Abstract

BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL MODULATIONS OF CELL ORGANELLES INDUCED BY MOLECULAR CROWDING

*Y. K. Lahir and A. V. Chitre

Abstract

The organs, tissues, and individual cells in a biosystem act as most suitable stages for molecular interactions. These interactions are the inherent tendency of living being. Molecular crowding is one of the perpetual processes in a cell and provides the different biomolecules to accomplish life processes. The strength of the molecular interactions between native and crowder molecules relates to molecular crowding and affects the functionality of the existing solvent. The properties of the cell water (solvent) are under the influence of crowder molecules, specifically, the macromolecules like proteins and genetic materials. The energy status and the stability of the native and participating molecules in a cell correlate to molecular crowding. The crowding molecules enhance the competitive interactions involving water molecules and cause fluctuations in the degree of hydration and osmotic stress. All such fluctuations result in hydrate shells and changes in the excluded-cell volume. There are many reports on the response of cells towards molecular crowding but relatively less literature is available on the cell organelles. The molecular crowding causes untold impacts and stress on the cell organelles influencing their normal functionalities. These changes play a significant role in the overall response of cells, tissue, and organs. This presentation provides an overview of the impacts of molecular crowding on most of the cell organelles, and the perspective applications.

Keywords: Cell membrane, chloroplast, cytoskeleton, endoplasmic reticulum, excluded-volume, mitochondria, nucleus, plastids, ribosomes, tonoplast, vacuoles, viscoelastic properties.