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Understanding the composition of cells and how cells works is fundamental to all of the biological sciences. Appreciating the similarities and differences between cell types is particularly important to the fields of cell and molecular biology. These fundamental similarities and differences provide a unifying theme, allowing the principles learned from studying one cell type to be extrapolated and generalized to other cell types. Research in cell biology is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and developmental biology.

1 Processes in cell biology

1.1 Movement of proteins

Proteins are synthesized by ribosomes in the cytoplasm. This process is also known as protein biosynthesisnucleus of the cell light blue , genes (DNA, dark blue are transcribed into RNA. This RNA is then subject to post-transcriptional modification and control, resulting in a mature mRNA red that is then transported out of the nucleus and into the cytoplasm p or simply protein translationtRNA carries amino acids which are added to the growing peptide chain in the ribosome. Translation (also called protein biosynthesis or polypeptide synthesis is the second process in gene expression. In translation, messenger RNA is used as a template to. Some proteins, such as those to be incorporated in membranes ( membrane proteinA membrane protein is a protein molecule (or assembly of molecules) that is either embedded in or weakly attached to a biological membrane, especially the plasma membrane. Proteins that are sufficiently embedded to remain with the membrane during the inits), are transported into the ER during synthesis and further processed in the Golgi apparatusIn cell biology, the Golgi apparatus Golgi complex or dictyosome is an organelle found in nearly all eukaryotic cells. The name comes from Italian anatomist Camillo Golgi, who identified it in 1898. Its primary function is to process proteins targeted to. From the Golgi, membrane proteins can move to the plasma membrane, to other subcellular comparments or they can be secreted from the cell. The ER and Golgi can be thought of as the "membrane protein synthesis compartment" and the "membrane protein processing compartment", respectively. There is a constant flux of proteins through these compartments. ER and Golgi-resident proteins associate with other proteins and remain in their respective compartments. Other proteins "flow" through the ER and Golgi to the plasma membrane. From the plasma membrane, proteins destined to be degraded move back into intracellular compartments where they are broken down to their individual amino acidIn chemistry, an amino acid is any molecule that contains both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. In biochemistry, this shorter and more general term is frequently used to refer to alpha amino acids: those amino acids in which the amino and carbs.