Cellular Life Processes

G.BurgessUpdated 2010.

Life Processes

The life processes of cells is similar to all other living organisms.

The following slides will give an inside view of each of the associated processes

Brief descriptions and images from Biodidac (An image library

devoted to producing images for instructional purposes)

Each Term that is underlined has a link to an image or animation from other websites to help with the descriptions.

Nutrition

1. Ingestion: term meaning to bring in food.1. Cells may absorb chemical or dissolved materials.2. Cells may bring in larger quantities or solid

materials by endocytosis2. Endocytosis: the pinching of the cell membrane to form a

vacuole that surrounds the material that is ingested.1. Endocytosis of solids = phagocytosis2. Endocytosis of liquids = pinocytosis

Digestion

Cells use lysosomes to help with digestion Lysosomes are vessicles that contain digestive/

hydrolytic enzymes that breakdown larger molecules into smaller more useable ones.

Excretion

The getting rid of metabolic wastes is performed in the reverse of the nutrition processes.

Materials diffuse from within the cell to the outer environment

Larger quantities may be gotten rid of through exocytosis (the reverse of endocytosis)

Transport

The movement of materials or cellular structures1. Cyclosis: (cytoplasmic streaming) circulating of the

cytoplasm within the cell.2. Cillia: used for locomotion and moving food materials into

the cell.3. Flagellum: used or locomotion and moving fluids through

multicellular organisms.