Cell Discovery & Theory
This is the basic structural and functional unit of all living organisms.
What is a cell?
This process of maintaining a stable internal balance is a primary job of the plasma membrane.
What is homeostasis?
These highly folded, energy-converting powerhouses break the chemical bonds in sugar to generate usable energy for the cell.
What are mitochondria?
This distinct central organelle houses the cell's genetic material, distinguishing eukaryotic cells from prokaryotic ones.
What is the nucleus?
This key property allows the plasma membrane to let some substances pass through while strictly keeping others out.
What is selective permeability?
Unlike most other organelles, these protein-manufacturing factories lack an enclosing membrane.
What are ribosomes?
According to cell theory, this is the only origin from which new, living cells can arise.
What are previously existing cells?
In a phospholipid molecule, this specific region is nonpolar and faces inward, away from the watery environment.
What are the fatty acid/lipid tails?
Found in plants, fungi, and animals, this supporting framework is made of long, thin protein fibers like microtubules and microfilaments.
What is the cytoskeleton?
This type of organism is smaller and simpler, lacks membrane-bound organelles, and represents most unicellular life like bacteria.
What is a prokaryotic cell?
This component prevents fatty acid tails from sticking together, contributing directly to the fluid nature of the membrane.
What is cholesterol?
This flat stack of membranes modifies, sorts, and packages newly created proteins into transport sacs called vesicles.
What is the Golgi apparatus?
These are hairlike structures that aid locomotion in prokaryotes.
What are cillia?
This model concept visualizes the plasma membrane as a flexible "sea" where molecules move dynamically, creating a surface pattern.
What is the fluid mosaic model?
This cell structure is uniquely composed of peptidoglycan in bacteria, but is made of cellulose in plant cells.
What is the cell wall?