Friday, June 15, 2007

Animal Cell Model

My cell model resembles a working animal cell. It has almost the same working functions in it as a human cell. To start off I would like to take a look at the red ball that is to resemble the nucleus. Inside that is the nucleolus which are what the white beads are to stand for. Then we have the white outer core of the cell and that is to be the cell membrane.
The cytoplasm is semi fluid outside the nucleus which is resembled by the white area you can view from the top of the model.
Vesicles are membrane-bounded sac that stores and transports substances and are the blue beads
Microtubules are cylinders of protein molecules present in cytoplasm, the orange chenille are microtubules.
Intermediate filaments are protein fibers that provide support and strength, these are the yellow chenille’s
Action filaments are protein fibers that play a role in movement of cell and organelles, which are represented by the green chenille’s
Centrioles are short cylinders of microtubules of unknown function, the macaroni shows these
Coatrooms are microtubules organizing center that contains a pair of centrioles , these are resembled by the crossed macaroni
Lysosome is a vesicle that digest macromolecules and even cell parts, these are the green beads
Rough endoplasmic reticulum is just studded with ribosomes, this is the brown chenille
Smooth endoplasmic reticulum lacks ribosomes, synthesizes lipid molecules, these are the blue chenilles
Ribosomes are particles that carry out protein synthesis, they are the purple beads
Mitochondrion, organelle that carry out cellular respiration producing ATP molecules, black chenilles
Polyribosome, string of ribosomes simultaneously synthesizing same protein, pink beads
Golgi apparatus, processes, packages, and secretes modified cell products, pink chenille
Nuclear envelope, double membrane with nuclear pores that enclose nucleus, red outer rim
Chromatin, diffuse threads containing DNA and protein, white chenilles
Nucleolus, region that produces subunits of ribosomes, white beads

This is a top view of the nucleus. The whites beads are to resemble the nucleolus. The white chenilles are the chromatin.


This is the side view and I tried to get as many ribosomes to stay on the outer side as I could but as you can see there are a few so please recognize that there are more ribosomes on the out side of the nucleus.


This top view is the centrioles, centrosomes, lysosomes, rough endoplasmic reticulum, microtubules, intermediate filaments, actin filaments, and the polyribosome. Here I tried to use as much color to show just how much there really is that goes on inside a cell.

This was a little bit difficult but I got as close as I could get it. The pick chenille that you are looking at is the Golgi apparatus with the vesicles running between it ( the blue beads). The black blob you see is the mitochondrion, there isn’t as much detail in this picture as there is here looking at it.

Finally this is the top view of the cell. If I was not clear please ask question... if i did not do it right or you would like to see something else next time or even now please, please, please let me know.


This model, even though its like a sixth grader did it helped me to understand all the parts of a cell so much better. The different colors of chenilles help me remember that their functions are different then the beads in a way that I remember what they look like. The nucleus is the biggest part of a cell and almost like a brain. It almost is the main picture to a puzzle and all the other pieces are just the back ground to the picture.

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