Question

A scientist develops a chemical that prevents golgi bodies from functioning. contrast the specific effects the chemical would have on human cell versus bacterial cells

Answer 1

The role of the Golgi body or Golgi apparatus is to package the proteins in vesicles and target it to their respective place of function. Example, the receptor proteins that are synthesised in the Endoplasmic Reticulum will be sent to the Golgi body for its packaging into the vesicles that bind and fuse with the cell membrane. The targeting is done by the special set of markers present on the secreted vesicle. All the eukaryotic cells have a Golgi apparatus. When chemical treatment is done to stop its functioning, the cell stops functioning and eventually dies due to the hampered targeting of proteins to the various organelle. On the other hand, prokaryotic cells lack Golgi body as the cell size is small enough to allow for the synthesised protein to move by diffusion to its target. Hence no effect will be seen when prokaryotic cells are treated with that chemical.