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Functions Of The Nucleus: What Does The “Cell Control Centre” Do?

Did you know that the nucleus, which has a diameter of approximately 10 micrometers, contains almost 6 feet, i.e., about 2m of DNA? Comparing the size of the nucleus to the length of the DNA would be like juxtaposing a blueberry to a rollercoaster. Regardless of its small size, the nucleus is the cell’s control center... No matter how small it may be, the cell nucleus plays a huge role in our body. Among a myriad of significant roles it has, some of its most important functions include: Controlling the synthesis, i.e., the creation of proteins... Storing the deoxyribonucleic acid — the DNA... Controlling the process of mitosis! During mitosis...

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 The Thing Inside Your Cells That Might Determine How Long You Live

You may have forgotten about the nucleolus since you took biology class, but scientists think this structure inside every cell in your body may play an important role in aging. You may have forgotten this from biology class, but the nucleolus is the cell’s ribosome factory. Ribosomes are like micro-machines that make proteins that cells then use for purposes like building walls, forming hairs, making memories, communicating and starting, stopping and slowing down reactions that help a cell stay functioning. It uses about 80 percent of a cell’s energy for this work. But there’s more to the nucleolus than just making ribosomes. If building a cell were like building a building, and the DNA contained the blueprint, the nucleolus would be the construction manager or engineer. “It knows the supply chain, coordinates all the jobs of building, does quality control checks and makes sure things continue to work well,” said Dr. Antebi.

Articles of Interest

Cells can do the twist, but sometimes their nuclei burst

Crawling through tight spaces tears the membrane around the cell nucleus.

Cells cram DNA into the nucleus in two distinct ways

Some chromosomes look like crumpled balls while others resemble flat sheets of paper, heat maps show

Did Viruses Create the Nucleus? The Answer May Be Near

Different as the cells from animals, plants, fungi and protozoa can be, they all share one prominent feature: a nucleus. They have other organelles, too, like the energy-producing mitochondria, but the presence of a nucleus — a well-defined porous pouch full of genetic material — is what inspired the biologist Édouard Chatton in 1925 to coin the term eukaryotes, which referred to living things with a “true kernel.” All the rest he labeled prokaryotes, for life “before kernel.” This dichotomy between nucleated and nonnucleated life became fundamental to biology. No one knows exactly how the nucleus evolved and created that division. Growing evidence has persuaded some researchers, however, that the nucleus might have arisen through a symbiotic partnership much like the one believed to have produced mitochondria. A crucial difference, though, is that the partner responsible for the nucleus might not have been a cell at all, but a virus.

Functional organization and dynamics of the cell nucleus

The eukaryotic cell nucleus enclosed within the nuclear envelope harbors organized chromatin territories and various nuclear bodies as sub-nuclear compartments. This higher-order nuclear organization provides a unique environment to regulate the genome during replication, transcription, maintenance, and other processes

Have Nucleus, Will Travel (in Three Dimensions)

Scientists have known for some time that the nucleus is involved in moving cells across a flat surface—it slides to one side of the cell and “pushes” from behind. However, scientists have also shown that cells with their nuclei removed can migrate along a flat surface just as well as their brethren with intact nuclei. But they had no idea that, without a nucleus, a cell could no longer move in three dimensions.

Kinky genes: how we fit three metres of DNA into a cell nucleus

When scientists first decided to sequence the human genome, it seemed an impossibly large and complicated challenge. A decade since achieving this aim, scientists are faced with a similarly overwhelming challenge: understanding the folding of a human’s entire genetic data into a tiny cell nucleus.

New Clue on How and When Cells with Nuclei First Evolved

Of course, all organelles are not born equal. Or rather, all organelles do not die and decay at the same time as others. Nuclei decay quicker than chloroplasts. Pyrenoids decay even quicker but leave behind spaces within fossilized chloroplasts from which their presence could be inferred.

New Study Suggests Memories are Stored in Cell Nucleus

"It's like riding a bike!" The familiar adage is often used to explain the ability to remember how to do something a person may have not done in years. Once the action is started, it becomes familiar and the task is again mastered as the person draws from his or her memories. However, new research suggests that those memories may not, in fact, be stored where scientists originally thought..

Nucleus Size Matters

Biological functioning of living cells depends on a complex interaction between a large number of subcellular components that must coexist in a highly crowded cellular space. Yet, the basic principles of cell space distribution between each cell component and the potential role of such a space allocation in modulating the behavior of living cells remain largely unknown.

Scientists find signals that make cell nucleus blow up like a balloon

The size of a cell's nucleus varies from one species to another, in different cell types, and even with disease: many cancer cells develop larger nuclei as they become more malignant.

Scientists map the portal to the cell’s nucleus

Like an island nation, the nucleus of a cell has a transportation problem. Evolution has enclosed it with a double membrane, the nuclear envelope, which protects DNA but also cuts it off from the rest of the cell. Nature’s solution is a massive—by molecular standards—cylindrical configuration known as the nuclear pore complex, through which imports and exports travel, connecting the bulk of the cell with its headquarters.

See Inside Your Cells In A Whole New Way

Improved imaging technology helps scientists understand the relationship between a nucleus and the rest of the cell.

The cell nucleus: Dynamic interplay of shape and function

The nucleus has long fascinated cell biologists, due both to its conspicuous appearance and to its inclusion of the chromosomal DNA, making it the primary site of genome duplication and gene expression. While we have some grasp on the biochemistry of many individual nuclear processes, we are still learning how they are regulated and coordinated with each other.

The Nucleus Introduced

The nucleus was first observed 300 years ago, and research in the past century revealed many of its components. Only recently, however, have we begun to fully appreciate their dynamic, self-organizing behavior.

The nucleus serves as the pacemaker for the cell cycle

Mitosis is a dramatic process that affects all parts of the cell. It is driven by an oscillator whose various components are localized in the nucleus, centrosome, and cytoplasm. In principle, the cellular location with the fastest intrinsic rhythm should act as a pacemaker for the process.

The unique way this virus sneaks into a cell’s nucleus could advance the study of cancer-causing pathogens

The finding could help scientists figure out a mystery of basic cell biology, as well.

Why we should STOP teaching the nucleus is the control center of the cell

Why the nucleus isn’t King of the castle Ever since middle school when students learn about cells, they are taught that nucleus is the control center of the cell. They hear that the nucleus is “the brain” and in charge of all cell functions. When teachers do the cell-as-a-factory analogy, the nucleus ends up being the boss. This is not technically true… while the nucleus houses all the information the cell needs to complete different tasks, it isn’t in charge of when that information is used. We need to make sure students understand why cells do the things they do, and it all comes down to cell signaling.