Eukaritopia: The First-Ever City

What if the first city ever was not built by humans? What if it was inside of humans? What if all of these statements are true? Well they are, the first-ever city is inside of humans, well in our cells! Our cells are built just like a city, from highways to the ecosystem, cities are practically modeled after a cell design. From cells to cities, their basic structure is the same, their limits, police, ecosystems, highways, streets, factories, and even the town hall!

Eukaryotic cells versus prokaryotic cells

In the cell world, there are two types of cells, eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. In simple words, a eukaryotic cell is a plant or animal cell, one with a nucleus, and a prokaryotic cell is mainly a bacteria cell or a cell without a nucleus. There are many more physical differences like:

From the graph above, it is obvious that Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells are almost opposites. Besides the obvious physical similarities, common ribosomes, cell wall (in plant cells), and chromosomes, there are not too many similarities. Just like cities, they are built differently, with different main components, different “workers”, and so forth. Just like a eukaryotic cell, a city has city limits, police, an ecosystem, highways, and more!

City limits

City limits are a society's boundaries, the limits to their location. Similarly, cells have limits, even if their limits are more defined, proteins and other goods can be transferred from cell to cell. The cell’s limit is represented by the cilia/flagella. The cilia and flagella don’t actually make up the cell wall- that is made up of cellulose, cilia and flagella help with the movement of the cell or moving other things if the cell itself is stationary (they are actually made up of microtubules as well- you probably can group them with the cytoskeleton). The cilia and flagella have the same basic structure, but different physical forms. The cilia have tiny little arms that wiggle around while the flagella are made from a long whip-like tail. These organelles are both made from long protein fibers called microtubes. Their initial structure is 9 pairs of microtubes forming a ring around 2 central microtubes. This follows the general 9+2 structure. The cilia and flagella are both covered by an extension of the plasma membrane.

Police

The police or the protectors of a city only want what is best for their population. Whether is protecting their town from invading forces or destroying threats originating from inside their city. Just like in a cell, the cell membrane protects its environment. Physically, the cell membrane is very squishy and not rigid. The cell membrane also helps enclose the cell's contents inside the city’s limits. As the protectors of the city, they must monitor what goes in and out of the city. If an outside force breaches the cell wall, it must get past the cell membrane, which is super selective of what goes in and out of its city.

Eco-system

Every city/town has an ecosystem. From Brazil to Antarctica, places all over the world have different eco-systems, which also indicated that their basic needs and function would be different. Likewise, a cell's ecosystem varies on what type of cell it is; from muscle cells to skin cells their “eco-systems” vary. In Eukaritopia, the cytoplasm represents the ecosystem of a cell. The cytoplasm contains water and nutrients for some of the other organelles to survive and feed off. Like the cell membrane, it is wet and squishy, almost like a swampland. The cytoplasm is a common factor between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, it resides in every living cell, even if the balance of water nutrients differ (due to the different purposes of a cell).

Highways

Every city, no matter how big or small requires roads to connect it. Even though a cell is hundreds of times smaller than an average city, it still requires paths that connect different buildings/organelles. The cytoskeleton is the backbone of a cell, the highway that connects the organelles, and so much more. Even if it is not an organelle itself, the cytoskeleton is incredibly important in the structure of a cell. The cytoskeleton is made from protein strands to help reinforce the cell’s structure. The centrosomes in the cytoskeleton assemble long microtubule out of proteins. They act like steel grinders that hold all the cities buildings together. The cytoplasm provides the infrastructure necessary for all the organelles to do their business. However, the nucleus has its own type of cytoplasm, nucleoplasm.

Just like highways, every city needs streets that connect them. In a cell, the RER, or rough endoplasmic reticulum, represents streets. The endoplasmic reticulum is organelles that create a network of membranes that carry stuff around the cell. These membranes are phospholipid bilayers which are the same as the cell membrane. Rough endoplasmic reticulum helps in the synthesis and packages of proteins. A rough endoplasmic reticulum has ribosomes, unlike a smooth endoplasmic reticulum.

A smooth endoplasmic reticulum represents a manufacturing plant. The smooth endoplasmic reticulum acts as a factory warehouse in the cell city. This contains enzymes that help with the creation of important lipids. Other enzymes specialize in detoxifying substances like some of the horrible components that surround drugs and alcohol (which happens by adding a carbon group). The smooth endoplasmic reticulum also stores ions in solutions that the cell may need later. Sodium Ions were especially needed for muscle cells.

Food producing factory

Every city in the world needs a source of food, whether it is a farm or a factory (though in this modern world, let us be honest, it is a factory), we need it. Similarly, cells cannot keep requesting food from other cells, they need their own source of protein, which is represented by ribosomes. Ribosomes can float freely throughout the cytoplasm or they are attached to the nuclear envelopes, which is where they come from. Their main job is to assemble amino acids into phospholipids. As I mentioned earlier, the RER has ribosomes attached to it. When ribosomes are making proteins with an endoplasmic reticulum signal sequencing, those signals direct the ribosomes to the ER membrane. The mRNA molecules that help encode the proteins with an ER signal begin to signal the sequence that binds the ribosomes to the rough endoplasmic reticulum.

Post office

Communicating inside and out of your community is an essential part of life. Whether it's communicating with relatives, or important taxes and mails, a post office is crucial to the social portion of a community. In a cell, the post office is represented by the Golgi Apparatus. The Golgi apparatus processes proteins and packages them. After it finished packaging them, they send them out, either to other organelles in the cell or outside the cell. Another part of the Golgi apparatus is the Golgi bodies. The Golgi bodies are the Golgi apparatus’s layers, They cut large proteins into smaller hormones. Another part of the Golgi apparatus/bodies are the vesicles. The vesicles are phospholipid membranes (walls). Their main function is the take the packaged proteins from the Golgi bodies and ship them out to other organelles/cells.

Recycling centers

In almost every functioning society, we have trash. Whether it's recycling, compost, or just trash, everyone has some. Therefore, a recycling center or a trash pickup truck is incredibly important. Similarly, in a cell, every little organelle has its own form of trash (or recycling if you want to be green), this trash is picked up by lysosomes! A lysosome is an organelle that includes digestive enzymes. Their main purpose is to break down various dead/wasted cell parts. They also help protect the cell from several viruses and diseases. Although this is their main purpose, they have other smaller purposes such as:

- Intracellular Digestion. The word lysosome is developed from the Latin words Lyso/lytic which basically means digestive, while soma means body. In its truest form, lysosome means the digestive body.

- Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the transformation of an immature form to an adult form, mainly in animals. Lysosomes are proven to help especially in frogs, where the disappearance of a tail in a tadpole larva is found as described by Weber.

- Protein Synthesis. In the liver and pancreas of certain species of birds, lysosomes are more active, indicating a possible relationship between the lysosomes and cell metabolism.

Even with all the benefits of the lysosome, when it malfunctions, it can lead to disaster! It can lead to diseases like Pope’s Disease. If your skin cell’s lysosomes rupture, it leads to a horrible version of sunburn.

Power Plant

For a city to work, it needs power. Not just for factories and lights, but the entire city! Likewise, a cell needs an organelle to power it. The mitochondria perform that task perfectly. Physically the mitochondria are a smooth oblong organelle. Their process of respiration takes place in the mitochondria. The mitochondria are where the energy is derived from carbohydrates, fats, and more. This energy is finally converted into ATP for all the organelles to enjoy.

Townhall

In every town, whether it is the administrative office, mayor’s office, or any place like that, it is necessary for a functioning city. In a cell, probably the most important part, the nucleus, represents the town hall. Physically the nucleus is a specific organelle that lives in its own double-membraned, highly secure, compound with the nucleolus. Within the major cell, the nucleus is in charge. The nucleus stores the cell's DNA which is just means it has all the info the cell needs to do its job. It also makes laws with the DNA just like the town hall makes haws for the rest of the city. The nucleus makes all the laws for the city and for the organelles it needs to tell them how and when to grow, what to metabolize, and so on. The chromatin holds DNA, gathers into rod-shaped chromosomes, and each one holds DNA molecules. The nucleolus is to create ribosomal RNA, which it then combines with some proteins to form the basic units of ribosomes. The nucleus then spits them into the nuclear envelope.

Overall, a cell and a city are pretty similar, from post offices to the streets that connect everything, they have all the same basic structures. After learning and writing this article, my head got to thinking, what if there are other designs out there that were taken from the human body? There probably are, you just have to look.