Cell biology (cellular biology) is an academic discipline which studies the physiological properties of cells, as well as their behaviours, intercellular interactions, and environment; this is done both on a microscopic and molecular level. Cell biology researches both single-celled organisms like bacteria and specialized cells in multicellular organisms like humans.

Cell biology is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and developmental biology.

Contents

1 Purification of cells and their parts 2 Movement of proteins 3 See also 4 External links

Purification of cells and their parts

Purification of cells and their parts is achieved in the following ways:

• Cell fractionation
• Flow cytometry
• Release of cellular organelles by disruption of cells.
• Separation of different organelles by centrifugation.
• Proteins extracted from membranes by detergents and salts.

Movement of proteins

Proteins are synthesized by ribosomes, either in the cytoplasm or in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Membrane proteins are synthesized in the ER and are further processed in the Golgi apparatus. From the Golgi, membrane proteins can move to the plasma membrane or to other subcellular comparments. The ER and Golgi can be thought of as the "membrane protein synthesis compartment" and the "membrane protein processing compartment", respectively. There is a constant flux of proteins through these compartments. ER and Golgi-resident proteins associate with other proteins and remain in their respective compartments. Other proteins "flow" through the ER and Golgi to the plasma membrane. From the plasma membrane, proteins destined to be degraded move back into intracellular compartments where they are broken down to amino acids.

See also

• Active transport
• Adhesion
• Cilia
• Cytoplasm
• Cytoskeleton
• Endoplasmic reticulum
• Flagella
• Glycolysis
• Golgi apparatus
• Lipid bilayer
• Membrane
• Mitochondrion
• Nucleus
• Organelle
• Passive transport
• Ribosome
• Signal transduction
• Vesicle
• Important publications in cell biology

External links

Our sister project, Wikibooks, provides an electronic book on Cell biology.

• The WWW Virtual Library of Cell Biology

General subfields within biology

Anatomy | Bioinformatics | Botany | Ecology | Evolutionary biology | Genetics | Marine biology | Human biology | Cell biology | Microbiology | Molecular biology | Biochemistry | Origin of life | Paleontology | Physiology | Taxonomy | Xenobiology | Zoology