CELL: STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS
Biology is the study of living organisms. The detailed description of their form and appearance only brought out their diversity. It is the cell theory that emphasised the unity underlying this diversity of forms, i.e., the cellular organisation of all life forms. A description of cell structure and cell growth by division is given in the chapters comprising this unit. Cell theory also created a sense of mystery around living phenomena, i.e., physiological and behavioural processes.
This mystery was the requirement of integrity of cellular organisation for living phenomena to be demonstrated or observed. In studying and understanding the physiological and behavioural processes, one can take a physico-chemical approach and use cell-free systems to investigate. This approach enables us to describe the various processes in molecular terms.
The approach is established by analysis of living tissues for elements and compounds. It will tell us what types of organic compounds are present in living organisms. In the next stage, one can ask the question: What are these compounds doing inside a cell? And, in what way they carry out gross physiological processes like digestion, excretion, memory, defense, recognition, etc.
In other words we answer the question, what is the molecular basis of all physiological processes? It can also explain the abnormal processes that occur during any diseased condition. This physico-chemical approach to study and understand living organisms is called ‘Reductionist Biology’. The concepts and techniques of physics and chemistry are applied to understand biology. In Chapter 9 of this unit, a brief description of biomolecules is provided.
G.N. RAMACHANDRAN, an outstanding figure in the field of protein structure, was the founder of the ‘Madras school’ of conformational analysis of biopolymers. His discovery of the triple helical structure of collagen published in Nature in 1954 and his analysis of the allowed conformations of proteins through the use of the ‘Ramachandran plot’ rank among the most outstanding contributions in structural biology. He was born on October 8, 1922, in a small town, not far from Cochin on the southwestern coast of India.
His father was a professor of mathematics at a local college and thus had considerable influence in shaping Ramachandran’s interest in mathematics. After completing his school years, Ramachandran graduated in 1942 as the to pranking student in the B.Sc. (Honors) Physics course of the University of Madras. He received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1949. While at Cambridge, Ramachandran met Linus Pauling and was deeply influenced by his publications on models of the a-helix and b-sheet structures that directed his attention to solving the structure of collagen. He passed away at the age of 78, on April 7, 2001. All organisms are made of cells or aggregates of cells. Cells vary in their shape, size and activities/functions. Based on the presence or absence of a membrane bound nucleus and other organelles, cells and hence organisms can be named as eukaryotic or prokaryotic.
A typical eukaryotic cell consists of a cell membrane, nucleus and cytoplasm. Plant cells have a cell wall outside the cell membrane. The plasma membrane is selectively permeable and facilitates transport of several molecules. The endomembrane system includes ER, golgi complex, lysosomes and vacuoles. All the cell organelles perform different but specific functions. Centrosome and centriole form the basal body of cilia and flagella that facilitate locomotion.
In animal cells, centrioles also form spindle apparatus during cell division. Nucleus contains nucleoli and chromatin network. It not only controls the activities of organelles but also plays a major role in heredity. Endoplasmic reticulum contains tubules or cisternae. They are of two types: rough and smooth. ER helps in the transport of substances, synthesis of proteins, lipoproteins and glycogen. The golgi body is a membranous organelle composed of flattened sacs. The secretions of cells are packed in them and transported from the cell. Lysosomes are single membrane structures containing enzymes for digestion of all types of macromolecules.
Ribosomes are involved in protein synthesis. These occur freely in the cytoplasm or are associated with ER. Mitochondria help in oxidative phosphorylation and generation of adenosine triphosphate. They are bound by double membrane; the outer membrane is smooth and inner one folds into several cristae. Plastids are pigment containing organelles found in plant cells only. In plant cells, chloroplasts are responsible for trapping light energy essential for photosynthesis. The grana, in the plastid, is the site of light reactions and the stroma of dark reactions. The green coloured plastids are chloroplasts, which contain chlorophyll, whereas the other coloured plastids are chromoplasts, which may contain pigments like carotene and xanthophyll. The nucleus is enclosed by nuclear envelope, a double membrane structure with nuclear pores.
The inner membrane encloses the nucleoplasm and the chromatin material. Thus, cell is the structural and functional unit of life.
