Nucleus

 

 
 

Function
General Intro: The Nucleus is the central structure which contains the cell's genetic material.

Resources:
UTMB Cell Nucleus Page - A comprehensive site providing information on various aspects of the nucleus. (including a very nice labelled E.M. image)

Wikipedia Nucleus Entry - A rather comprehensive overview of information on the nucleus, complete with academic sitations and some diagrams. Still, bear in mind that this is a Wikipedia article, and ultimately isn't concidered an academically reliable source.

NPD: Nuclear Protein Database - A site with detailed information on the structure, and protein makeup, of the various nuclear structures.

The Electron Microscopic Atlas - The nucleus page from the EMA, with a wide range of E.M. images of the nucleus and its structures.

CellNucleus.org - A site entirely devoted to cell nuclei. Go figure.

Images

Click on an image to see a full sized version.
This cell originates from a squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. Before being photographed with an electron microscope, the cell has been frozen and split open to reveal its nucleus (central red area). (image and description provided by the Biochemical Image Awards site)
An Indian Muntjac deer skin fibroblast cells fluorescence stained so that the the nucleus shows up in green, the cytoskeletal filamentous actin network in purple, and the cellular mitochondria in red. (image and description provided by OlympusMicro.com)
Annother Indian Muntjac cell, with the DNA in the nucleus fluorescently highlighted in blue. (image and description provided by OlympusMicro.com)
Shown here is an electron micrograph of a portion of a cell from the pancreas. The cell has a large, central nucleus with scattered chromatin, many mitochondria, large quantities of rough ER, and many small vesicles. Not only is the cell itself enclosed by a membrane, but the nucleus is surrounded by a double membrane system called the nuclear envelope, and certain organelles are also membrane-enclosed. (image and description provided by ThinkQuest.org)
Shown here is the cytoskeleton of a cultured epithelial cell. Microtubules are shown in green, actin is shown in red and DNA is in blue. Image by Steve Rogers.(image by Steve Rogers, image and description provided by the Imaging Technology Group)
An electron micrograph of Chlamydomonas, a photosynthetic eukaryotic cell. Some of the organelles which can be seen from the micrograph are the nucleus (center), mitochondrion, and chloroplasts (dark, irregularly shaped). The large circle near the bottom of the cell is the organism's food reserve, in the form of starch granules.(image and description provided by ThinkQuest.org)
A color enhanced T.E.M. image. The nucleus is on the upper right rimmed in purple.(image and description provided by Micro Angela)
TEM of a freeze fracture replica of a mouse pancreas cell. The nuclear pores on the surface of the nucleus are clearly vissible here. (image and description provided by SCSM)


Structural Details
Click on a sub-structure to view a page devoted to it.

 
     
 
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