What is compartmentalization of a cell?

1 Answer
Jun 10, 2014

A good way to understand cells at first to see them as a factory with different departments (compartments).

This factory manufactures proteins. The membrane forms the walls. There are doors which allow necessary things to come in and go out.

The floor of the building contains the cytoplasm. The nucleus is the main office. This is where plans are drafted and drawn up to make proteins.

These instructions are sent to the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). This is the factory floor. Each work station is a ribosome.
These ribosomes make the proteins.

The mitochondria are the power houses. The Golgi body is the shipping and receiving department. It sends out the proteins that the cell made and imports parts that cell needs.

The vacuoles are the trash bins.

There are parts which are brought out when needed as in cell division: centrioles and fibers.

Impact of this question
5390 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License