Chapter 2. The Organelles

The tree of life is divided into three major domains - Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya, of which the former two are single-celled prokaryotic organisms without a nucleus, while the latter comprises of organisms both unicellular and multicellular that have membrane-bound organelles and a nucleus. As you might have already guessed, both plants and animals are Eukaryotic organisms.

In the following sections, we will discuss each of the following membrane-bound organelles individually:

• Nucleus

• Plastid

• Mitochondrion

• Endoplasmic Reticulum

• Golgi Apparatus

• Vacuole

• Peroxisome

We will also discuss non-organellar components like the cytoskeleton and ribosomes.