Why is compartmentalization important in chloroplasts

In terms of form and structure, Archaea are a lot like bacteria. Their cells are also small and prokaryotic. This recognition came about through the work of Carl Woese, a biologist at the University of Illinois. His analysis revealed that Archaea and Bacteria, despite the fact that they were both prokaryotic in structure, were not an evolutionary unified group. An archaean and a bacterium are far less related to one another than we humans are to an orchid, or orchids are to bread mold because humans, orchids, and bread mold are all in the same domain — the Eukarya — the domain that includes all of the eukaryotes.

The Eukarya, shown in blue is our group. We eukaryotes have a complex, compartmentalized cells. We possess mitochondria. Eukaryotic cells are much larger than prokaryotic cells, ranging from 10 to micrometers in size.

And only eukaryotes have progressed to multicellularity. Eukaryotes arose through a kind of cellular fusion that involved the other two domains. Endosymbiosis is a biological relationship in which one species lives inside another.

But endosymbiosis can also be mutualistic : a win-win relationship that benefits both sides. This animal lives along the rocky shores of the Pacific Coast of North America. But giant green anemones also have a mutualistic endosymbiont: an algae that lives inside its tissues, and which gives the anemone its green coloration.

The algae performs photosynthesis, secreting excess glucose into the tissues of the anemone, which uses the the glucose for cellular respiration. The algae, in return, gets a secure habitat. The plants in the pea family are able to acquire nitrogen because of a mutualistic relationship they have with various nitrogen-fixing bacteria that they host in specialized nodules in their roots.

Instead, all cells are comprised of well-defined compartments, each specializing in a particular function. In many cases subcellular processes may be described based on whether they occur at the plasma membrane , within the cytosol or within membrane bound organelles such as the nucleus, Golgi apparatus or even vesicular components of the membrane trafficking system like lysosomes and endosomes.

Despite the morphological and functional variety of cells from different tissue types and different organisms, all cells share important similarities in their compartmental organization. These fundamental compartments, often referred to as organelles, are summarized in the drawing of the generic animal cell central cell.

Examples of specialized cell types, shown around the generic cell, include neuron, macrophage, intestine epithelial cell, adipocyte, muscle cell and osteoclast. Compartmentalization increases the efficiency of many subcellular processes by concentrating the required components to a confined space within the cell. Where a specific condition is required to facilitate a given subcellular process, this may be locally contained so as not to disrupt the function of other subcellular compartments.

For example, lysosomes require a lower pH in order to facilitate degradation of internalized material. Membrane bound proton pumps present on the lysosome maintain this condition.

Similarly, a large membrane surface area is required by mitochondria to efficiently generate ATP from electron gradients across its lipid bilayer. This is achieved through the structural composition of this particular organelle. Plant Science Letters 35 , 19 — Kanai R, Edwards GE. Enzymatic separation of mesophyll protoplasts and bundle sheath cells from C 4 plants.

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Biosynthesis of lipoic acid in Arabidopsis: cloning and characterization of the cDNA for lipoic acid synthase. All rights reserved.

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