Intracellular Compartments and Protein Sorting
Unlike a bacterium, which generally consists of a single intracellular compartment surrounded by a plasma membrane, a eukaryotic cell is elaborately subdivided into functionally distinct, membrane-enclosed compartments. Each compartment, or organelle, contains its own characteristic set of enzymes and other specialized molecules, and complex distribution systems transport-specific products from one compartment to another. To understand the eukaryotic cell, it is essential to know how the cell creates and maintains these compartments, what occurs in each of them, and how molecules move between them. Proteins confer upon each compartment its characteristic structural and functional properties. They catalyze the reactions that occur there and selectively transport small molecules into and out of the compartment. For membrane-enclosed organelles in the cytoplasm, proteins also serve as organelle-specific surface markers that direct new deliveries of proteins and lipids to the appropriate organelle. An animal cell contains about 10 billion (10^10) protein molecules of perhaps 10,000 kinds, and the synthesis of almost all of them begins in the cytosol, the space of the cytoplasm outside the membrane-enclosed organelles. Each newly synthesized protein is then delivered specifically to the organelle that requires it. . By tracing the protein traffic from one compartment to another, one can begin to make sense of the otherwise bewildering maze of intracellular membranes
The Compartmentalization of Cells
In this brief overview of the compartments of the cell and the relationships between them, we organize the organelles conceptually into a small number of discrete families, discuss how proteins are directed to specific organelles, and
explain how proteins cross organelle membranes.
All Eukaryotic Cells Have the Same Basic Set of Membraneenclosed Organelles
Many vital biochemical processes take place in membranes or on their surfaces. Membrane-bound enzymes, for example, catalyze lipid metabolism; and oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis both require a membrane to couple the transport of H+ to the synthesis of ATP. In addition to providing increased membrane area to host biochemical reactions, intracellular membrane systems form enclosed compartments that are separate from the cytosol, thus creating functionally specialized aqueous spaces within the cell. In these spaces, subsets of molecules (proteins, reactants, ions) are concentrated to optimize the biochemical reactions in which they participate. Because the lipid bilayer of cell membranes is impermeable to most hydrophilic molecules, the membrane of an organelle must contain membrane transport proteins to import and export specific metabolites. Each organelle membrane must also have a mechanism for importing, and incorporating into the organelle, the specific proteins that make the organelle unique.
Unlike a bacterium, which generally consists of a single intracellular compartment surrounded by a plasma membrane, a eukaryotic cell is elaborately subdivided into functionally distinct, membrane-enclosed compartments. Each compartment, or organelle, contains its own characteristic set of enzymes and other specialized molecules, and complex distribution systems transport-specific products from one compartment to another. To understand the eukaryotic cell, it is essential to know how the cell creates and maintains these compartments, what occurs in each of them, and how molecules move between them. Proteins confer upon each compartment its characteristic structural and functional properties. They catalyze the reactions that occur there and selectively transport small molecules into and out of the compartment. For membrane-enclosed organelles in the cytoplasm, proteins also serve as organelle-specific surface markers that direct new deliveries of proteins and lipids to the appropriate organelle. An animal cell contains about 10 billion (10^10) protein molecules of perhaps 10,000 kinds, and the synthesis of almost all of them begins in the cytosol, the space of the cytoplasm outside the membrane-enclosed organelles. Each newly synthesized protein is then delivered specifically to the organelle that requires it. . By tracing the protein traffic from one compartment to another, one can begin to make sense of the otherwise bewildering maze of intracellular membranes
The Compartmentalization of Cells
In this brief overview of the compartments of the cell and the relationships between them, we organize the organelles conceptually into a small number of discrete families, discuss how proteins are directed to specific organelles, and
explain how proteins cross organelle membranes.
All Eukaryotic Cells Have the Same Basic Set of Membraneenclosed Organelles
Many vital biochemical processes take place in membranes or on their surfaces. Membrane-bound enzymes, for example, catalyze lipid metabolism; and oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis both require a membrane to couple the transport of H+ to the synthesis of ATP. In addition to providing increased membrane area to host biochemical reactions, intracellular membrane systems form enclosed compartments that are separate from the cytosol, thus creating functionally specialized aqueous spaces within the cell. In these spaces, subsets of molecules (proteins, reactants, ions) are concentrated to optimize the biochemical reactions in which they participate. Because the lipid bilayer of cell membranes is impermeable to most hydrophilic molecules, the membrane of an organelle must contain membrane transport proteins to import and export specific metabolites. Each organelle membrane must also have a mechanism for importing, and incorporating into the organelle, the specific proteins that make the organelle unique.
