Abstract
A cell is the fundamental unit of life since no living organism can survive without it. Also, the cell is both a structural and a functional unit of a living system. On the basis of complexity and organization of DiseNA, cells can be classified into two types—prokaryotic cell and eukaryotic cell.
Prokaryotes are unicellular organism that lack distinct nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The average size of prokaryotes is 2.0-2.6 μm. Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus enclosed within a nuclear envelope and different membrane-bound organelles. In a cell cytoplasm, a semisolid matrix substance is enclosed by cell wall and cell membrane. The major cell organelles are mitochondria, Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosome, lysosome, etc. In eukaryotes, the nucleus is a specialized double membrane-bound protoplasmic entity that houses all of the genetic information needed to control cellular metabolism and pass on to future generations. The cytoskeleton is the structural framework of eukaryotic cells that keeps the cell and its appendages in shape. Genetic information flows from ‘DNA to mRNA to protein’ within cell.A. Mukherjee (X)
Department of Animal Biotechnology, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
P. R. Ghosh
Department of Veterinary Physiology, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023
P. K. Das et al. (eds.), Textbook of Veterinary Physiology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9410-4_2
Graphical Abstract
Description of the graphic: Pioneering scientists—Robert Hooke, Matthias Schleiden, Theodor Schwann, and Rudolph Virchow (from left to right) (1) discovered cell. A typical prokaryotic cell (2) and a typical eukaryotic cell with cell organelles (3) includes Biomembrane structure (3A) Nucleus (3B) Mitochondria (3C) Cytoskeletal structure (3D) Golgi Apparatus (3E) Centriole (3F) Chloroplast (3G) and Ribosome (3H)
Keywords
Prokaryotes ∙ Eukaryotes ∙ Cytoplasm ∙ Nucleus ∙ Cytoskeleton
Learning Objectives
• Development of ideas about basic structure and components of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
• Structure of cell wall, cell membrane, and biomembrane.
• Cellular organelles—their structure and functions— nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, plastids, ribosomes, vacuoles, lysosomes.
• Structural organization of cytoskeleton.
• Flow of molecular-genetic information within cell.
The cell concept... is the axis around which the whole of modern science of life revolves—Paul Ehrlich in Nobel Lecture on 11 Dec 1908
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