uses glass lenses and visible light to form a magnified image
of an object.
• 2 features of a microscope determine how clearly small objects can be viewed
– Magnification – The word magnify means to make something look bigger
than it really is, e.g. by using a lens or microscope. Magnification therefore is
the degree to which something is made to look larger. It is calculated as the
ratio between the size of an image produced by a microscope and its actual
size. It is no more than 2000 times for the best light microscopes. For BCA
Basic Sciences labs the maximum Total magnification is 1000x.
– Resolution or resolving power – In microscopy, it is the ability to observe two
adjacent objects as distinct from one another. In other words it is the minimum
distance between two points at which they can both be seen separately rather
than a single, blurred point. That is, it is the capacity to distinguish fine detail
in an image. In Microscopes, resolution depends on the wavelength of the
illuminating light.
• Light microscope has a resolving power of about 200 nm (0.2 µm or 0.2 x10-6m),
which is 1000 times that of human eye. In fact, human eyes have a resolution of
about 200 µm (0.2 mm).
• This limit is due to the wavelength of light (0.4-0.7 µm). Living or killed and fixed
cells may be stained and viewed with light microscopes.
Electron microscopes have advantages over light microscopes because they have:
• much greater resolving power than light microscopes
• much higher magnifications of up to 2 million times, while the best light
microscopes are limited to magnifications of 2000 times
However, both electron and light microscopes have resolution limitations, imposed by
the wavelength of the radiation they use.
The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) also has a limit of 2nm. Like the TEM, the
SEM allows you to look at replicas of dead cells, after fixation and heavy metal ion
staining. With this technique, electrons are reflected off the surface of the specimen.
CELLS
• Robert Hooke discovered cells in 1665 in a piece of cork he viewed under a
primitive microscope
• Cork cells are dead and without cytoplasmic contents so Hooke actually observed
cell walls
• Hooke coined the word “Cell” from the latin word ‘cellula’ which means small
compartment
However, some people argue that the following are the exceptions
Viruses are considered by some to be alive, yet they are not made up of cells
The first cell did not originate from a pre-existing cell
Year Event
1595 Zacharias Jansen invented the first compound microscope, which combines 2 lenses for greater magnification
1665 Robert Hooke, examined cork under an improved compound microscope and used the term‘cell’ to describe its basic units.
He thought the cells were empty and the walls were the living material
1650- Antony van Leeuwenhoeck, using a good quality simple lens mag( . X200), observed nuclei and unicellular organisms,
1700 including bacteria. In 1676, bacteria were described for the first time as ‘animalcules’, meaning “little animals”.
1831-3 Robert Brown described the nucleus as a characteristic spherical body in plant cells.
1838-9 Matthias Schleiden (a botanist) and Theodor Schwann ( a zoologist ) produced the “cell theory”
1840 Purkinje gave the name protoplasm to the contents of cells, realiizing that the latter were the living material, not the cell wal
ls.
Later the term cytoplasm was introduced (cytoplasm + nucleus = protoplassm
1855 Virchow showed that all cells arise from pre-existing cells by cell division
1866 Haeckel established that the nucleus was responsible for storing and transmitting hereditary characters
1880 August Weismann, added an important corollary to Virchow’s concept by pointing out that the ancestry of all the living cells
alive today can be traced back to ancient times
1930s Electron microscope developed, enabling much improved resolution. The first transmission electron microscope was build by
Ernst Ruska at the University of Berlin
Cell Size
• Diverse cell sizes
• Animal cells range from the ostrich egg yolk, which is more than 3 cm in diameter,
to small bacterial cells less than 0.2 µm or 0.0000002 cm, in length
• Most single cells, do not exceed a diameter of about 35 µm
• Plants cells vary from 0.5 µm to 10 cm
• But for most higher plants the general size range from 10-100 µm
• Number of cells in a plant are astronomical many e.g. single leaf has 40 million
cells: But there are many leaves then stems and roots
4
2
1
2
1 1 2 4
4
Types of Cells
Cells are classified in 2 ways
• By fundamental elements of structure
• By the way they obtain energy
Structural classification
• Prokaryotes
• Eukaryotes
Prokaryotic Cells
• The word prokaryotes (pro, before: karyon, nucleus) means “before nucleus”
• It describes cells in which DNA is localised in a region called the nucleoid but is
Fig. Events giving rise to photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms (Smith et al. 2010, pg8)
Types of Cells
Classified in 2 ways
• By fundamental elements of structure
• By the way they obtain energy
Autotrophs
• “self-feeders”
• Use light energy or chemical energy to manufacture their own sugars, fats, and
proteins
• A few bacteria and more than 400 000 plant species on earth are autotrophs
Heterotrophs
• “other-feeders”
• Derive their energy by taking in foods in the form of whole, part or waste products
of autotrophs and other heterotrophs
• Include many kinds of bacteria and all millions of animal and fungal species
Structure of cells
Plants have chloroplasts that are active in photosynthesis. Chloroplasts have a double
membrane and contain chlorophyll.
Plants have cell walls made of cellulose in addition to cell membranes. (Note: bacteria have cell
walls made of peptidoglycan and fungi have cell walls made of chitin)
Water vacuoles in plants are much larger and support much of the cell.
Plant cells have another kind of cell junction called plasmodesmata.
Table 2: Comparison of structures between animal and plant cells
Typical animal cell Typical plant cell
Organelles Nucleus Nucleus
o Nucleolus (within o Nucleolus (within
nucleus) nucleus)
Rough endoplasmic Rough ER
reticulum (ER) Smooth ER
Smooth ER Ribosomes
Ribosomes Cytoskeleton
Cytoskeleton Golgi apparatus (dictiosomes)
Golgi apparatus Cytoplasm
Cytoplasm Mitochondria
Mitochondria Vesicles
Vesicles Chloroplast and other plastids
Lysosomes Central vacuole(large)
Centrosome o Tonoplast (central
o Centrioles vacuole membrane)
Vacuoles Peroxisome (e.g. Glyoxysome)
Vacuoles
Cell Nucleus
Telomere
Fig.9. Chromosome
• Lysosomes:
• Lysosomes are organelles that come in part from the Golgi. They are approximately 1 m in
diameter.
• The Golgi creates primary lysosomes, vesicles containing digestive enzymes.
• Food and foreign objects are brought into the cytoplasm through a process called phagocytosis.
The resulting phagosomes are vesicles that contain the foreign material.
• Primary lysosomes created by the Golgi fuse with phagosomes to create secondary lysosomes.
• Within the secondary lysosomes, the digestive enzymes hydrolyze macromolecules such as
nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides into monomers. These small molecules
diffuse through the lysosome’s membrane into the cytoplasm.
• The remaining undigested material is expelled from the cell when the “used” secondary
lysosome fuses with the plasma membrane and releases the undigested contents.
• Lysosomes are also the sites where digestion of
spent cellular components occurs, a process called autophagy.
• Autophagy results in monomers that pass through the lysosomal membrane into the cytoplasm for
reuse.
• Plant cells do not seem to have lysosomes, but their role may be performed by the central vacuole.
• Plastids:
• Plastids are organelles of several types found in eukaryotic plants and some
protists.
• Chloroplasts are a type of plastid that contain chlorophyll and are the sites where
photosynthesis (conversion of light energy to chemical energy) occurs.
• Chloroplasts are variable in shape and size and are surrounded by two membranes.
• The chloroplast in flowering plants has the following structure:
• The internal membrane is stacked like hollow pita bread. The stacks are called
grana and consist of flat circular compartments called thylakoids.
• Thylakoid membranes contain chlorophyll and other pigments needed for
photosynthesis along with phospholipids and proteins.
• The stroma is the fluid-filled area of the inner membrane where the membrane-
bounded thylakoids reside.
• Next is the stroma, which is the fluid-filled area of the inner membrane. Inside
the stroma are the membrane-bounded thylakoids. This is where chlorophyll and
other pigments for photosynthesis are embedded.
• Chloroplasts have a small amount of DNA and some ribosomes in the stroma.
• Animal cells do not produce chloroplasts but some, like coral and sea anemones,
contain them either from ingested food or from symbiotic algae living within the
animal’s tissues.
• Other plastids found in plants include:
• Chromoplasts, which contain red, orange, or yellow pigments and give color to
plants organs such as flowers.
• Leucoplasts, which are specialized for storage of starch and fats.
• Vacuoles:
• Vacuoles, found in plants and protists, are surrounded by membranes and filled with an aqueous
solution.
• They have several functions:
• Storage— used to store wastes and toxic by-products . The storage of these poisonous or distasteful wastematerials from
eating the plants and so may contribute to plant survival.
• Structure—vacuoles may develop turgor pressure, a swelling that helps the plant cell maintain
support and rigidity. Water enters the vacuole because of dissolved substances in the vacuole,
which cause it to swell and press against the cell wall.
• Reproduction—some pigments (especially blue and pink) in the petals and fruits of flowering
plants are contained in vacuoles. These pigments, called anthocyanins, provide visual cues for
pollinators and seed dispersers.
• Digestion—vacuoles in the seeds of some plants contain enzymes used to hydrolyze seed
proteins that a developing embryo can use as food.
• Food vacuoles are formed in single-celled protists. They are similar to the phagosomes mentioned
earlier.
• The cytoplasm of freshwater protists is generally higher in salt concentration than the freshwater
environment; as a result, water tends to move into the cytoplasm. Many freshwater protists have a
contractile vacuole that helps eliminate excess water and restore the proper salt balance in the
cytoplasm.
It proposes that cells are covered by a thin flexible envelope composed of 2 layers and
that this bilayer contains phospholipids molecules and proteins
Hydrophobic region
of protein
Phospholipid
bilayer
Fig. 15. Endocytosis and exocytosis. (Source: Solomon et al. 1999, pg 101)
In phagocytosis, the plasma membrane encloses a particle such as a bacterium or protist, forms a vacuole
around it, and moves it into the cell
In pinocytosis, the cell takes in dissolved materials by forming tiny vesicles around droplets of fluid
trapped by folds of the plasma membrane
In receptor-mediated endocytosis, ligands bind to specific receptors in coated pits along the plasma
membrane. These pits, coated by the protein clathrin, form coated vesicles by endocytosis
Phagocytosis - Fig 5-17 (Solomon, p 124)
Pinocytosis – Fig 5-18
Receptor-mediated endocytosis – (Fig 5-19, p 125)
Exocytosis
a. Cell recognition
b. Cell adhesion
• In cell recognition, one cell specifically binds to another cell of a certain type.
• In cell adhesion, the relationship between the two cells is “cemented.”
• Experiments with sponges demonstrate these processes.
• If a sponge’s cells are made to disaggregate by forcing the animal through a fine wire screen several
times, what was a single animal is now hundreds of individual cells suspended in seawater.
• If the cells are left together in a solution for a few hours, they reaggregate into a sponge. This is an
example of species-specific cell adhesion.
• If two different species of sponges are disaggregated into individual cells and the two types of cells are
placed together, the cells from one species will aggregate only with cells from their own species and two
sponges will appear.
• However, if the cells from two sponges of the same species are combined, one large sponge will form
upon reaggregation.
• These tissue-specific and species-specific aggregations occur because of plasma membrane recognition
proteins.
Cell adhesion proteins from many multicellular organisms do not just bind the 2 cells
together
But also initiate formation of specialized cell junctions
The functions recognition and cell adhesion reside in different molecules
Tight junctions
Specialised structures at the plasma membrane that link adjacent epithelial cells
Tight junctions consist of rows of proteins which form strong associations
Result from the mutual binding of strands of specific membrane proteins
The name is misleading as there is some diffusion of small proteins.
The more rows, the tighter the junction
Desmosomes
Also associated with the plasma membrane
Is cell structure specialized for cell-to-cell adhesion
They are localized spot-like adhesions randomly arranged on the lateral sides of plasma
membranes
Holds adjacent cells firmly together, acting like spot welds or rivets
Each has a dense structure called a plaque on the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma
membrane
Intracellular plaque anchors intermediate filaments on one side and cadherins on the
other
Gap Junctions
Whereas tight junctions and desmosomes have mechanical roles the Gap junctions
facilitate communication between cells.
Made of specialized proteins channels, called connexons
Connexons span the plasma membrane of two adjacent cells and the intercellular space
between them
Dissolved molecules and electric signals can pass from cell to cell through these
junctions