Known also as "cytology" is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death.
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55 views
Macrophage pathogen fixation
Overly simplified, macrophages recognise pathogenic patterns and endocytose anything that matches them.
That also works on bacteria, which are quite often very mobile. What if a bacterium was just ...
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1answer
475 views
Is the eukaryotic nucleus composed of a single or double membrane?
I know that it is usually considered a double membrane like those surrounding mitochondria and chloroplasts, but I read a review that stated "according to topological details it is actually a single ...
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1answer
4k views
How to store vegetables in the refrigerator: In plastic bags or not?
My wife and I are having a debate similar to this one:
I claim that it's better to take the fresh veggies out of the bags and put them in the crisper with humidity control because:
That's what the ...
6
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1answer
145 views
How similar are Circulating Tumor Cells and Cancer Stem Cells?
Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are linked with metastasis and their presence can be used to indicate the onset of metastatic cancer. Likewise, the Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) hypothesis suggests that ...
7
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1answer
65 views
How do nuclear receptors locate each other to form a DNA loop?
Nuclear receptors can influence transcription far up- or downstream from their own binding sites by looping DNA (Rubina et al.; J Mol Bio 2004).
I am not sure how exactly the receptors first attach ...
10
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2answers
269 views
Could hydrogen replace oxygen in cellular respiration?
I was wondering what oxygen actually does in the body. I have seen a few answers to other questions that involve the electron chain and I am really not sure what that is. So I was wondering what ...
6
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1answer
64 views
number of RNA pol II molecules in a given human nucleus?
Does anybody have any estimate on the number of RNA pol II molecules in the nucleus of a given human cell? For example, how many RNA polymerase type II protein complexes would there be on average at a ...
2
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1answer
48 views
Measuring the density of surface antigens
I'm trying to get a sense of the variety of methods used for determining the number of cell surface antigens and receptors. This is notably different from determining the affinity of these surface ...
5
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2answers
71 views
How extensive is CD47?
CD47 aka the "don't eat me" signal has recently been claimed to be expressed on all tumor cells. This doesn't seem to corroborate with other cell-biology experiments. On what other cells is CD47 ...
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1answer
72 views
Does a theory exist for the formation of thylakoid structure?
I'm interested in how the structure of the thylakoid forms into its characteristic highly rugose stacks of grana. What causes the thylakoid to invaginate and self-associate, albeit with what appear to ...
5
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4answers
1k views
RNA or ribosome, which one moves during translation?
During translation ribosomes decode the genetic information present in the mRNA and protein synthesis takes place. During this process which of those two does move, the ribosome or the mRNA?
7
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1answer
135 views
When collecting cell lysates for a Western blot, how do I induce di-sulfide bonds?
I would like to conduct a simple dimerization experiment for some protein I'm collecting from a cultured cells. My thought is, that if I'm running a non-reducing, denaturing PAGE gel, then removing ...
5
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2answers
83 views
Synthetic biology using existing cells
I was watching the video at this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17436365
The speaker says that a cell is taken and its original DNA content is stripped out and replaced with ...
8
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1answer
198 views
What is a inhibitory tone when talking about neurons?
In this SE answer: Could an "overactive" brain increase the chances of Alzheimer's Disease?
user @nico used the word inhibitory tone What does that ...
7
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1answer
2k views
What is the difference between “dikaryotic” and “heterokaryotic” states in the sexual lifecyles of fungi?
Many fungi undergo a reproductive phase in which more than one genetically distinct nuclei (from 2 separate mating types) is present within the same cytoplasm. In the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, ...
20
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1answer
225 views
How does a cell know its size?
Cells come in all sorts of sizes. How do they regulate their cell size to the point where similar cell types have a fairly mono-disperse size distribution?
Reasked from ...
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1answer
165 views
Do larger multicellular organisms have an increased risk of mutation and thus cancer?
So I was thinking that if each cell has P(X) of becoming cancerous, then the chance of cancer is 1-((1-P(X))^n) where n is the number of cells in the organism.
Since larger organisms have more cells ...
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1answer
151 views
What's the distinction between a tetrad and a synaptonemal complex in meiosis?
What's the distinction between a tetrad and a synaptonemal complex in meiosis? Are they synonyms?
I ask because the concepts seem very closely related, but it seems like there may be a subtle ...
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0answers
51 views
Pancretic Acinar Cell - ATP, calcium concentration data
I need to find a decent source of data for concentration of ATP and calcium in the pancreatic acinar cell.
So far all I can find is ATP or calcium 'levels' based on fluorescence , which are not ...
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3answers
133 views
How crowded is the bacterial cell?
I was wondering what is the protein concentration in an E. coli cell. When studying enzyme kinetics and activity in vitro, I would argue that the substrate and enzyme concentrations resemble those in ...
8
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1answer
165 views
How is the number of mitochondria in a cell regulated?
How does the cell regulate the number of mitochondria in a cell? What happens when there are too many or too few?
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2answers
437 views
What is the main general difference between Mitosis and Meiosis?
I found such a clause:
The general principle is that mitosis creates somatic cells and
meiosis creates germ cells.
However, I cannot agree. Each gametogonium needs to go through mitosis before ...
10
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1answer
201 views
Does electricity cause damage on a cellular level?
As I understand it the mechanism of death when a mammal is electrocuted is that the current disrupts the SAN/AVN in the heart causing it to fibrilate or arrest. That's on a macro scale, however. ...
6
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1answer
125 views
What's a good reference for choosing histological staining chemicals?
It's often difficult to find the appropriate or best stain to use when I want to examine a new type of tissue. I think that's partly because many histological techniques were developed a long time ...
6
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1answer
382 views
How does water buffer a sudden drop in temperature?
A property of water is that it is slow to heat and cool. According to my biology book, some energy from an increase in temperature would spent breaking hydrogen bonds, so that temperature does not ...
21
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1answer
257 views
How long will a vegetable live for after being harvested?
I understand this might depend on the types of vegetables, but is there an average or studied specifics? Does it die immediately? Is there a way to precisely diagnose death in plants? If so, what are ...
6
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1answer
62 views
How are chromatids correctly segregated during mitosis?
In my book this is described as happening by kinetochores depolymerising from their attached microtubule spindle, then being dragged towards the spindle's centrosome by a dynein protein. I can ...
9
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1answer
342 views
Did researchers evolve multicellular yeast or did they just turn on multicellularity?
In this new paper "Experimental evolution of multicellularity" found via Ars Technica the researchers describe having developed multicellularity and apoptosis within 60 days from a unicellular yeast ...
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3answers
220 views
What triggers meiosis in gonadal cells?
What specific biochemical processes are involved in inducing meiosis rather than mitosis? Why are gonadal cells the only cells in the human body which do undergo meiosis?
5
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1answer
660 views
How does the Golgi Apparatus perform its function?
The Golgi Apparatus is an organelle with a great number of functions, I am particularly intrigued in the role it plays in packaging macromolecules and sending them to their target organelle or to ...
7
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2answers
155 views
Is “exhaustion” of the Hodgkin-Huxley membrane at constant stimulation a real phenomenon?
I was playing around with a simulation of the Hodgkin-Huxley model using their original parameters for the squid giant axon.
By applying a constant stimulation current to the model in resting state, ...
15
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5answers
446 views
Online Molecular and Cellular Biology Video Lectures?
I am looking for video lectures to go through to guide my reading in intro molecular and cellular biology. I've had intro bio and I study evolutionary theory, but my molecule- and cell-level knowledge ...
7
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1answer
128 views
How Do Large Ocean Viruses Form Their Own Organelles?
Several large viruses (Arslan 2011) form their own organelles within the amoebae they invade.
How do these organelles form?
Reference:
Arslan, D., Legendre, M., Seltzer, V., Abergel, C., Claverie, ...
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1answer
330 views
Are lymphocyte sizes clustered in two groups?
Tortora writes in Principles of Anatomy and Physiology:
Lymphocytes may be as small as 6–9 μm in diameter or as large as 10–14 μm in diameter.
Those ranges are quite close to each others. Should ...
