II. THE EUKARYOTIC CELL

A. EUKARYOTIC CELL STRUCTURE

4. Other Internal Membrane-Bound Organelles: an Overview

 

The cell is the basic unit of life. Based on the organization of their cellular structures, all living cells can be divided into two groups: prokaryotic and eukaryotic (also spelled procaryotic and eucaryotic). Animals, plants, fungi, protozoans, and algae all possess eukaryotic cell types. Only bacteria have prokaryotic cell types.

Eukaryotic cells are generally much larger and more complex than prokaryotic. Because of their larger size, they require a variety of specialized internal membrane-bound organelles to carry out metabolism, provide energy, and transport chemicals throughout the cell.

Eukaryotic cells contain a variety of internal membrane-bound organelles that are not a part of the endomembrane system. These include mitochondria, chloroplasts, lysosomes, peroxisomes, vacuoles, and vesicles.

We will now look at the various membrane-bound organelles.

Gary E. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology
The Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://cwoer.ccbcmd.edu/science/microbiology/index_gos.html.