The Daily Transcript: Organelle Quiz

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Alex Palazzo is a postdoctoral fellow working in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School.

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« X-Ray Poetry | Main | To watch a strand of DNA replicating »

Organelle Quiz

Category: Misc
Posted on: March 27, 2006 1:19 PM, by Alex Palazzo

Want to be a Cell Biologist? Take a look at this phase image of a rat hepathocyte (liver cell) that I took sometime last year. Try to identify the three mystery organelles A through C

And to be totally clear:
A) The big blob in the lower right hand corner
B) The dark round organelles
C) The squiggles

Bonus question:
Which of these organelles contains DNA?

Comments

A) Mitochondrion
B) Ribosome
C) ER

Bonus: mitochondrion.

Posted by: RPM | March 27, 2006 1:43 PM

A) Not interesting.
B) Unbelievably interesting.
C) Moderately interesting.

Let's face it. If bacteria don't have it who really cares.

Posted by: BTM | March 27, 2006 3:02 PM

A) Mitochondrion B) Ribosome C) ER

Well that's 0 for 3. A hint - this is a phase light image using a 100X objective, not an EM micrograph. The image is about 100micrometers x 100micrometers.

Further hint, inspired by the comment by BTM - aka the rambler - one of these organelles was once a bacteria. (I guess that's like saying that RPM mislabeled an organelle).

Posted by: apalazzo | March 27, 2006 3:47 PM

A) nucleus
B) vesicles
C) mitochondria

bonus: A and C

Posted by: sp | March 27, 2006 4:05 PM

A) nucleus B) vesicles C) mitochondria
bonus: A and C

Good going sp, you got 2 out of 3 and the bonus. However the identity of (B) is still up for grabs. I must say that (B) is much bigger than any trafficking vesicle. Also (B) is found in every cell in your body.

Posted by: apalazzo | March 27, 2006 5:22 PM

B) Plastid

Not sure what kind, but based on the size and the other rule-outs, that's my best guess.

I was right about A)mitochondria as well but have been scooped.

Posted by: Honeybee | March 27, 2006 6:51 PM

b) peroxisome

Posted by: sp | March 27, 2006 7:11 PM

Not a biologist, but it looks like the first answer is right.

Although A can be a number of things since it just looks like a blob. Since it's in a mammal cell, it would have to be a mitochondrion.

So,

A> mito
B> ribo
C> ER

A> can't be the nucleus because isn't the nucleus that big Jupiter looking thing at the top?

Posted by: Jason | March 27, 2006 8:10 PM

Hi Jason,

Nice of you to try your luck. But I'm sorry RPM was off the mark. I took the picture and deal with these guys on a day to day basis. I'll try to post other cell images in the future where the nucleus is obvious. If it's any consolation, your guesses are just as good as those of a Caltech prof.

As for peroxisome it's a better guess than plastid. (B) is related to the peroxisome, but in much higher abundance. On secon thought some of those black dots may be peroxisomes, I'll have to look that up. In any case most black dots are something else so (B) is still up for grabs.

Posted by: apalazzo | March 27, 2006 8:54 PM

B) microsomes?

I'm guessing, but you did say this was a hepatocyte.

Posted by: qetzal | March 27, 2006 11:17 PM

endosomes?

Posted by: phishstyx42 | March 28, 2006 1:05 AM

Nope and Nope.

And Jason Re: Jupiter. I now see why you wrote that. The outline of that big Jupiter like thing is just the edge of the cell. It's open space.

Posted by: apalazzo | March 28, 2006 9:11 AM

darn it! are the lysosomes?

Posted by: sp | March 29, 2006 9:56 PM

uh, do I lose points for not being able to type?

Posted by: sp | March 29, 2006 11:10 PM

Sp you finally got it! Good work. (Due to your persistence, I'll overlook the typo)

Don't forget, just as you need to run to the bathroom a hand full of times a day to clear out all the junk that you produce, so do your cells. (For all you non-biologists, this clearing - actually recycling - is accomplished in part by lysosomes.) Although you don't hear much about them, all our cells are loaded with lysosomes. Yeast have only one lysosome, and it's so big that it's something else entirely, the vacuole - the biggest organelle in that organism. Peroxisomes are related to lysosomes so your early guess wasn't too far off the mark.

Posted by: apalazzo | March 30, 2006 7:37 AM

Yay! I actually am a fairly used to looking at yeast cells, so I'm much more used to the vacuole.....at least that's what I'll blame it on.

Posted by: sp | March 30, 2006 11:58 AM

ALL I NEED IS THE ANSWER WERE IS IT LOL ITS FOR MY HOMEWORK!!!

Posted by: kate .. | October 13, 2008 2:45 PM