Cell Membrane Function

It is a common fact that cells are the fundamental building blocks of life. These structures form the basic structural and functional unit of any living thing. While some organisms, like bacteria are single-celled, most other living things are multicellular. In case of multicellular organisms like humans (an adult human has around 100 trillion cells in the body), there are various types of cells, which are assigned different functions. Each cell is made of intricate structures, which forms an interconnected network, which strives to carry out the function of that cell. As the nature of the function of the cells differ, the functions of various parts of the cells too differ. Let us take a look at the various parts of a cell, especially, the cell membrane and cell membrane function.

Cell Membrane and Other Parts of a Cell

Basically there are two types of cells - eukaryotic and prokaryotic. While plants, animals, fungi, protozoans, etc. possess eukaryotic cells, prokaryotic cells are found in bacteria only. The difference between the two types of cells lie in the fact that prokaryotic cells do not have nucleus (and/or some other organelles) and are comparatively smaller, as compared to eukaryotic ones. As far as eukaryotic cells are concerned, the basic structure includes parts like DNA, ribosomes, vesicle, endoplasmic reticulum (both rough and smooth), Golgi apparatus, cytoskeleton, mitochondria, vacuole, centrioles, lysosome, cytoplasm, plasma membrane and cell wall. While plant cells have a large vacuole and a definite cell wall, animal cells lack cell wall but some may have very small vacuoles. Animal cells do not have chloroplasts too. This article is about cell membrane, which is also known as plasma membrane or plasmalemma. Scroll down for information about cell membrane function.

What is a Cell Membrane?

Cell membrane or plasma membrane is one of the vital parts of a cell that encloses and protects the constituents of a cell. It separates the interior of a cell from outside environment. It is like a covering that encloses the different organelles of the cell and the fluid that harbors these organelles. To be precise, cell membrane physically separates the contents of the cell from the outside environment, but, in plants, fungi and some bacteria, there is a cell wall that surrounds the cell membrane. However, the cell wall acts as a solid mechanical support only. The actual function of cell membrane is the same in both cases and it is not much altered by the mere presence of a cell wall. The cell membrane is made of two layers of phospholipids and each phospholipid molecule has a head and a tail region. The head region is called hydrophilic (attraction towards water molecules) and the tail ends are known as hydrophobic (repels water molecules). Both layers of phospholipids are arranged so that the head regions form the outer and inner surface of the cell membrane and the tail ends come close in the center of the cell membrane. Other than phospholipids, cell membrane contains lots of protein molecules, which are embedded in the phospholipid layer. All these constituents of the cell membrane work jointly to carry out its function. The following paragraph deals with cell membrane function. Read more on cytoplasm function in a cell.

What is the Function of the Cell Membrane?

As mentioned above, one of the basic functions of a cell membrane is to act like a protective outer covering for the cell. Apart from this, there are many other important cell membrane functions, that are vital for the functioning of the cell. The following are some of the cell membrane functions.

• Cell membrane anchors the cytoskeleton (a cellular 'skeleton' made of protein and contained in the cytoplasm) and gives shape to the cell.
• Cell membrane is responsible for attaching the cell to the extracellular matrix (non living material that is found outside the cells), so that the cells group together to form tissues.
• Another important cell membrane function is the transportation of materials needed for the functioning of the cell organelles. Cell membrane is semi permeable and controls the in and out movements of substances. Such movement of substances may be either at the expense of cellular energy or passive, without using cellular energy.
• The protein molecules in the cell membrane receive signals from other cells or the outside environment and convert the signals to messages, that are passed to the organelles inside the cell.
• In some cells, the protein molecules in the cell membrane group together to form enzymes, which carry out metabolic reactions near the inner surface of the cell membrane.
• The proteins in the cell membrane also help very small molecules to get themselves transported through the cell membrane, provided, the molecules are traveling from a region with lots of molecules to a region with less number of molecules.

Now, you have a basic idea about cell membrane and cell membrane functions. In short, cell membrane is one of the vital parts of a cell, that has important functions.