Hey fellow researchers,
one of the first things you learn as biologist is the structure of the cell. So basically, every biologist should be skilled in the basic terms. But I encounter very often (even in very high ranking journals, including Nature, Science and Cell) the mix-up of cytoplasm and cytosol.
The definitions, as far as I know, are very clear.
The cytoplasm is the complete content of the cell surrounded by the plasma membrane, which includes the cytosol and ALL membran-enclosed organelles (with excpetion of the nucleus), as well as solutes, the cytoskeleton with all components, ribosomes and so on.
The cytosol is the fluid phase of the cytoplasm without the membrane-enclosed organelles.
So the cytoplasm includes the cytosol but not vice versa. Therefore, sentences like "Protein X was detected in the cytoplasm, but not in ER and mitochondria" is wrong, since ER and mitochondria are part of the cytoplasm and one cannot exclude them when using the term cytoplasm as definition for a cellular location. And this is only one example of many.
Do I miss something or have the terms changed? Perhaps experts from the field of cell biology can contribute to this discussion and help to understand.
All the best and stay healthy,
Marc
Hi Marc,
I think you're completely right, but maybe the phrase you mentioned is due to the technical approach? If they managed to isolate the mitochondria and the ER and did not find the protein, but were able to show its presence in the other contents, it wouldn't be correct to state that it was in the cytosol either, so it would be cytoplasmic, excluding mitochondria and ER. Anyway, that's my interpretation,
All the best,
Kind regards,
Jasper
Hi Marc,
Yor are absolutely correct. Also, Jasper's explanation for justifying the statement seems right too...in that case, the use of the terms is fine.
However we should stick to the definitions of the two terms when dealing with this subject.
Hey Jasper and Suraiya,
thank you very much for your responses. Of course, if you seperate the organelles, but keep the rest, this rest still will bre the cytoplasm just without the organelles removed. Absolutely right.
But I got another example (describing the whole cell situation): "Mitochondria realease cytochrome c into the cytoplasm". It is not wrong, but it suggests, since mitochondria are part of the cytoplasm, that cytochrome c is also released into mitochondria (the matrix for example), which in this case is not the point the authors want to make. They just mistook cytosolic release of cytochrome c for cytoplasmic release. What do you think? Looking very forward to hear from you.
All the best and stay healthy :)
Marc
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Physiology
- Physiological Processes
- Stress