HW #5- JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE CELL

Well here we go.....I look at the cell like a working factory so I thought I would be a factory worker and take you on a tour. So first we arrive at the gates to the property that houses the factory and I have to show them my badge in order to proceed. They are very selective about who comes and goes through these gates; it functions like the cell membrane. After we park our car, we walk to the front of the factory and the walls are tall and there are doors to enter and exit it works like the cell wall, keeping the structure yet allows things in and out of the cell. Once inside I see the restrooms and I need to use it so I enter it and realize that it functions like the central vacuole in a cell, it houses the waste that may be harmful to the cell. On the way through I see the solar panels that capture the energy and supply it to the factory much like the chloroplast in the cell. There are maintenance workers all around cleaning and getting rid of old things that the factory no longer needs, this is like the lysosomes in the cell. As we look around the ceilings are high and the outer walls are strong they function like the cytoskeleton of the cell. We are getting a little gooey as we walk around it is the cytoplasm that is like the factory floor, it is where most of the activity takes place. Next we see mitochondria it is like the boilers or the main powerhouse of the factory. It transforms one form of energy into another. There are the forklifts, I will give you a ride on one later, and the vesicles are the forklifts in the factory. They move items to different departments within the factory. There are also conveyer belts every, the Golgi apparatus is like the finishing/packaging department in the factory. It moves the products that have been built to other locations for use or export. This is the assembly line in the factory. This is where the workers do their work. In the cell it would be called rough endoplasmic reticulum. There are even more conveyer belts, the smooth endoplasmic reticulum is the conveyer belt in a factory. It transports through a network to the different areas of processing in the factory. Before we go any farther we need to stop by the personnel department. There are chromosomes everywhere. They are like the personnel files that the CEO keeps. Chromosomes keep the important information safe and organized. Before we can talk to the CEO we need to get through the extra security measures the factory takes to protect what is inside. This functions like the nuclear envelope. Hurry up we need to take the elevator to the next level to meet the CEO. The nuclear pore is like an elevator it lets things pass between floors but if you are not in before the door closes then you don’t get to pass. This has been a tiring day but we made it, you get to meet the CEO of my factory, the nucleus is like the CEO of the factory. He is the one in charge of running the factory. Now you can tell him how bad you want to become a worker in his factory and hopefully he will let you become ribosome.