Download Notes: Cell Specialization

Notes: Cell Specialization
 ALL organisms are made up of specialized cells.
• Each type of cell has a specific job/function
• Examples
• red blood cells carry oxygen
• nerve cell sends messages throughout the body
red blood cell
nerve cell
Stop and think…
If we came from the combination of a single sperm
cell and a single egg cell, how did we get hundreds
of different cells with specific jobs?!
 Zygotes (fertilized egg) first divide into embryonic stem
cells.
 Stem cells can become any of 200 types of cells in the
human body.
• Stem cells develop in two stages.
1. Determination:
commit to become
one type of cell
2. Differentiation:
acquiring
specialized
structures and
functions
Specialized cells function together in tissues, organs,
organ systems, and the whole organism.
• Specialized CELLS perform specific tasks.
• TISSUES are groups of similar cells working together
• Types:
o epithelial tissue
o connective tissue
o muscle tissue
 smooth (stomach)
 skeletal (bicep)
 cardiac (heart)
o nervous tissue
cell
tissue
 ORGANS are different tissues working together.
 ORGAN SYSTEMS are two or more organs working together.
 An ORGANISM is all organ systems working together.
ORGANS
ORGAN SYSTEM
ORGANISM
TISSUE
ORGANS
ORGAN SYSTEM
CELL
ORGANISM
• There are 11 major organ systems in the human body.
Stop and think…
 If all our cells started off from one cell, why do
they look and act differently?
 What determines our “differences”? Or tells our
cells what to do?