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Lec 4

Cells are the fundamental unit of life and can be either single-celled prokaryotes like bacteria and archaea or multi-celled eukaryotes like plants, animals and fungi. All cells are surrounded by a cell membrane composed of lipids that separates the cell's interior from its external environment and regulates what passes in and out. Lipids are the basic building blocks of cell membranes and include fatty acids, phospholipids, sphingolipids and cholesterol that give the membrane its fluid properties through constant diffusion and movement.

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Sreemanti Dey
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5 views

Lec 4

Cells are the fundamental unit of life and can be either single-celled prokaryotes like bacteria and archaea or multi-celled eukaryotes like plants, animals and fungi. All cells are surrounded by a cell membrane composed of lipids that separates the cell's interior from its external environment and regulates what passes in and out. Lipids are the basic building blocks of cell membranes and include fatty acids, phospholipids, sphingolipids and cholesterol that give the membrane its fluid properties through constant diffusion and movement.

Uploaded by

Sreemanti Dey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Fundamental Units of Life

Lecture 4

1
“Life is an emergent, rather than an
inherent, property of matter. Although it
arises from the material world, it cannot be
reduced to it”

All organisms are like a machine; while a


machine implies a machine maker, an
organism is a self-organizing entity

SURELY YOU MUST BE


JOKING MR FEYNMAN

2
Cells – the fundamental unit of life
Cells

Prokaryotes Eukaryotes

Life is made of cells – either single (archaea, bacteria, protists etc)


or multiple (fungi, animals, plants etc)
Cells – the fundamental unit of life
Cells

Domains

Bacteria Archaea Eukarya

Bacteria Archaea Protists Fungus

Animals Plants

4
cell biology spans 5 orders of magnitude
in linear size (i.e. 100,000)
Cell size and scale
Carbon atom Water molecule Methionine (An amino acid)
340 pm 275 pm 1100 X 700 pm

Adenine (A nucleotide) Glucose


1300 X 760 pm 900 pm

Usual cell size ~ 10um

8
How large are biological structures?

Escherichia coli (E. coli) as our standard ruler

E. coli one of the most important model


organisms in molecular biology

- easy to isolate ☺
- grows easily
- replicates fast
- easy to manipulate by genetic, chemical
tricks to get mutants
- many biological pathways, principles,
E. colis on enzymes discovered in E. coli first
tip of a pin

9
The interior of cells is over-crowded
E.coli

10
Image from Physical Biology of Cell
The biomolecules of life
Nuts and bolts of cells
(ions/molecules, amino acids, nucleotides)
Phospholipids and cell membrane

13
Importance of cell membrane

www.medflix.com

14
Importance of cell (Plasma) membrane

• Separate cellular contents from the external world

• Must allow passage of critical nutrients and waste products.

• Must be physically flexible

15
Cell Membrane
• Every known cell has a cell membrane
• Thin layer, made up of lipids.

• Separates the cell from outside environment


• partitions material inside the cell from outside
• Maintains order inside the cell
Lipids
Lipids are fatty, waxy, or oily compounds that are soluble in organic solvents and
insoluble in polar solvents such as water.

Saturated Fatty Acid


Lipids
Lipids
Lipids

Triglyceride (Fat)
Lipid membrane: general structure

simplified lipid bilayer lipid bilayer vesicle


lipid structure

avoidance of
edge effects

Membranes are about 4-5 nm thick


Lipid membrane: general structure

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26871/
Structure of lipids and cholesterol

Sphingosine

(glycerol-based) sphingolipid cholesterol


phospholipid
Geometry of lipids determines membrane shape

24
Dynamic processes within lipid bilayers

diffusion of lipids diffusion of membrane proteins flipping of lipids


(rapid) (slower, react to membrane tension) (extremely slow)

That is why this structure is also known as “Fluid-Mosaic model”

25

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