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News tagged with cytoplasm

Amoeba offers key clue to photosynthetic evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- The major difference between plant and animal cells is the photosynthetic process, which converts light energy into chemical energy. When light isn't available, energy is generated by breaking ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 27, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Scientists solve long-standing mystery of protein 'quality control' mechanism

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have solved a long-standing mystery of how cells conduct "quality control" to eliminate the toxic effects of a certain kind of error in protein production. The findings may lead ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 12, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Light activated 'warhead' turns modest molecules into super protein killers

Using a novel light activation technique, Scripps Research Institute scientists have been able to turn molecules with only a modest ability to fight specific proteins into virtual protein destroyers.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Mar 14, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers identify new, cancer-causing role for protein

The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Aug 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

New study overturns orthodoxy on how macrophages kill bacteria

For decades, microbiologists assumed that macrophages, immune cells that can engulf and poison bacteria and other pathogens, killed microbes by damaging their DNA. A new study from the University of Illinois ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 27, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Copy of the genetic makeup travels in a protein suitcase

Scientists from the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn have succeeded for the first time in the real time filming of the transport of an important information carrier in biological ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 25, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

'Copper pump's' potential benefit in cancer treatment

(Phys.org) -- A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has made new discoveries about a copper-transporting protein in the membranes of human cells that drug-discovery scientists can co-opt ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Research reveals novel transport mechanism for large ribonucleoproteins

The movement of genetic materials, such as RNA and ribosomes, from the nucleus to the cytoplasm is a critical component in a cell's ability to make the proteins necessary for essential biological functions. Until now, it ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Built-in 'self-destruct timer' causes ultimate death of messenger RNA in cells

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered the first known mechanism by which cells control the survival of messenger RNA (mRNA) -- arguably biology's most important molecule. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Nuclear receptors battle it out during metamorphosis in new fruit fly model

Growing up just got more complicated. Thomas Jefferson University biochemistry researchers have shown for the first time that the receptor for a major insect molting hormone doesn't activate and repress genes ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 06, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Control gene for developmental timing discovered

University of Alberta researchers have identified a key regulator that controls the speed of development in the fruit fly. When the researchers blocked the function of this regulator, animals sped up their rate of development ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Sep 28, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New technique sheds light on the mysterious process of cell division

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using a new technique in which models of primitive cells are constructed from the bottom up, scientists have demonstrated that the structure of a cell's membrane and cytoplasm may be as important ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 18, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists engineer nanoscale vaults to encapsulate 'nanodisks' for drug delivery

(PhysOrg.com) -- There's no question, drugs work in treating disease. But can they work better, and safer?

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Apr 21, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

In scientific first, researchers visualize naturally occurring mRNA

In a technique that could eventually shed light on how gene expression influences human disease, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have for the first time ever successfully visualized ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers uncover new cell biological mechanism that regulates protein stability in cells

The cell signaling pathway known as Wnt, commonly activated in cancers, causes internal membranes within a healthy cell to imprison an enzyme that is vital in degrading proteins, preventing the enzyme from ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 23, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cytoplasm

The cytoplasm is the part of a cell that is enclosed within the plasma membrane. In eukaryotic cells, the cytoplasm contains organelles, such as mitochondria, which are filled with liquid that is kept separate from the rest of the cytoplasm by biological membranes. The contents of the cell nucleus are not part of the cytoplasm and are instead called the nucleoplasm. The cytoplasm is the site where most cellular activities occur, such as many metabolic pathways like glycolysis, and processes such as cell division. The inner, granular mass is called the endoplasm and the outer, clear and glassy layer is called the cell cortex or the ectoplasm.

The part of the cytoplasm that is not held within organelles is called the cytosol. The cytosol is a complex mixture of cytoskeleton filaments, dissolved molecules, and water that fills much of the volume of a cell. The cytosol is a gel, with a network of fibers dispersed through water. Due to this network of pores and high concentrations of dissolved macromolecules, such as proteins, an effect called macromolecular crowding occurs and the cytosol does not act as an ideal solution. This crowding effect alters how the components of the cytosol interact with each other.

For more information about Cytoplasm, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: cells , cancer cells , protein , gene expression