THE FUNDAMENTAL UNIT OF LIFE

 The word cell means ‘a little room’ in Latin.

 Cell was first discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665. He observed the cells in a cork slice with the help of primitive
microscope.
 Robert brown discovered nucleus in 1831.
 Purkinje coined the term ‘protoplasm’.
 Schleiden and Schwann gave the ‘Cell Theory’.
 Virchow proposed that ‘all cells arise from pre-existing cells’.
 Viruses lack any membranes and hence do not show characteristics of life until they enter a living body and use its
machinery to multiply.

Cell: Cell is the structural and functional unit of life. The structure and form of an organism depends on the shape and types of
the cell it is made up of. Also, all the activities which an organisms performs during its life-time are the result of the functioning
of the cell constituting that organism.

Unicellular Organisms: Those organisms in which a single cell constitutes a whole organism is known as unicellular or acellular
organism. e.g. Amoeba, Paramoecium, bacteria, etc.

Multicellular Organism: Those organisms in which many cells group together and assume different functions characteristic of
life are known as multicellular organisms. In multicellular organisms, there is division of labour i.e. different parts of the body
perform different functions. e.g. human beings.

Organelle: Each cell is made up of certain specific components, each such component is known as an organelle e.g. nucleus,
chloroplast etc. Each organelle performs a specific function in the cell.

Plasma Membrane:
 It is the outermost covering of the cell that separates the contents of the cell from its external environment.
 It is semi-permeable or selectively permeable i.e. it allows the entry and exit of some material in and out of the cell.
 It is made up of lipids and proteins.
 It is present in both plant and animal cells.
 It is living.

Diffusion: The spontaneous movement of substances from a region of its high concentration to a region of its low concentration
is known as diffusion. For e.g. CO2 and O2 diffuse into and out of the cell depending upon their concentration in the sell and its
external environment.
Diffusion plays an important role in gaseous exchange between the cells as well as the cell and its external environment.

Osmosis: It is the passage of water from a region of its high concentration to a region of its low concentration through a semi-
permeable membrane. Osmosis is a special type diffusion. Only living cells are able to absorb water through osmosis.

Hypotonic Solution: If the medium surrounding the cell has a higher water concentration (dilute) than the cell, the cell will gain
water by osmosis (endosmosis). Such a solution is known as hypotonic solution.
As a result of endosmosis, the cell gains water and swells up i.e. becomes turgid.

Hypertonic Solution: If the medium surrounding the cell has a lower water concentration than the cell, the cell will lose water by
osmosis (exosmosis). Such a solution is known as hypertonic solution.
As a result of exosmosis, the cell loses water and shrinks i.e. becomes flaccid.

Isotonic solution: If the external medium has exactly the same concentration as the cell, there is no net movement of water across
the cell membrane. Such solution is known as isotonic solution.
In this case water crosses the cell membrane in both directions, but the amount going in is the same as the amount going out. The
cell will stay the same size.

Some Examples of Osmosis:

 Unicellular freshwater organisms and most plants gain water through osmosis.
 Absorption of water by plant roots is an example of osmosis.

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  Some of the molecules move in and out of the sell through a type of transport requiring use of energy. This process is
non-spontaneous.

Endocytosis: The flexibility of the cell membrane enables the cell to engulf in food and other material from its external
environment. This process is known as endocytosis. Amoeba acquires its food through such process.

Cell Wall:
 It is present in plant cells only.
 It is rigid covering present outside the cell membrane.
 It is mainly composed of cellulose.
 It is dead and fully permeable.
 It gives structural strength to the plant.

Plasmolysis: When a living plant cell loses water through osmosis there is shrinkage of the contents of the cells away from the
cell wall. This phenomenon is known as plasmolysis.

Note: Cell walls permit the cells of plants to withstand very dilute (hypotonic) external media without bursting. When the cell
absorb water, it swells and builds up a pressure against the cell wall. The wall exerts an equal pressure against the swollen cell. It
is because of these walls, the swollen cells are able to withstand much greater changes in the surrounding medium than animal
cells.

Nucleus:
 It has a double layered covering called nuclear membrane.
 The nuclear membrane has pores which allow the transfer of material from inside the nucleus to its outside i.e.
cytoplasm.
 It contains chromosomes, which are visible as rod-shaped structures when the cell divides.
 Chromosomes contain the genetic information which is passed from the parents to the future generations.
 Nucleus plays an important role in cellular reproduction.
 It also helps in determining the way the cell will develop by directing the chemical activities of the cell.

Chromosomes are composed of DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) and proteins. Functional unit of the DNA are called genes.

Prokaryotes: Pro means primitive and karyote means nucleus. Organisms which lack a nuclear membrane and other membrane
bound organelles are called prokarotes. e.g. bacteria.
 In prokaryotes the nuclear region of the cell is poorly developed due to the absence of nuclear membrane. Such an
undefined region containing only nucleic acid is called nucleoid.
 In prokaryotes, the functions of the cell are performed by poorly organised parts of the cytoplasm.
 The chlorophyll in photosynthetic prokaryotes is associated with membranous vesicles.
Eukaryotes: Organisms which have cells having well defined nuclear membrane are called eukaryotes. Eukaryotes have well
defined membrane bounded organelles.

Cytoplasm: It is the fluid content inside the cell membrane. it contains many specialized cell organelles.

Organelles: To carry out the various cell activities the cell uses membrane bound structures which are known as organelles e.g.
plastids, vacuoles, ribosomes, ER etc.

Endoplasmic Reticulum(ER):
 It is a large network of membrane bound tubes and sheets.
 It is of two types rough ER and smooth ER.
 RER looks rough under the microscope because of the presence of ribosomes on it. Ribosomes help in the synthesis of
proteins.
 SER help in the manufacture of fat molecules, or lipids.
 The protein and the lipids help in the synthesis of cell membrane. This process is known as biogenesis.
 ER serves as channels for the transport of materials between the cytoplasm and the nucleus.
 It also functions as a cytoplasmic framework providing a surface for biochemical activities of the cell.
 In the liver cells of the vertebrates SER helps in detoxifying many poisons and drugs.

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Golgi Apparatus:
 It was first described by Camillo Golgi.
 It consists of a system of membrane bound vesicles arranged parallel to each other in stacks called cicterns.
 The membranes have connections with the membranes of the ER.
 The materials synthesised near the ER is packaged and dispatched to various targets inside and outside the cell through
the golgi apparatus.
 Function: (i) Its function include storage, modification and packaging of products in vesicles.
(ii) To synthesise complex sugars from simple sugars.
(iii) Formation of lysosomes.

Lysosomes:
 They are a kind of waste disposal system of the cell.
 They are membrane bound sacs filled with digestive enzymes.
 The enzymes of the lysosomes are made in the RER.
 They help to keep the cell clean by digesting any foreign substance as well as worn-out cell organelles.
 They contain powerful digestive enzymes which break down the organic material.
 Suicide Bags of the Cell – During the disturbance in cellular metabolism (when the cell gets damaged), lysosomes may
burst and the enzymes digest their own cell. Therefore, they are known as suicide bags of the cell.

Mitochondria:
 They are bounded by double membrane.
 The outer membrane is smooth while the inner membrane is deeply folded. The folds increase the surface area for ATP
synthesis.
 They have their own DNA and ribosomes and thus are able to make some of their own proteins.
 Power House of the Cell – The energy required for various chemical activities is released by mitochondria in the form of
ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) molecules. That’s why they are known as the powerhouse of the cell.
 ATP is the energy currency of the cell.

Plastids:
 They are present only in plant cells.
 There are two types of plastids – chromoplasts (coloured plastids) and leucoplasts (colourless plastids).
 Plastids containing chlorophyll are known as chloroplasts.
 Chloroplasts are important for photosynthesis.
 Plastids consist of numerous membrane layers in a material called stroma.
 They have their own DNA and ribosomes.

Vacuoles:
 They are storage sacs for solid or liquid contents.
 They are small sized in animal cells while plant cells have very large vacuoles.
 In plant cells vacuoles are filled with cell sap and provide turgidity and rigidity to the cell.
 They also help in storing amino acids, sugars and some proteins.
 In Amoeba, the food vacuoles contains food items consumed by it.
 In some unicellular organisms, vacuoles help in expelling excess water and some wastes from the cell.

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