Inside the Cell

Nucleus: The Cell’s Brain

The nucleus contains genetic material, or DNA. In the form of ______, each with a host of helper molecules, DNA determines the cell’s identity, masterminds its activities, and is the official cookbook for the body’s ______.

Nuclear pores allow chemical messages to exit and enter the nucleus through the ______. Excluding organelles and the nucleus, the rest of the inside of the cell is known as ______.

Cell Membrane: Specialist in containing and communicating

Every cell is contained within an membrane punctuated (think little holes) with gates, channels and pumps that let in or force out selected molecules in order to carefully protect the cell’s ______. The thick brew of salts, nutrients, and proteins that accounts for 50 percent of the cell’s volume is called ______. The other 50% is made of ______. The cell’s outer membrane consists of a mix of ______which transmit chemical messages into the cell and monitor and maintain the cells chemical climate, and ______which give the membrane flexibility.

Endoplasmic Reticulum: Protein Clothier and Lipid Factory

The network of sacs, called the endoplasmic reticulum often make up more than 10% of a cell’s volume and is covered in bumps called ______. These bumps are made up of more than 70 proteins and a chemical relative of DNA called ______. TO make a protein, ribosomes weld together chemical building blocks one by one. As naked, infant protein chains begin to curl out of ribosomes, they thread directly into the ER. There, hard-working ______them with specialized strands of sugars. The smooth ER has a different shape and function than the rough, ribosome-covered ER. The primary functions of the smooth ER include synthesizing (making) lipids and breaking down, or neutralizing ______. Some free-floating ribosomes make proteins such as antibodies, ______, digestive enzymes and many ______that stay in the cytosol instead of being sent elsewhere in the body like ribosomes on the rough ER.

Golgi: Finishing, Packing and Mailing Centers

The Golgi complex can also be called the Golgi Apparatus or even just Golgi. The Golgi receives newly made ______and ______from the ER and puts the finishing touches on them, addresses them and sends them to their final destination. Lysosomes: Recycling Centers and Garbage Trucks

These recycling centers contain powerful enzymes and acids that chew up anything that ends up inside. These materials are carefully split into their component parts which the cell recycles as ______or building blocks. Lyosomes also act as garbage trucks by hauling away unusable waste and dumping it outside the cell.

Mitochondria: Cellular Power Plants

All body movements require energy in the form of ______, or adenosine triphosphate, which is made in mitochondria when food energy is converted. The folds in mitochondria serve to increase ______, which vastly increases the ATP-production capacity of the mitochondria.

Cytoskeleton: The Cell’s Skeleton … and More.

The cytoskeleton gives the cell ______, ______and the ability to ______with the help of microtubules, intermediate filaments and actin filaments.

Skip to Chapter 2 – Got Energy?

Through a series of chemical reactions, mitochondria transfer energy in conveniently sized packets from glucose into ATP. All that’s left are ______and ______which are discarded as wastes. Cells convert about ______% of the energy stored in glucose into ATP. Your body uses ATP by breaking it apart when chemical bonds are broken and releasing energy.

Priority: Proteins

Proteins are responsible for a wide variety of tasks, including carrying oxygen on ______, digesting your food with enzymes like ______, ______, and ______, defending your body from invading microorganisms with antibodies and speeding up chemical reactions inside your body with ______. Other specially designed proteins give elasticity to your ______with ______and strength to your hair and fingernails with keratin.

Cellular Reproduction: Multiplication by Division (p. 47 - 51)

Cells use mitosis and meiosis to divide and create new cells. The primary goal of mitosis is to make sure that each daughter cell gets one copy of each chromosome. Cancer is caused when cell divisions are uncontrolled. This is called a mutation and results in the production of a faulty protein. Although in meiosis the chromosomes are still copied once, there are two divisions instead of one, resulting in half the number of chromosomes in sex cells compared to cells in the rest of the body. The result is four daughter cells, each containing 23 individual chromosomes rather than 23 pairs.