Fragile cell walls

Let s begin on a small scale the architecture of cells. The cells of plants and bacteria have strong cell walls that provide for maintenance of shape and protection against ontside forces. The cells of animals, including those of the human body, in contrast, lack cell walls. Animal cells make do with a fragile cell membrane. Our cells, consequently, have need of an internal architecture to meet the needs supplied by cell walls in other life forms. Cells have three types of internal architectural elements microtubules, intermediate filaments, and actin filaments. Each of these structures is composed of protein. 

While Mg2+, Zn2+ and Ca2+ are all found in bacterial cell walls, Ca2+ seems to be of particular importance in stabilization, probably because of its special ability to bridge carboxylate groups. Incubation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa with EDTA removes the Ca2+ and gives osmotically fragile species, which can be restored by addition of Ca2+. 

They are enclosed with a delicate plasma membrane without the tough cell wall normally found in microorganisms or plant cells. As a result, they are fragile. 

Transfection, DNA uptake in eukaryotic systems, often is more problematic then bacterial transformation the mode of DNA uptake is poorly understood and efficiency is much lower. In yeast, cell walls can be digested with degradative enzymes to yield fragile protoplasts, which are then able to take up DNA. Cell walls are resynthesized after removal of the degrading enzymes. Mammalian cells take up DNA after precipitation onto their surface with calcium phosphate [Fugene 6 (Roche) Lipofectin (Life Technologies) Effectene (Qiagen)]. Electroporation is often more efficient for transfection in eukaryotic cell systems, especially in yeasts. 

Cells are broadly classified as either eukaryotes or prokaryotes (see Appendix 3). Both types have a membrane, known as the cytoplasmic or plasma membrane (see Appendix 3), that separates the internal medium (intracellular fluid) of the cell from the external medium (extracellular fluid). Cytoplasmic membranes may also divide the interior of a cell into separate compartments. In addition to the cytoplasmic membrane, the more fragile membranes of plants and bacteria are also protected by a rigid external covering known as a cell wall. The combination of cell wall and plasma membrane is referred to as the cell envelope (Appendix 2). 

Polymerized lipids do not occur in natural cell membranes. Nature tends to support fragile membrane structures with polymeric skeletons, i.e. protein cytoskeletons, polysaccharide cell walls etc. Analogous synthetic polymeric nets are simply constructed from polymerizable counterions. Negatively charged dihexadecyl phosphate vesicles can be neutralized with choline methacrylate polymerization of the latter produces a polycationic vesicle coat which is not inserted into the membrane (Figure 4.30). A cytoskeleton at the... 

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