The Nucleus: The Essential Organelle in Eukaryotic Organisms

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WHICH ORGANELLE IS THE MOST CRUCIAL TO THE FUNCTION OF ORGANISMS?
ANU BHANDARY
The nucleus is a dark spot in the cell. The nucleus is a double membraned cell found in all eukaryotic organisms. It is the largest organelle in the cell, the location of the nucleus often varies but it is usually thought to be in the middle. On average, the nucleus is 5 µm in width. It contains all the DNA on inside of the cell which is responsible for all hereditary information. The nucleus, as mentioned above is a double-membraned organelle. It has an inner and outer membrane which are away from each other by about 20 to 40 µm (All Answers Ltd., 2015). The outer membrane of the nucleus is attached to the endoplasmic reticulum. The outer membrane helps to keep …show more content…

Nuclear pores allow for molecules to be able to transport between the nucleus and the rest of the cell (Wiley, 2014). Inside the nucleus is the nucleoplasm. Nucleoplasm is a lot like the cytoplasm in cells in the sense that it is made of predominately water, proteins, RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). However, the difference between the two being that nucleoplasm contains materials that help prepare DNA and RNA (InnovateUs, Inc., 2013). The cell nucleus also contains chromatin, which is a factor of creating chromosomes. The very middle of the cell is the nucleolus which is the structure that the nucleoplasm is surrounding. The nucleolus is the structure that is responsible for assembling ribosomes. In between the chromatin and the inner membrane is the …show more content…

The nuclear lamina as stated before is structure that exists in between the chromatin and the inner membrane. It is responsible for keeping the structure of the nuclear envelope as well maintaining the nuclear pore complexes, it also assists with DNA synthesis (NCBI, 2015). The nuclear lamina is also quite important to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) due to the fact the ER is found directly adjacent to the nucleus. The ER can come in two forms: Rough ER and Smooth ER. The rough ER and smooth ER have different functions. The rough ER has ribosomes attached to its outer surface, hence why it is called rough (Britannica, 2016). The rough ER is generally adjacent to the cell nucleus and specialises in the production of proteins. Then those proteins go to their intended places, for example, some proteins may go to the nucleus whilst others go to mitochondria (Swafford, 2016). The smooth ER, on the other hand, specialises in the production of lipids or fat. Without the nucleus’ nuclear lamina, the structural framework for not only the nucleus is compromised but also the structure of the ER. Without the ER it would be impossible to synthesise lipids and

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