Cellular Landscapes

The cellular network/landscapes describe the cellular structures and functions including adhesion, Mitochondria, Nucleus, Receptors, the nuclear pore complex (NPC), double bilayer nuclear membrane, chromatin, and other nuclear proteins, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi and post-Golgi trafficking, cytoskeleton, and the endo-lysosomal compartment.

Cells have elaborated an elegant cytoplasmic membrane system composed of the nuclear envelope, ER, Golgi apparatus, and associated endocytotic, endosomal, lysosomal, and secretory vesicles and compartments. These membranes serve to both organize and compartmentalize biochemical reactions involved in protein and lipid synthesis, targeting, and secretion. Also, an enormous number of biochemical reactions can be carried out and coordinated in order to obtain and convert energy to usable forms, break down and interconvert organic molecules to synthesize needed components, sense and respond to environmental and internal stimuli, regulate gene activity, sense and repair damage to structural and genomic elements, and grow and reproduce within these cellular networks. This level of complexity requires that biochemical reactions be highly organized and compartmentalized, and this is the major function of cell organelles and the cytoskeleton.