FREE ESSAY ON GOLGI APPARATUS

GOLGI APPARATUS

Golgi Apparatus
What's most important?
A? The Golgi apparatus consists of stacks of sacs with vesicles pinching off from the
edges of the sacs. 
A? The function of the Golgi is to package materials for export from the cell. 
Structure
Golgi apparatus (sometimes called the Golgi body) is similar to Endoplasmic
Reticulum(ER). Golgi apparatus consists of sacs (with a single membrane), which are
stacked like pancakes. Closely associated with the edges of the flattened sacs you will
see vesicles, which have pinched off from the Golgi. 
Function
The function of Golgi apparatus is two-fold: First modification of lipids and proteins;
Second storage and packaging of materials that will be exported from the cell. The Golgi
apparatus is often called the shipping department of the cell. The vesicles that pinch
off from the Golgi apparatus move to the cell membrane and the material in the vesicle is
released to the outside of the cell. Some of these pinched off vesicles also become
lysosomes. 
Details
Who was Golgi? The Golgi from Golgi apparatus was an Italian physician and biologist who
studied cell structures with a light microscope. Camillo Golgi discovered these
structures in 1898, there was some controversy surrounding this organelle, many biologist
did not believe that they really existed. The invention of the electron microscope showed
that the Golgi apparatus were actually there. Golgi received a Nobel Prize in 1906, not
for the discovery of Golgi apparatus, but for his work on the cellular structure of the
nervous system. His name is also associated with two other structures, the Golgi cell and
the Golgi tendon organ. 
Golgi Bodies can be considered the final packaging location for proteins and lipids. Each
Golgi body consists of flattened membrane sacs. It is within the flattened membrane sacs
that enzymes ready these proteins and lipids for shipment to specific locations. Vesicles
form at the final region of a Golgi body when parts of the membrane begin to bulge. These
vesicles then break away, via exocytosis, for the transport of these proteins and lipids
to their final destination. 
Think of Golgi bodies as Post Offices. Just as a letter is taken to the post office to be
mailed to another location, proteins and lipids are transported to the Golgi body for
shipment to other locations in the body. Within the Golgi body (or Golgi apparatus),
these proteins and lipids are labeled with sequences of molecules (an address), which
tell the body where these products should be delivered.