{"id":320,"date":"2016-09-20T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/chapter\/nucleus-2\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:45:16","slug":"nucleus-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/chapter\/nucleus-2\/","title":{"raw":"The Nucleus","rendered":"The Nucleus"},"content":{"raw":"Typically, the nucleus is the most prominent organelle in a eukaryotic cell. The nucleus <\/strong>(plural = nuclei) houses the cell\u2019s DNA in the form of chromatin and directs the synthesis of ribosomes and proteins. Let us look at it in more detail (Figure<\/strong> 1<\/strong>).\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_62\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"]\"figure_03_10 Figure 1 The outermost boundary of the nucleus is the nuclear envelope. Notice that the nuclear envelope consists of two phospholipid bilayers (membranes)\u2014an outer membrane and an inner membrane\u2014in contrast to the plasma membrane (Figure 3.8), which consists of only one phospholipid bilayer. (credit: modification of work by NIGMS, NIH)[\/caption]\n\nThe nuclear envelope <\/strong>is a double-membrane structure that constitutes the outermost portion of the nucleus (Figure 1<\/strong>). Both the inner and outer membranes of the nuclear envelope are phospholipid bilayers.\n\nThe nuclear envelope is punctuated with pores that control the passage of ions, molecules, and RNA between the nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm. To understand chromatin, it is helpful to first consider chromosomes. Chromosomes are structures within the nucleus that are made up of DNA, the hereditary material, and proteins. This combination of DNA and proteins is called chromatin. In eukaryotes, chromosomes are linear structures. Every species has a specific number of chromosomes in the nucleus of its body cells. For example, in humans, the chromosome number is 46, whereas in fruit flies, the chromosome number is eight.\n\nChromosomes are only visible and distinguishable from one another when the cell is getting ready to divide. When the cell is in the growth and maintenance phases of its life cycle, the chromosomes resemble an unwound, jumbled bunch of threads.\n\nWe already know that the nucleus directs the synthesis of ribosomes, but how does it do this? Some chromosomes have sections of DNA that encode ribosomal RNA. A darkly staining area within the nucleus, called the nucleolus <\/strong>(plural = nucleoli), aggregates the ribosomal RNA with associated proteins to assemble the ribosomal subunits that are then transported through the nuclear pores into the cytoplasm (Figure 1).\n

References<\/h1>\nUnless otherwise noted, images on this page are licensed under CC-BY 4.0<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0OpenStax<\/a>.\n\nText adapted from: OpenStax<\/span>, Concepts of Biology. OpenStax CNX. May 18, 2016 http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/b3c1e1d2-839c-42b0-a314-e119a8aafbdd@9.10","rendered":"

Typically, the nucleus is the most prominent organelle in a eukaryotic cell. The nucleus <\/strong>(plural = nuclei) houses the cell\u2019s DNA in the form of chromatin and directs the synthesis of ribosomes and proteins. Let us look at it in more detail (Figure<\/strong> 1<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"figure_03_10
Figure 1 The outermost boundary of the nucleus is the nuclear envelope. Notice that the nuclear envelope consists of two phospholipid bilayers (membranes)\u2014an outer membrane and an inner membrane\u2014in contrast to the plasma membrane (Figure 3.8), which consists of only one phospholipid bilayer. (credit: modification of work by NIGMS, NIH)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nuclear envelope <\/strong>is a double-membrane structure that constitutes the outermost portion of the nucleus (Figure 1<\/strong>). Both the inner and outer membranes of the nuclear envelope are phospholipid bilayers.<\/p>\n

The nuclear envelope is punctuated with pores that control the passage of ions, molecules, and RNA between the nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm. To understand chromatin, it is helpful to first consider chromosomes. Chromosomes are structures within the nucleus that are made up of DNA, the hereditary material, and proteins. This combination of DNA and proteins is called chromatin. In eukaryotes, chromosomes are linear structures. Every species has a specific number of chromosomes in the nucleus of its body cells. For example, in humans, the chromosome number is 46, whereas in fruit flies, the chromosome number is eight.<\/p>\n

Chromosomes are only visible and distinguishable from one another when the cell is getting ready to divide. When the cell is in the growth and maintenance phases of its life cycle, the chromosomes resemble an unwound, jumbled bunch of threads.<\/p>\n

We already know that the nucleus directs the synthesis of ribosomes, but how does it do this? Some chromosomes have sections of DNA that encode ribosomal RNA. A darkly staining area within the nucleus, called the nucleolus <\/strong>(plural = nucleoli), aggregates the ribosomal RNA with associated proteins to assemble the ribosomal subunits that are then transported through the nuclear pores into the cytoplasm (Figure 1).<\/p>\n

References<\/h1>\n

Unless otherwise noted, images on this page are licensed under CC-BY 4.0<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0OpenStax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Text adapted from: OpenStax<\/span>, Concepts of Biology. OpenStax CNX. May 18, 2016 http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/b3c1e1d2-839c-42b0-a314-e119a8aafbdd@9.10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["lisa-bartee-do7vbnbexe","christine-anderson-t15c7lrfew"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[67,66],"license":[53],"class_list":["post-320","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-christine-anderson-t15c7lrfew","contributor-lisa-bartee-do7vbnbexe","license-cc-by"],"part":223,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/320\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/223"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/320\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.hcfl.edu\/bio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}