Take a trip through the cell

The Plant Cell

As part of an assignment in my science class I was asked to learn more about the plant cell. I wasn’t sure how to do that. Suddenly I remembered the movie ”Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!” and how the characters were so tiny that they could look at microscopic things. I wondered what I would see if I was tiny enough to take a trip through a plant cell. I would have to become smaller than the cell itself, so tiny that more than 100 of me would fit on the head of a pin.

So I pretended to take the trip as a microscopic being. Smaller than this!

Smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

My first stop was the cell wall. Plant cells have a boxy shape, and the cell wall is rigid and protects the cell. I entered the cell wall by getting a ride on a carbon dioxide compound that was on its way into the cell.

Cell wall

CO

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• My first obstacle was the cell membrane. I couldn’t get into the cell, because I didn’t have the right password. I decided to sneak around one of the large proteins which were used as an entrance into the cell. I listened to the different materials getting in and out and finally heard the code word. I used it to go through the cell membrane and I entered the cell. I learned that the cell membrane is semi-permeable, which means it selects what can go in or leave the cell.Outside of

cell

Inside of cell

• The first thing I encountered on my way into the plant cell was this gel-like material called cytoplasm. It supports the cell, and all organelles are suspended in it. It has little tunnels, so that material can get

from one organelle to another.

• In the center of the cytoplasm I saw this huge circular structure. I decided to check it out. As I got closer I saw that it gave directions to all the other organelles in the cell.

The nucleus told me to go to the vacuole to get food and water. It told me to take the ER to get there. I wondered what the ER is.

• Attached to the nucleus is this huge maze-like thing called the endoplasmic reticulum. OHHH, I see…. the ER!! It transports materials from the nucleus to the rest of the cell. There are also ribosomes on the ER. They are responsible for protein production, which helps the cell to be healthy. I followed the channels and wondered where it will take me next. I hope I’ll find the vacuole soon, because the nucleus has given me an order. I sat down on the ER and whooooosh………………………….off I go!

• I got off at the next stop. It was easy to find the vacuole, since it was a huge sac-like structure. It took up most of the cell and was filled with food, made by the plant following photosynthesis, and water, which had been delivered to the cell from the roots of the plant. The vacuole stores all of the food and water until it is needed by the organelles. I asked the vacuole to give me some food and water. It told me that the nucleus had just changed the order. I needed to bring the food to the mitochondria, because the cell was running a little low on energy. I asked for directions, and the vacuole told me to look for kidney- shaped organelles, with lots of folded membranes on the inside of them.

Hmmm, do you see where I have to go? Where are the mitochondria?

I found them! The mitochondria are indeed kidney-shaped organelles and they can be recognized by their many folded membranes inside of them. Mitochondria have the ability to take the food and oxygen the plant produces, and they convert that into energy. The cell uses the energy to do its daily jobs, or stores it for further use. I passed the food to the mitochondria and they immediately went to work, converting it into energy.

C6H12O6 (glucose)+ O2 = Energy + H20 + CO2

• My next stop on the trip was near the chloroplasts. They were green organelles. The chlorophyll in them made them green. I saw sunlight being absorbed by the chloroplasts. I wondered what they were doing with the sunlight and I decided to check it out.

• I found out that the sunlight is used to break apart the water and carbon dioxide and recombines it into glucose, which is food for the plant. Oxygen is a byproduct of photosynthesis and is given off by the plant back to the environment.

• It looked like a factory there, everything was working like an assembly line.

H20 + CO2 + chlorophyll + sunlight = C6H12O6 (glucose)+ O2

• The last place I decided to visit are the Golgi Bodies, or also called the Golgi complex. This is like a package factory. It takes all of the products made in the cell and packages them, before sending them off. I decided that I was ready to leave, so I allowed the Golgi Bodies to wrap me up. Nicely wrapped and cozy I traveled through the proteins in the cell membrane, and continued out of the cell.

• Wow, what a trip. I learned so much on my trip through the cell. I know that most of the organelles are colorless, but I imagined them in color so that it helped me to know what they look like. I also learned that the cell is a busy place to be, and it is constantly producing food and energy to help it function. I also learned that cells are tiny!!! It takes millions of cells to make one leaf, and millions more to make a whole plant. What did you learn from my story?

I also learned that animal cells are similar to plant cells, with similar organelles, but they come in many different shapes and sizes. They don’t have cell walls, nor chloroplasts. So basically animal cells are more flexible, and definitely not green!!