CELL BIOLOGY
LECTURE NOTES
Cell Biology Lecture Notes Cell Biology Lecture Notes
1) Chemistry of the Cell
2) Carbohydrates and Polysaccharides (I)
3)
... [Show More] Protein Structure and Function
4) Nucleic Acids (III)
5) Enzymes: The Catalysts of Life
6) How Cells Are Studied (I)
7) How Cells Are Studied (II)
8) Membranes: Their Structure and Function
9) Transport Across Membranes
10) Intracellular Compartments
11) Intracellular Traffic
12) The Cytoskeleton (I)
13) The Cytoskeleton (II)
14) Energy from Chemical Bonds (I)
15) Energy from Chemical Bonds (II)
16) Energy from the Sun
17) The Flow of Information: DNA to Protein
18) RNA Transcription and Ribosome Assembly
19) Ribosome, mRNA, and tRNA Direct the Synthesis of Proteins
20) Recombinant DNA Techniques
21) Gene Regulation (I)
22) Gene Regulation (II)
23) DNA Packing and Organization
24) Cell Cycle and Division
25) Cell Signaling (I)
26) Cell Signaling (II)
27) Cell Junctions, Cell Adhesion & ECM (I)
28) Cell Junctions, Cell Adhesion & ECM (II)
29) Nervous System (I)
30) Nervous System (II)
31) Immune System (I)
32) Immune System (II)
33) Cancer (I)
34) Cancer (II)
The Chemistry of the Cell: Cellular Chemistry
Why Chemistry?
Biology in general and cell biology in particular depend heavily on both chemistry and
physics. Simply, cells and organisms follow all the laws of the physical universe, and
biology is really just the study of chemistry in systems that happen to be alive. In fact,
everything cells are and do has a molecular and chemical basis. Therefore, we can truly
understand and appreciate cellular structure and function only when we can describe that
structure in molecular terms and express that function in terms of chemical reactions and
events.
5 themes in the chemistry of the cell
1. Carbon: biology deals with carbon containing molecules
Valence of four and covalent bond
Carbon containing molecules are stable
Carbon-containing molecules are diverse
Carbon-containing molecules can form isomers
2. Water: Cellular world is an aqueous world
Water molecules are polar
Water molecules are cohesive
Water is an excellent solvent
Hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules
3. Selectively permeable membrane: Separation of two water environments
Amphipathic molecules
Membrane bilayer
Movement across the membrane
4. Polymerization: Addition of molecular building units
Monomers and polymers
Biological polymers: proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and lipids(fat)
Condensation reaction
Directionality
5. Self-assembly: spontaneous assembly of the parts
Characteristics
Driving forces
Protein assembly
Reading Assignments:
Text pages 41-78. [Show Less]