Cellular Life Processes

1. Cellular Life Processes G.Burgess Updated 2010.

2. Life Processes • The life processes of cells is similar to all other living organisms. • The following slides will give an inside view of each of the associated processes • Brief descriptions and images from Biodidac (An image library devoted to producing images for instructional purposes) • Each Term that is underlined has a link to an image or animation from other websites to help with the descriptions.

3. Nutrition • Ingestion: term meaning to bring in food. • Cells may absorb chemical or dissolved materials. • Cells may bring in larger quantities or solid materials by endocytosis • Endocytosis: the pinching of the cell membrane to form a vacuole that surrounds the material that is ingested. • Endocytosis of solids = phagocytosis • Endocytosis of liquids = pinocytosis

4. Digestion • Cells use lysosomes to help with digestion • Lysosomes are vessicles that contain digestive/ hydrolytic enzymes that breakdown larger molecules into smaller more useable ones.

5. Excretion • The getting rid of metabolic wastes is performed in the reverse of the nutrition processes. • Materials diffuse from within the cell to the outer environment • Larger quantities may be gotten rid of through exocytosis (the reverse of endocytosis)

6. Transport • The movement of materials or cellular structures • Cyclosis: (cytoplasmic streaming) circulating of the cytoplasm within the cell. • Cillia: used for locomotion and moving food materials into the cell. • Flagellum: used or locomotion and moving fluids through multicellular organisms.