Welcome to Disney’s Cell Adventure Land! I’m your Tour Guide, JoAnna Wendel, and today we’re going to learn all about cells! They’re what you’re made of! They copy themselves! They’re like tiny little cities! As a safety precaution, please keep all limbs inside the tour-bus – we wouldn’t want you to get picked up by a stray transport vesicle and shipped off to get digested by a lysosome, now would we?…ha, ha, ha…
Everyone strapped in? Right! Let’s begin with a little background information…
Every living thing is made of cells. Some organisms, like bacteria and archea, are unicellular – their entire bodies are made of one cell. The other kingdoms – plants, animals, protista, and fungi – are multicellular: they’re made up multiple cells!
Today we’re touring a Eukaryotic Cell, which means it has different parts – the organelles – and each have its own plasma membranes. We’re going to be following the path of the protein insulin as it travels from the nucleus, where genetic material is stored, to where it exits the cell out of the plasma membrane!
We’re going to start our tour in the nucleus. This is where the cell’s DNA is stored. This DNA is the code of your life. Without these hydrogen-bonded linked thymines, cytosines, guanines and adenines, you wouldn’t exist. Every living thing, down to the pond scum you wipe off your shoes at the end of the day, is made of DNA (or RNA, but that’s another story).
Look! On your left side, you’ll see some genes coding for insulin! Now watch as a messenger RNA molecule picks up the blueprints and – everyone hold on to something, we’re about to go through the nuclear pore to the cytosol!
Welcome to the cytosol! This is the liquid part of the cell between the membrane-bound bits. We’re going to be following that messenger RNA along the cytoskeleton – the fibers that give the cell structure – to the rough endoplasmic reticulum! This would be a good chance to take photographs of this amazing view!
Right now we’re being pulled along by a motor protein. This motor protein is being driven by the energy of life – ATP! ATP is made in the mitochondria – the energy factory of the cell.
Whoops, sorry folks, just collided with another transport vesicle. Is anyone hurt? No? Good!
Oh, there goes the messenger RNA into a ribosome! A ribosome is a protein synthesizer – it takes the blueprints that were drawn up by the nucleus and builds the protein. See that it’s attached to that giant structure? That’s the rough endoplasmic reticulum, which further processes and builds the protein insulin.
Once again, a vesicle pinches off from the endoplasmic reticulum and we’re going to follow it to the Golgi Apparatus, where the protein will get tagged with the address of its final destination.
There goes newly synthesized insulin, leaving the Golgi Apparatus. We’re going to speed up so we can watch it diffuse through the cell’s plasma membrane!
And there you go, folks, we just followed a protein through the Endomembrane System! All proteins that are expelled from the cell go through this awesome yet simple journey to get to the outside of the cell. That’s just one of the miracles of life, folks.
Hey everyone! Let’s get the bus driver to follow that insulin through the plasma membrane! Follow that insulin! Follow that insulin! Follow that insulin! HOLD ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woohoo!
Sorry that was bumpy. We’re now going to return to the transport pad where the tour-bus will return to its original size. I hope you enjoyed the ride, and don’t forget to stop at the Cell Adventure Exploration Extravaganza Gift Shop on your way out!
Everyone strapped in? Right! Let’s begin with a little background information…
Every living thing is made of cells. Some organisms, like bacteria and archea, are unicellular – their entire bodies are made of one cell. The other kingdoms – plants, animals, protista, and fungi – are multicellular: they’re made up multiple cells!
Today we’re touring a Eukaryotic Cell, which means it has different parts – the organelles – and each have its own plasma membranes. We’re going to be following the path of the protein insulin as it travels from the nucleus, where genetic material is stored, to where it exits the cell out of the plasma membrane!
We’re going to start our tour in the nucleus. This is where the cell’s DNA is stored. This DNA is the code of your life. Without these hydrogen-bonded linked thymines, cytosines, guanines and adenines, you wouldn’t exist. Every living thing, down to the pond scum you wipe off your shoes at the end of the day, is made of DNA (or RNA, but that’s another story).
Look! On your left side, you’ll see some genes coding for insulin! Now watch as a messenger RNA molecule picks up the blueprints and – everyone hold on to something, we’re about to go through the nuclear pore to the cytosol!
Welcome to the cytosol! This is the liquid part of the cell between the membrane-bound bits. We’re going to be following that messenger RNA along the cytoskeleton – the fibers that give the cell structure – to the rough endoplasmic reticulum! This would be a good chance to take photographs of this amazing view!
Right now we’re being pulled along by a motor protein. This motor protein is being driven by the energy of life – ATP! ATP is made in the mitochondria – the energy factory of the cell.
Whoops, sorry folks, just collided with another transport vesicle. Is anyone hurt? No? Good!
Oh, there goes the messenger RNA into a ribosome! A ribosome is a protein synthesizer – it takes the blueprints that were drawn up by the nucleus and builds the protein. See that it’s attached to that giant structure? That’s the rough endoplasmic reticulum, which further processes and builds the protein insulin.
Once again, a vesicle pinches off from the endoplasmic reticulum and we’re going to follow it to the Golgi Apparatus, where the protein will get tagged with the address of its final destination.
There goes newly synthesized insulin, leaving the Golgi Apparatus. We’re going to speed up so we can watch it diffuse through the cell’s plasma membrane!
And there you go, folks, we just followed a protein through the Endomembrane System! All proteins that are expelled from the cell go through this awesome yet simple journey to get to the outside of the cell. That’s just one of the miracles of life, folks.
Hey everyone! Let’s get the bus driver to follow that insulin through the plasma membrane! Follow that insulin! Follow that insulin! Follow that insulin! HOLD ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woohoo!
Sorry that was bumpy. We’re now going to return to the transport pad where the tour-bus will return to its original size. I hope you enjoyed the ride, and don’t forget to stop at the Cell Adventure Exploration Extravaganza Gift Shop on your way out!