Cellular compartment
Cellular compartments in cell biology comprise all of the closed parts within the cytosol of a eukaryotic cell, usually surrounded by a single or double lipid layer membrane. These compartments are often, but not always, defined as membrane enclosed regions. The formation of cellular compartments is called compartmentalization.

Both organelles, the mitochondria and chloroplasts (in photosynthetic organisms), are compartments that are believed to be of endosymbiotic origin. Other compartments such as peroxisomes, lysosomes, the endoplasmic reticulum, the cell nucleus or the Golgi apparatus are not of endosymbiotic origin. Smaller elements like vesicles, and sometimes even microtubules can also be counted as compartments.

It was thought that compartmentalization is not found in prokaryotic cells., but the discovery of carboxysomes and many other metabolosomes revealed that prokaryotic cells are capable of making compartmentalized structures, albeit these are in most cases not surrounded by a lipid bilayer, but of pure proteinaceous built.
Q7141
cell biology
Concept
Q220599
cytosol
Concept
Q19088
eukaryotic
Concept
Q7868
cell
Concept
Q423279
double lipid layer
Concept
Q29548
membrane
Concept
Q45948
organelle
Concept
Q39572
mitochondria
Concept
Q47263
chloroplast
Concept
Q138639
peroxisome
Concept
Q83330
lysosome
Concept
Q79927
endoplasmic reticulum
Concept
Q40260
cell nucleus
Concept
Q83181
Golgi apparatus
Concept
Q189206
vesicles
Concept
Q189933
microtubules
Concept
Q747283
carboxysome
Concept
Q973371
metabolosomes
Concept
Q189055
Cellular compartment
UNK
studies
subclass of