The Function Of Golgi Apparatus

The Golgi apparatus is an organelle present in most eukaryotic cells. It is made up of membrane-bound sacs, and is also called a Golgi body, Golgi complex, or dictyosome.

The job of the Golgi apparatus is to process and bundle macromolecules like proteins and lipids as they are synthesized within the cell. The Golgi apparatus is sometimes compared to a post office inside the cell since one major function is to modify, sort, and package proteins to be secreted.

The Golgi apparatus is made up of sacs called cisternae. Usually five to eight cisternae are present in one Golgi apparatus, but as high a number as sixty cisternae have been observed by scientists. These bundles of sacs have five distinct and functional regions, and each region has different enzymes to help it modify the contents, depending on where they are to end up.

This organelle is also important in other ways, specifically in the transport of lipids throughout the cell and the creation of lysosomes.

The Golgi complex works closely with the rough ER. When the ER makes a protein, a transition vesicle is also made. It drifts through the cytoplasm to the Golgi apparatus where it gets absorbed. After the Golgi works on the molecules inside, it secretes a vesicle into the cytoplasm which releases the protein molecule out of the cell.


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