Daily Newsletter January 24, 2012
Today's Topic: Cell Recognition and Cell Adhesion
Cells must have the ability to sense their environment, and part of this is to be able to sense and recognize other cells. In a multicellular organism, individual cells must be able to recognize other cells that are part of the same organism, and must be able to anchor to them. Mutlicellularity requires cells to be anchored to each other.
For example: Would you be able to move if your muscles were not somehow anchored to the bone? Would your skin be a defensive structure if it separated when you pulled it? Would your cardiovascular system be able to transport blood if there the pressure would rip open the vessels?
In terms of recognition, we also have to have the ability to determine if something is part of the "SELF" or foreign. We will find that the ability for cells to recognize each other will be an important concept in many areas of biology, most notably, immunology.
NOTE: For your notebook, you should keep a brief description of the three main cell junctions found in animals: tight junction, desmosome and gap junctions. They will come back up later.
Word of the Day: Glycoprotein.
This is a new feature for the newsletter. The word given is something that you should make sure you have in your notes. You do not need to add this to your blog, just make sure you know the term. In many cases, such as this, you may also want to look up some examples.
Daily Challenge: Recognition
As a focus on cellular recognition, you are to blog about the Major Histocompatability Complex. You can look up the word in the textbook index, or do a web search. As always, Wikipedia is a fine starting point (their article on MHC contains useful background information). The blog is to focus on the importance of cellular recognition, using MHC as the example. This example is very important, as it plays a major role in the immune system.
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