Hey! I’m Plasmy, the Endoplasmic Reticulum!

I’m a very important organelle found in all eukaryotic organisms

including you.

That’s right. I’m INSIDE you right now, keeping you alive.

Cool right?

I’m a network of sacs and thin tubes that are found all

over your cell. I make up about 10% of every one of

your cells.

That’s all great and all but your probably wondering

what I do…

I’m responsible for the production, processing and transportation of proteins, lipids and I even transport

some carbohydrates.

How do I manage all of this work?

I actually have a buddy who helps me with all of this

work…

I’m SMOOTH ER!

and I’m rough er…

Before we go on, your probably wondering why we keep changing appearances.

why is my bubble so

much smaller…

It’s because ER looks different in each type of cell depending

on the cells function.

and why am I on the

bottom…

Moving on… lets take a closer look at ourselves!

oh no… I look terrible in this

picture…

That’s me right there… the layers of squished sacs…the yellow speckles

give me my name…

I’m the smooth wiggly tubes on the left!

That’s where my name

comes from too!

Smooth ER

Rough ER

Nucleic Membrane

Rough ER

Ribosomes are the green dots

Smooth ER in orange

Did you see the resemblance?

obviously not…

We’ll both talk about ourselves and tell you about

what we do. Take it away rough ER…

fine…

hmm… lots of space up here… anyways, those

yellow speckles you saw on me in the picture are

called ribosomes…

nom nom nom…

ribosomes help me create and synthesize

proteins from RNA, copies of DNA…

nom nom nom…

with the help of ribosomes, I synthesize and package proteins so they’re ready to be used

by cells…

yummy…

This is where smooth ER comes into the picture

Oh my turn!

I take the newly synthesized proteins and ship them around the cell where they’re needed

♩ ♩ ♪♫♬♫ ♪♫ ♪

I can also ship them through the cell membrane to other

cells.

♩ ♩ ♪♫♬♫ ♪♫ ♪

Not only do I ship proteins around, but I also produce

lipids and metabolize carbohydrates sand steroids.

no need to brag…

In addition to that, I also detoxify cells from drugs and

poisons!

how modest…

I guess you can think of me like a postal service…

and me as a factory…

I deliver everything where it needs to go

and you would have nothing to

deliver if not for me…

Well, that’s about it! Nice to meet you! Bye!

actually, we still know

nothing about you…

Works Cited• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoplasmic_reticulum• http://www.biology4kids.com/files/cell_er.html• http://

library.thinkquest.org/C004535/endoplasmic_reticulum.html• http://

micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/endoplasmicreticulum/endoplasmicreticulum.html

• http://www.cytochemistry.net/cell-biology/rer1.htm• http://www.marktoon.co.uk/blobs.htm• http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/58660b.jpg• Cell and Cell Structure iPad application• Biology: Concepts and Connections