Teoría celular 01

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Main article: Cell theory

The concept of the cell as an anatomical and functional unit of organisms arose between the
years 1830 and 1880, although it was in the 17th century when Robert Hooke first described
their existence, when observing the presence of a structure in a plant preparation.
organization that derived from the architecture of plant cell walls. In 1830, microscopes with
more advanced optics were already available, which allowed researchers such as Theodor
Schwann and Matthias Schleiden to define the postulates of the cell theory, which states,
among other things:

That the cell is a morphological unit of all living beings: that is, that in living beings everything
is made up of cells or their secretion products.

This first postulate would be completed by Rudolf Virchow with the statement Omnis cellula ex
cellula, which indicates that every cell derives from a preceding cell (biogenesis). In other
words, this postulate constitutes the refutation of the theory of spontaneous generation or ex
novo, which hypothesized the possibility that life was generated from inanimate elements.13

A third postulate of the cell theory indicates that the vital functions of organisms occur within
cells, or in their immediate environment, and are controlled by substances that they secrete.
Each cell is an open system, which exchanges matter and energy with its environment. In a cell
all the vital functions occur, so that only one of them is enough for there to be a living being.

as the morphological and functional unit of all living beings. In fact, the cell is the smallest
element that can be considered alive. As such, it has a phospholipid membrane with selective
permeability that maintains an internal environment that is highly ordered and differentiated
from the external environment in terms of its composition, subject to homeostatic control,
which consists of biomolecules and some metals and electrolytes. The structure is actively self-
maintaining through metabolism, ensuring the coordination of all cellular elements and its
perpetuation by replication through a nucleic acid-encoded genome. The part of biology that
deals with it is cytology.

Characteristic

Cells, as complex thermodynamic systems, have a series of common structural and functional
elements that enable their survival; however, the different cell types present modifications of
these common characteristics that allow their functional specialization and, therefore, the gain
in complexity.15 In this way, cells remain highly organized at the cost of increasing the entropy
of the environment, one of the requirements of life.16

structural features
The existence of polymers such as cellulose in the plant wall makes it possible to support the
cell structure using an external framework.

Individuality: All cells are surrounded by an envelope (which can be a naked lipid bilayer, in
animal cells; a polysaccharide wall, in fungi and plants; an outer membrane and other
elements that define a complex wall, in Gram-negative bacteria; a peptidoglycan wall, in Gram-
positive bacteria; or a wall of varied composition, in archaea)9 that separates them and
communicates with the outside, that controls cell movements and that maintains membrane
potential.

They contain an internal aqueous medium, the cytosol, which forms the majority of the cell
volume and in which the cell organelles are immersed.

They have genetic material in the form of DNA, the hereditary material of genes, which
contains the instructions for cell function, as well as RNA, so that the former is expressed.17

They have enzymes and other proteins, which support, along with other biomolecules, an
active metabolism.

functional characteristics

Three-dimensional structure of an enzyme, a type of protein involved in cell metabolism.

Living cells are a complex biochemical system. The characteristics that allow us to differentiate
cells from non-living chemical systems are:

Nutrition. Cells take substances from the environment, transform them from one form to
another, release energy and eliminate waste products through metabolism.

Growth and multiplication. Cells are capable of directing their own synthesis. As a result of
nutritional processes, a cell grows and divides, forming two cells, in a cell identical to the
original cell, through cell division.

Differentiation. Many cells can undergo changes in form or function in a process called cell
differentiation. When a cell differentiates, some substances or structures are formed that were
not previously formed and others that were, stop being formed. Differentiation is often part of
the cell cycle in which cells form specialized structures related to reproduction, dispersal, or
survival.

Signaling. Cells respond to chemical and physical stimuli both from the external environment
and from within and, in the case of mobile cells, towards certain environmental stimuli or in
the opposite direction through a process called chemotaxis. In addition, cells can frequently
interact or communicate with other cells, generally through signals or chemical messengers,
such as hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors... in multicellular beings in complicated
processes of cellular communication and signal transduction.

Evolution. Unlike inanimate structures, unicellular and multicellular organisms evolve. This
means that there are heritable changes (occurring at low frequency in all cells on a regular
basis) that can influence the overall adaptation of the cell or of the higher organism in a
positive or negative way. The result of evolution is the selection of those organisms best
adapted to live in a particular environment.

Cellular properties do not have to be constant throughout the development of an organism:

evidently, the expression pattern of genes varies in response to external stimuli, as well as
endogenous factors.18 An important aspect to control is pluripotency, characteristic of some
cells that allows them to direct their development towards a range of possible cell types. In
metazoans, the genetics underlying the determination of the fate of a cell consists in the
expression of determin

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Hand, most of the cells are microscopic, that is, they are not observable with the naked eye. (a
cubic millimeter of blood can contain about five million cells),15 Despite being very small, the
size of the cells is extremely variable. The smallest cell observed, under normal conditions,
corresponds to Mycoplasma genitalium, measuring 0.2 μm, being close to the theoretical limit
of 0.17 μm.22 There are bacteria with 1 and 2 μm in length. Human cells are highly variable: 7
micron red blood cells, 20 micron hepatocytes, 53 μm spermatozoa, 150 μm ovules, and even
some neurons around a meter in length. In plant cells, pollen grains can measure from 200 to
300 μm.

Regarding the larger cells; for example, the xenophiophores,23 are unicellular foraminifera
that have developed a large size, which reach macroscopic sizes (Syringammina fragilissima
reaches 20 cm in diameter).24

For the viability of the cell and its correct functioning, the surface-volume relationship must
always be taken into account.16 The volume of the cell can considerably increase and not its
membrane exchange surface, which would hinder the level and regulation of exchanges of
vital substances for the cell.

Regarding their shape, the cells present great variability, and some do not even have a well-
defined or permanent shape. They can be: fusiform (spindle-shaped), stellate, prismatic,
flattened, elliptical, globose or rounded, etc. Some have a rigid wall and others do not, which
allows them to deform the membrane and emit cytoplasmic processes (pseudopods) to move
or get food. There are free cells that do not show these displacement structures, but have cilia
or flagella, which are structures derived from a cell organelle (the centrosome) that gives these
cells movement.2 Thus, there are many cell types, related with the role they play; for instance:

Contractile cells that are usually elongated, such as skeletal myocytes.

Cells with fine extensions, such as neurons that transmit the nerve impulse.

Cells with microvilli or with folds, such as those of the intestine to enlarge the surface area for
contact and exchange of substances.
Cubic, prismatic, or flattened cells such as epithelial cells that line surfaces such as paving
slabs.

study of cells

Biologists use various instruments to gain insight into cells. They obtain information from their
shapes, sizes and components, which helps them to further understand the functions that are
carried out in them. Since the first observations of cells, more than 300 years ago, up to the
present time, techniques and devices have been perfected, giving rise to another branch of
Biology: microscopy.

Given the small size of the vast majority of cells, the use of the microscope is of enormous
value in biological research. Currently, biologists use two basic types of microscope: optical
and electronic.

the prokaryotic cell

Main article: Prokaryotic cell

Prokaryotic cells are small and less complex than eukaryotic cells. They contain ribosomes but
lack endomembrane systems (that is, organelles bounded by biological membranes, such as
the cell nucleus). Therefore they contain the genetic material into the cytosol. However, there
are exceptions: some photosynthetic bacteria have internal membrane systems.25 Also in the
Planctomycetes phylum there are organisms such as Pirellula that surround their genetic
material by an intracytoplasmic membrane and Gemmata obscuriglobus that surrounds it with
a double membrane. The latter also has other internal membrane compartments, possibly
connected to the outer membrane of the nucleoid and to the plasma membrane, which is not
associated with peptidoglycan.262728Studies carried out in 2017 show another particularity of
Gemmata: it has structures similar to the nuclear pore, in the membrane that surrounds its
nuclear body.29

In general, it could be said that prokaryotes lack a cytoskeleton. However, some bacteria, such
as Bacillus subtilis, have been found to possess proteins such as MreB and mbl that act in a
similar way to actin and are important in cell morphology.30 Fusinite van den Ent, in Nature,
goes further , stating that the actin and tubulin cytoskeletons are of prokaryotic origin.31

Of great diversity, prokaryotes support an extraordinarily complex metabolism, in some cases

exclusive to certain taxa, such as some groups of bacteria, which affects their ecological
versatility.13 Prokaryotes are classified, according to Carl Woese, into archaea and bacteria. 32

archaea

Main article: Archaea

Biochemical structure of the archaeal membrane (

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