ch 11 Cell-Cell Interactions flashcards

Flashcards covering vocabulary terms related to cell-cell interactions.

What cellular level events happen?

The plasma membrane surrounds a bustling enterprise consisting of organelles, molecular machines, and cytoskeletal elements and depends on interactions with other cells and the surrounding environment.

What is the Extracellular Matrix (ECM)?

A fibre composite that provides structural support and contains much more protein relative to carbohydrate than a cell wall.

What is Collagen?

A cable-like protein that dominates the fibrous component of animal ECM.

What are Integrins?

Membrane proteins that bind to extracellular cross-linking proteins and link the cytoskeleton and ECM.

What is the Primary Cell Wall?

A fibre composite containing long strands of cellulose bundled into microfibrils, cross-linked via hydrogen bonds, and filled with gelatinous polysaccharides.

What is Turgor Pressure?

The force exerted by the cell against the wall, particularly important in young, growing plant cells.

What is the Secondary Cell Wall?

Additional layer of material secreted between the plasma membrane and the primary cell wall in mature plant cells.

What are Epithelia?

Tissues that form external and internal surfaces and function as barriers between environments.

What is the Middle Lamella?

A central layer between adjacent plant cells comprised of gelatinous pectins that glues the cells together.

What is a Tight Junction?

Cell-cell attachment composed of specialized proteins in the plasma membranes of adjacent animal cells that forms a watertight seal.

What is a Desmosome?

Cell-cell attachment particularly common in animal epithelial and muscle cells which consist of integral membrane attachment proteins that form bridges between anchoring proteins inside adjacent cells

What is Selective Adhesion?

The phenomenon where cells aggregate based on their origin, adhering to other cells of the same tissue type.

What are Cadherins?

Proteins that link cells in desmosomes and provide the physical basis for selective adhesion in cells that form tissues.

What are Gap Junctions?

Specialized proteins assemble in the membranes of adjacent cells, creating interconnected channels that allow water, ions, and small molecules such as amino acids, sugars, and nucleotides to move between the cells

What are Plasmodesmata?

Gaps in cell walls that allow direct connections between the cytoplasm of adjacent cells, where the plasma membrane and cytoplasm of the two cells are continuous.

What is a Symplast?

A continuous network of cytoplasm connected by plasmodesmata.

What is an Apoplast?

The region outside the plasma membrane, consisting of cell walls, the middle lamella, and air spaces.

What is a Signal Receptor?

Protein that changes its shape and activity after binding to a signalling molecule.

What is Signal Transduction?

The conversion of a signal from one form to another, often involving amplification and diversification.

What is a Second Messenger?

Small, nonprotein signalling molecule or ion that elicits an intracellular response to the first messenger.

What are Protein Kinases?

Enzymes that activate or inactivate other proteins by adding a phosphate group to them.

What is Quorum Sensing?

Pathway that responds to population density in prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes.