Eukaryopolis: Animal Cell City

In Crash Course video number four you learn animal cells and how they operate more like a city. Hank calls this city Eukaryopolis- The city of animal cells. He also goes over what each part of the cell and how the animal cells are responsible for different things that happen in our body. The very start of video starts off comical by showing you the difference between what an animal is and is not. Then it goes on to explain that why a eukaryotic because they have a “true kernel, meaning good nucleus.” The nucleus is super important because it contain the DNA for the rest of all of the cells in your body. Hank explain that eukaryotic cells are also found in plants, fungi, and protists. Who would have thought humans would have so much in common
with other life forms? Who discovered these funny things called cells?
Well, the answer to that is Robert Hooke in 1665 using a beta version of what we today call a microscope. While Hooke may have been the first one to discover cells, he was not correct on what went on inside of a cell. Hooke thought the cells looked like bare, Spartan monks with not a whole lot going on inside. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. Cells in fact are just the opposite. For something so very small they are very busy. Now we get into the cell city where every part of the cell is busy doing something. First let’s explore the city limits. Most animal cells will be patrolled by cilia or by flagella, both are made out of nine pairs of microtubules. Next in the tour the cell membrane which goes around the city and monitors what will enter and leave the cell. The function that allows for this to happen is called selective permeability. The cytoplasm which has inside of that the cytoskeleton made up of protein strands to back up the cell, kind of like a body guard. Centrosomes put the microtubules together and look like churros. The cytoplasm acts a hold up for all the organelles so they can do their job with the expectation of the nucleus. The nucleoplasm is an upgraded version made just for the
nucleus.
However, before you can reach the nucleus there is still more to see in the city. Endoplasmic Reticulum “are organelles that create a network of membranes that carry stuff around the cell” (Crash course biology, video 4). Phospholipid bilayers make up the membrane in the ER as well as in the cell membrane. There are two different types of ER which each ER has its own function. The rough ER is called that well because it looks rough and bumpy. Those bumps are made up of ribosomes, which are not on the smooth ER. The ribosomes job is to put together amnion acids and turn them into polypeptides. The smooth ER helps to make lipids and the rough ER help in synthesis and protein packaging. The Golgi apparatus will process proteins and send them off to where they are needed.
They will send them off in vesicles that are also made up of phospholipids, also like the cell membrane the vesicles are selective permeability. The lysosome in the cell take out the cellular waste and junk that does not belong in the cell. It will then transport it out of the cell, turned into simple compounds then allowed back into the cell to start making something useful that your body will need. Last is the nucleus, the main frame of the cell. Not only does it store the all of the cell’s DNA, it also keep track of what they are supposed to, when it is supposed to it. Inside the nucleus is the nucleolus which is covered by its membrane. The main job of the nucleolus is to make rRNA; which is used to make RNA. The mitochondria is where it takes energy and turns it to ATP and where respiration take
place. Finally Crash Course Biology video 4 goes over the history and the science behind the cells and how two lonely cells merged, fed of each other and grew. Mitochondria Eve probably the best part of the video explain how the mitochondrial DNA comes from the female thus every female can be traced back to this woman in Africa.