Lecture I: Life Begins with Cells

Louella G. Artates
§ Like ourselves, the individual cells that form our
bodies can grow, reproduce, process information,
respond to stimuli, and carry out an amazing array
of chemical reactions.
§ These abilities define life.

§ We and other multicellular organisms contain

billions or trillions of cells organized into complex
structures, but many organisms consist of a single
cell.
§ Even simple unicellular organisms exhibit all the
hallmark properties of life, indicating that the cell is
the fundamental unit of life
§ Cell and Molecular biology is a rich, integrative
science that brings together biochemistry,
biophysics, molecular biology, microscopy,
genetics, physiology, computer science, and
developmental biology.

§ Each of these fields has its own emphasis and style

of experimentation.

§ In the following chapters, we will describe insights

and experimental approaches drawn from all of
these fields, gradually weaving the multifaceted
story of the birth, life, and death of cells.
§ Cells come in an amazing variety of sizes and shapes.
§ Some move rapidly and have fast-changing structures, as we can see in movies of
amoebae and rotifers.
§ Others are largely stationary and structurally stable.
§ Oxygen kills some cells but is an absolute requirement for others.

§ Most cells in multicellular organisms are intimately involved with other cells.
Although some unicellular organisms live in isolation, others form colonies or live
in close association with other types of organisms, such as the bacteria that help
plants to extract nitrogen from the air or the bacteria that live in our intestines and
help us digest food.
§ Despite these and numerous other differences, all cells share certain structural
features and carry out many complicated processes in basically the same way.
 A mass of Blood cells Large single cells:
Lactococcus lactis, archaebacteria fossilized dinosaur eggs.
which are used to (Methanosarcina) that
produce cheese such produce their energy
as Roquefort by converting carbon
dioxide and hydrogen
gas to methane.
A colonial Purkinje neuron Cells can form Plant cells are fixed
single- an epithelial firmly in place in
celled sheet vascular plants,
green alga, supported by a
Volvox rigid cellulose
aureus. skeleton.
§ The biological universe consists of two types of
cells— prokaryotic and eukaryotic.
§ Prokaryotic cells consist of a single closed
compartment that is surrounded by the plasma
membrane, lacks a defined nucleus, and has a
relatively simple internal organization.
§ All prokaryotes have cells of this type.
§ Bacteria, the most numerous prokaryotes, are
single-celled organisms; the cyanobacteria, or
blue-green algae, can be unicellular or filamentous
chains of cells. Although bacterial cells do not have
membrane-bounded compartments, many proteins
are precisely localized in their aqueous interior, or
cytosol, indicating the presence of internal
organization.
§ Cyanobacteria Lactobacillus
§ Escherichia coli bacterium has a dry weight of
about 25 x 10-14 g. Bacteria account for an estimated
1–1.5 kg of the average human’s weight.

§ The estimated number of bacteria on earth is 5 x

1030, weighing a total of about 1012 kg.

§ Prokaryotic cells have been found 7 miles deep in

the ocean and 40 miles up in the atmosphere; they
are quite adaptable! The carbon stored in bacteria
is nearly as much as the carbon stored in plants.
§ Eukaryotic cells, unlike prokaryotic cells,
contain a defined membrane-bound nucleus
and extensive internal membranes that
enclose other compartments, the organelles.

§ The region of the cell lying between the

plasma membrane and the nucleus is the
cytoplasm, comprising the cytosol (aqueous
phase) and the organelles.

§ Eukaryotes comprise all members of the

plant and animal kingdoms, including the
fungi, which exist in both multicellular forms
(molds) and unicellular forms (yeasts), and
the protozoans (proto, primitive; zoan, animal),
which are exclusively unicellular.
§ Eukaryotic cells are commonly about 10–100
μm across, generally much larger than
bacteria.

§ A typical human fibroblast, a connective tissue

cell, might be about 15 μm across with a
volume and dry weight some thousands of
times those of an E. coli bacterial cell.

§ An amoeba, a single-celled protozoan, can be

more than 0.5 mm long. An ostrich egg begins
as a single cell that is even larger and easily
visible to the naked eye.
§ All cells are thought to have evolved from a
common progenitor because the structures
and molecules in all cells have so many
similarities
§ All cells are thought to have evolved from a common
progenitor because the structures and molecules in
all cells have so many similarities

§ In recent years, detailed analysis of the DNA

sequences from a variety of prokaryotic organisms
has revealed two distinct types: the so-called “true”
bacteria, or eubacteria, and archaea (also called
archaebacteria or archaeans).

§ Working on the assumption that organisms with more

similar genes evolved from a common progenitor
more recently than those with more dissimilar genes,
researchers have developed the evolutionary lineage
tree.
§ According to this tree, the archaea and the eukaryotes
diverged from the true bacteria before they diverged
from each other
§ In recent years, detailed analysis of the DNA
sequences from a variety of prokaryotic
organisms has revealed two distinct types: the
so-called “true” bacteria, or eubacteria, and
archaea (also called archaebacteria or
archaeans).
§ Working on the assumption that organisms
with more similar genes evolved from a
common progenitor more recently than those
with more dissimilar genes, researchers have
developed the evolutionary lineage tree.
§ According to this tree, the archaea and the
eukaryotes diverged from the true bacteria
before they diverged from each other
§ Many archaeans grow in unusual, often
extreme, environments that may resemble
ancient conditions when life first appeared on
earth.
§ For instance, halophiles (“salt loving”)
require high concentrations of salt to survive,
and thermoacidophiles (“heat and acid
loving”) grow in hot (80°C) sulfur springs,
where a pH of less than 2 is common.

§ Still other archaeans live in oxygen-free

milieus and generate methane (CH4) by
combining water with carbon dioxide.
 •Yersinia pestis is a
§ Bacteria and archaebacteria, the most Gram-negative,
abundant single-celled organisms, are coccobacilli, about
commonly 1–2 μm in size. (1.5 X 0.7) mm in
size, arranged
§ Despite their small size and simple
singly in short
architecture, they are remarkable biochemical
chains or in small
factories, converting simple chemicals into
groups, caused
complex biological molecules.
plague.
§ Bacteria are critical to the earth’s ecology, but
some cause major diseases: bubonic plague
(Black Death) from Yersinia pestis, strep throat
from Streptomyces, tuberculosis from
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, anthrax from
Bacillus anthracis, cholera from Vibrio cholerae,
food poisoning from certain types of E. coli
and Salmonella.
§ In 1827, German physician Karl von Baer
discovered that mammals grow from eggs that
come from the mother’s ovary.
§ Fertilization of an egg by a sperm cell yields a
zygote, a visually unimpressive cell 200 μm in
diameter.
§ Every human being begins as a zygote, which
houses all the necessary instructions for
building the human body containing about
100 trillion (1014) cells, an amazing feat.

§ Development begins with the fertilized egg

cell dividing into two, four, then eight cells,
forming the very early embryo.
§ In 1827, German physician Karl von Baer
discovered that mammals grow from eggs that
come from the mother’s ovary.
§ Fertilization of an egg by a sperm cell yields a
zygote, a visually unimpressive cell 200 μm in
diameter.
§ Every human being begins as a zygote, which
houses all the necessary instructions for
building the human body containing about
100 trillion (1014) cells, an amazing feat.

§ Development begins with the fertilized egg

cell dividing into two, four, then eight cells,
forming the very early embryo.
§ Continued cell proliferation and then differentiation into distinct cell types gives rise to every tissue
in the body. One initial cell, the fertilized egg (zygote), generates hundreds of different kinds of cells
that differ in contents, shape, size, color, mobility, and surface composition.
§ Making different kinds of cells—muscle, skin, bone, neuron, blood cells—is not enough to produce
the human body. The cells must be properly arranged and organized into tissues, organs, and
appendages.