The Cellular Operating System Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the architecture, pathways, organelles, transport matrix, and division cycles of the cellular operating system.

Amphipathy

The structural capability of having both water-attracting (hydrophilic) and water-repelling (hydrophobic) regions, essential for barrier formation.

Selective Permeability

A property dictated by the arrangement of polar heads and non-polar tails that regulates cellular entry, exit, and environmental communication.

Aquaporins

Specialized membrane channels for rapid water transport.

Transport Proteins

Proteins that facilitate the rapid intake of large molecules, such as glucose into muscle cells during exercise.

Exocytosis Vesicles

Internal packages that fuse with the cell membrane to release contents outside the cell.

Osmosis

Passive water movement across a selectively permeable membrane down its concentration gradient.

Facilitated Diffusion

Passive movement of molecules via transport proteins down the concentration gradient without energy expenditure.

Active Transport

Pumping of molecules against the concentration gradient requiring energy expenditure in the form of ATP.

Prokaryotic Specs

Cellular architecture lacking membrane-bound organelles, storing genetic payload as circular DNA, and reproducing via binary fission.

Intracellular Compartmentalization

An architectural feature of eukaryotic cells engineered via internal membranes, allowing simultaneous, isolated biochemical reactions without interference.

Mitochondrion

The organelle responsible for cellular power generation, whose DNA mutations are exclusively maternally inherited.

Ribosomes

Organelles responsible for protein synthesis; toxins inhibiting them immediately disrupt protein synthesis.

Lysosomes

Waste management organelles that digest cellular waste, where genetic defects cause fatal accumulation.

Peroxisomes

Waste management organelles that store toxins and produce peroxides.

Golgi Apparatus

An organelle responsible for packaging and modifying cellular proteins.

Smooth ER

An organelle involved in lipid metabolism, severe damage to which impairs lipid processing in liver cells.

S Phase (Synthesis)

The critical window during interphase where DNA is fully replicated.

G2 Checkpoint

The final security scan for DNA damage before authorizing entry into mitosis.

Mitosis

A division pathway involving a single division yielding identical cells, used for somatic tissue repair and cellular specialization post-fertilization.

Meiosis

A division pathway for gamete formation and sexual reproduction, featuring fusion of homologous chromosomes and crossing over during Prophase I to produce haploid gametes with varied DNA.

Nondisjunction Event

An error during chromosome separation (e.g., in Meiosis II) that results in systemic error cascades.

Aneuploid Gametes

Cells produced from error cascades such as nondisjunction that contain an abnormal number of chromosomes.

Apoptosis

Programmed cell death pathways triggered primarily by calcium ion channels; failure to execute risks cancer, while over-activation causes severe neural degeneration.

Calcium Ion Channels

Channels that act as the primary signal to trigger programmed cell death pathways.

Cancer

The uncontrolled division of cells, often resulting from mutated checkpoints or abnormal telomerase activity.

Membrane Blindness

A defect preventing the cell membrane from recognizing signal proteins, isolating the cell and disrupting critical regulatory signaling.