🧬 Biology · Cells
Cell Organelles and Their Jobs flashcards
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All 17 flashcards at a glance
Card 1
What is an organelle?
A structure inside a cell that does a specific job. Most are surrounded by a membrane. Ribosomes are not, but they are often counted as organelles.
Card 2
What is the main difference between a prokaryotic cell and a eukaryotic cell?
A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. A prokaryotic cell has neither.
Card 3
Which structures do both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells have?
A cell membrane, cytoplasm, DNA and ribosomes. (Most prokaryotes also have a cell wall.)
Card 4
What does the nucleus do?
It holds most of the cell’s DNA, the instructions for building proteins and running the cell. It does not think or decide.
Card 5
What is the nucleolus?
A dense region inside the nucleus where parts of ribosomes are made.
Card 6
What do ribosomes do?
They build proteins by reading mRNA. They are not wrapped in a membrane, and every cell has them.
Card 7
What makes the rough ER ‘rough’, and what does it do?
Ribosomes attached to its surface. Proteins made there enter the ER, where they are folded and prepared to be exported, put in membranes or sent to lysosomes.
Card 8
What does the smooth ER do?
It has no ribosomes. It makes lipids, such as steroids, and in liver cells it helps break down some harmful substances.
Card 9
What does the Golgi apparatus do?
It modifies, sorts and packs proteins and lipids into vesicles that carry them to their destinations.
Card 10
What is a vesicle?
A small membrane-bound sac that carries materials from one part of a cell to another, or out of the cell.
Card 11
What do mitochondria do?
They make most of a eukaryotic cell’s ATP by converting the energy in food molecules. They do not create energy.
Card 12
Where are chloroplasts found, and what do they do?
In plant cells and algae. They carry out photosynthesis. Animal cells and fungal cells do not have them.
Card 13
What does a lysosome do?
It is a sac of digestive enzymes that breaks down worn-out organelles, food particles and invaders.
Card 14
What does the central vacuole do?
It stores water, nutrients and wastes in a plant cell. Its pressure against the cell wall keeps the cell firm.
Card 15
Which organisms have cell walls, and what does a cell wall do?
Plants, fungi, most bacteria, most archaea and some protists. It is a rigid layer outside the cell membrane that supports and protects the cell. Animal cells have none.
Card 16
What is the job of the cell membrane?
It is the boundary around every cell, and it controls what enters and leaves.
Card 17
What does the cytoskeleton do?
It is a network of protein fibers that gives the cell its shape, holds organelles in place and provides tracks for moving materials.