Lecture #1 - Strategies for Cell Biology Flashcards
Cell membrane
Lipid bilayer driven together by hydrophobic effect
Hydrophobic effect - hide the hydropobic fatty acid tails from the outside
Often have integral membrane proteins that cross the bilayer and bound peripheral proteins
Cell Membrane Peripheral proteins
- Can be bound directly to the lipid head by charge
- Can have soluble protein with lipid group that can intercalate into membrane
What surrounds/seperayes organelles
Cell is defined by membrane compartments
There are membranes surrounding all organelles that separate the organelles from one another in a cell (Ex. Membrane around golgi + membrane around mitocondria etc.)
EXCEPTION - Biological condensates us liquid phase seperation (condesates are beleived to be functioning organelles)
Non-ionic detergents Vs. Ionic Detergents
Non-ionic detergents (triton X) –> disrupts the lipid bilayer (makes micelles)
- Gentle –> does NOT destroy the structure of proteins or interactions with one another
Ionic (SDS) –> destroys the lipid bilayer AND will denature proteins
- Lose protein-protein interactions + lose the structure of proteins
Plant Vs. Animal Cell Cell Compartments
Animal cell (left) ; Plant cell (right)
- Plant cell = has cell wall + chlroplorast
How do we know the structure of cels
1670 – can see cells BUT the details of cell compartments was found in 1960s
1960s – used electron microscope to see cells in detailed (High resolution of cell structure )
Subcellular Fraction - Use
Method for purifying organelles in order to study them (function, localization of protein, reconstitute fave process in vitro)
Process:
Start with whole cell lysate –> Disrupt cell without detergents (membrane and organelles stay intact) + add homogenization buffer for osmotic support (mimic osmotic strength of cytosol) –> break open cell and organelles spill out –> centrifuge at different speeds to collect organelles based on size
Ex - Where is my protein of interest in the cell?
Subcellular Fractionition centrifugation
When centrifuge organelles the larger and more dense go down faster
Organelles have different densities = can seperate them
Example – Nuclei go to pellet –> then take the supernatnet and spin again and the mitocondria will go to pellet etc.
- Order – broken cells –> nuceli –> mitocondra/lysosomes/peroxisone sediment –> plasma memebrane and ER sediment –> ribosomes sediment (in cytosol)
In subcellular Fractionatiion organelles are seperated by
Velocity gradient Vs. isopycnic
Veolicity Gradient = seperates based on size
Isopynic Gradinet = sucrose gradnient (isolates based on density)
- Needed to separate mitochondria from lysosomes and peroxisomes
Co-Immunoprecipitation - Use + Process
Use - to know which proteins interact with other proteins in cells + purify protein of interest
Process - –Add AB for a protein of interest to whole cell lysate –> add beads for AB –> IF the protein is bound to other proteins in a complex when you centrifuge the protein of interst bound to the bead you will get the protein of interest and the other proteins that it is bound to
Co-IP for proteins in membrane
Need to keep the protein complex in tact
IF the complex is in the membrane then you need to free the proteins from the membrane and add a non-ionic detergent because Ionic would separate the proteins from the binding partners
What do you run for Co-IP
Cell with protein and cell without protein (control) –> run a gel to separate the proteins in pellet
Gel:
- See that there is a lot of non-sepcifc binding (have bands in the cell without protein – would ignore those in the ‘cells with protein’ lane)
- See protein of interest (indicated by purple dot) in cell with protein lane + get other bands that are NOT in cell without protein –> THOSE proteins are likely in a complex with the protein of interest
Proximity labeling - Use
Label proteins that tanseintley intercat with protein of interest (find binding partners and protein – protein interactions)
Proximity labeling - Process
Process – Bait protein is fused gentically to enzyme (BirA) that biotynylates nearby proteins when biotin is added –> BirA adds biotin to nearby proteins –> run recation for some time –> stop reaction –> NOW have protein that is covalent bonded to biotin
Once have biotin bound to proteins – use Ionic detergents to separate the proteins –> immunoprecipiate the proteins using biotin –> separate the proteins and identify the proteins that were close to the protein of interest
- Can separate the proteins because the proteins are already taged with the covalent tag
Pulse-Chase labeling - Use
Use - Following proteins around a cell (looking to see if the protein is moving) + can see if something is post-translatinoally modified
- Trace DNA or RNA or Protein turnover/movement in cells
Example – labeling proteins –> Protein is first seen in the ER –> THEN the radioactivty is in the golgo –> THEN the portein becomes glycosylated
Overall:
Pulse with radioactive molecule
Chase with unlabeled molecule
Pulse-Chase labeling - Process
Process – Add radioactive labeled molecule to the cell (Ex. Add radioactive amino acid if studying protein) –> keep labeled molecule for some period of time and then remove/stop adding –> NOW proteins syntehsized during that period of time is labeled –> immunopurify and use autoradiography tp detect the labeled protein
LIMITATION - Can see levels of a protein increase or decrease but this does not tell you whether its being degraded more or snthesised less
Gold standrad for showing that you understand a biological process
Do in vitro reconstitution - be able to make the process happen from purified proteins
In Vitro Reconstitution
In Vitro Reconstitution = make the process happen from purified proteins (reconstitute protein action in an isolaed organelle)
- Only been done a few times ; in most cases the process is too complicated (only works if there are not too many proteins involoved)
Ex Na-K ATPase
In vitro reconstitution process
- Solubilize cell or organelle with non-ionic detergent (keeps Na+-K+ ATPase complex intact)
- Purify protein complex
- Reconstitute - remove detergent & mix with lipids to form artificial membranes (with Na+-K+ ATPase)
In vitro reconstitution Sucess
Examples:
1. Actin Polymerization and filaments formation –> You can push a bead around in test tube by mixing 5 proteins togther
2. Antigen presentation – can get rid of the APC by putting the proteins that are important for antigen presentation into artificial lipid bilayer and have T/B cell interact with that and get formation of immunological synapse
3. Giant lipid bilayers
4. MinD and MinE proteins in bacteria –> Can add MinE and MinD in well shaped line bacteria –> proteins will undergo this oscelation pattern on the glass slide
What biological process has NMOT be reconstutted in vitro (options - Actin polymerization + DNA synethesis + Cell motility + protein synthesis)
Work horse of cell biology
Imaging
Light Microscopy
Can see cells + Can see organelles (Ex. Mitocondria) + can see structures/nucleus
- Can see ribsomes under favorbale conditions (hard to see because they are below 0.2 micrometers)
LIMITATION - only good until 200 nm (0.2 micrometeres)
Image - shows the size of things you can image
Microscope history
1630 – first microscope (1 lense)
1645 – Made compound microscope (uses 2 lenses) –> 2 lenses allowed for an increase in magnification to be able to see better
1670 – Robert Hook looked at Cork –> called the units in cork ‘cells’ = dawn of cell biology
1980 – New microscopes –> Now have 3 objectives and can be higher power BUT still not that different
- In 1980 started having CV cameras to record image and put the image on a computer –> AFTER THIS things stared to evolove more
2010 – imaging takes off –> Have tables with optics and computational analysis
How does light microscope work
Light microscopes - look at the absorbance of light by the cell
Does not look good in unstained cell (just looking at the light absorbed by an unstained cell does not look good) –> MEANS light microscopy is often used for histology (USED ON FIXED CELLS)
- Used to stain for organelles in different colors
Phase contrast microscopy
How does it work - Looks at index of refraction in different parts of the cell
Use - Look at live cells
Image - shows different wave patterns in stained vs. Unstained cell
Difference interference contrast (DIC)
How does it work - looks at gradient of index of refraction (Looks at how index changes across different areas )
Use - Looks at living cell + Gives 3D image
Limitation of Phase contrast + DIC
Limitation of DIC and phase contrast = often want to look at molecules within cels NOT cells themselves –> where fluorescence comes in
Fluorescence
Fluorescence – when somethings is excited with a wL of light and it emits a different color
How does it work - Molecule can absrob wL of color –> once absorb color the electronic structures are pushed up to excited state –> then the electronic structures have decay from excitation –> big decay to ground state causes emission of light
Fluorescent exitation vs. emission wL
Exitation = always higher energy than emission because of decay
MEANS WL of excitation is shorter (ex. 450) and frequencey is higher
- wL of emission in this case = 550
Stock shift
Stock shift – Shift to longer wL for emission (Ex. Absribes in blue range and then emits in green/ywllow range)
- ALL flourescent molelecules have shift to longer wL for emission
All fluorescent molecules use this principle in different colors
- Example – FITC = exicted by blue light and emits green light VS. DAPI is excited by UV light and emits violet light
Upright Floruesnece microscope - Heart if the microscope
Heart of microscope = Dicromatic mirror
Dichrmatic mirror (beam splitting mirror) –> coated glass that reflects the blue light it was excited with
Ex – IF the molecule is excited with blue light and emits green light –> Glass is place diagnolaly so the blue light is refected onto specifimen –> IF there is floruaphore in the specimen that is excited by the blue light THEN it will emit a green light –> The mirror use will be transparent to let the green light through = can see the emission of the green light
- END - Mirror won’t let any blue light to transmit ; will only let the green light transit
What is needed for each flouraphore in Upright Floruesnece microscope
Need a different mirror for each flouraphore
Black cubes = go into microscopes and adapts the microscope for each floruaphore
- Have barrier filters + the mirror in the middle of the cube –> all 3 are in 1 cube
Additional components in Upright Florescent microscope
Barrier filters
- Excitation filter - If have blue +white + green + red light and want to bring the blue light in THEN use barrier filter to only allow blue light through
- Emission filter (cleanup filter) – only lets green through
NOW use lasers to clean up light emission/excitation = don’t need barrier filter
Example image from Upright Florescent microscope
Image has multiple colors BUT in reality this is NOT done with color cameras
Use 1 filter for flourphore for tubules –> get 1 black and white inage + use 1 filter for floraphore for DNA and get balck and wite picture + use 1 floraphore for histones and get balck and white picture –> END get 3 black and white pictures from the 3 filter cubes –> THEN false color the images and overlay them
Confocal Flourescent Microscope Vs. Normal microscopes
Normal imaging – get light from all planes of cell (all layers of cell)
Confocal – bring light in through a small pinhole to focus the light on one plane in cell THEN when you look at emission signal you have another pinhole that blocks everything going to the detector
- Emitted florusnce from an in focus point is focused at the pin hole and will reach the detector BUT a light from out-of-focus point is out of focus of pinhole and is excluded from the detector
What is seen from confocal
ONLY see slice of cell (NOT the whole cell)
- Tyoically see 1 micron slice ; cell is 20 microns in height = need 20 slices
Can adjust where the pinhole is – can move slice through –> Can make 3D reconstruction of cell