中山大学《细胞生物学》思考题 01-08Testing Thinking of Cell Biology 完全整理.docVIP

Testing Thinking of Cell Biology（Yuan Qinghui） 2008 1. To get a feeling for the size of cells (and to practice the use of the metric system) consider the following: the human brain weighs about 1kg and contains about 1011 cells. Calculate the average size of a brain cell (although we know that their sizes vary widely), assuming that each cell is (although we know that their sizes vary widely ), assuming that eath cell is entirely filled with water (1 cm3 of water weighs 1 g). What would be the length of one side of this average-sized brain cell if it were a simple cube? If the cells were spread out as a thin layer that is only a single cell thick, how many pages of this book(each page is 21 cm × 27.5 cm) would this layer cover? Answer : One average brain cell weighs 10-8 g (=1000 g / 1011). Because 1g of water occupies 1 ml = 1 cm3(= 10-6 m3), the volume of one cell is 10-14 m3(= 10-8 g × 10-6 m3/g). Taking the cubic root yields a side length of 2.1 × 10-5 m, or 21 um (106 um = 1 m) for each cell. The page of the book has a surface of 0.057 m2 (= 21 cm × 27.5 cm), and each cell has a footprint of 441 ×10-12 m2(2.1 × 10-5m × 2.1 × 10-5m). Therefore, 129 × 106 (= 0.057 m2/ 441 × 10-12 m 2) cells fit on this page when spread out as a single layer. Thus, 1011 cells would occupy 775 pages (= 1011 / 129 × 106). 2. You are using a cameleon indicator to measure intracellular concentrations of Ca2+．The indicator is composed of a central calmodulin domain, which converts from an extended form to a much more compact form upon calcium binding，and two flanking fluorescent proteins，with CFP attached at one end and YFP attached at the other．You have expressed this indicator in cells and now wish to measure intracellular changes in Ca2+ concentration in response to the biological process you are studying． The instructions say to excite the cameleon at 440 nm and to measure emission at 535 nm．How do you suppose the cameleon indicator works? Gorter and Grendel Revisited. Gorter