Lysosomes (Suicide Bag)

1. Lysosomes are cellular organelles that contain acid hydrolase enzymes to break down waste materials and cellular debris.
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They are found in animal cells, while in yeast and plants the same roles are performed by lytic vacuoles.

3. Lysosomes digest excess or worn-out organelles, food particles, and engulfed viruses or bacteria. 4. The membrane around a lysosome allows the digestive enzymes to work at the 4.5 pH they require. Lysosomes fuse with vacuoles and dispense their enzymes into the vacuoles, digesting their contents. 5. They are created by the addition of hydrolytic enzymes to early endosomes from the Golgi apparatus. 6. The name lysosome derives from the Greek words lysis, to separate, and soma, body. They are frequently nicknamed "suicide-bags" or "suicide-sacs" by cell biologists due to their role in autolysis. Lysosomes were discovered by the Belgian cytologist Christian de Duve in the 1950s. 7. The size of lysosomes varies from 0.11.2 m. At pH 4.8, the interior of the lysosomes is acidic compared to the slightly alkalinecytosol (pH 7.2). 8. The lysosome maintains this pH differential by pumping protons (H+ ions) from the cytosol across the membrane viaproton pumps and chloride ion channels. 9. The lysosomal membrane protects the cytosol, and therefore the rest of the cell, from the degradative enzymes within the lysosome. 10. The cell is additionally protected from any lysosomal acid hydrolases that leak into the cytosol, as these enzymes are pH-sensitive and do not function as well in the alkaline environment of the cytosol.

11. Function : - Lysosomes are the cell's waste disposal system and can break up anything. They digest almost everything. One exception is asbestos. They are used for the digestion of macromolecules from phagocytosis (ingestion of other dying cells or larger extracellular material, like foreign invading microbes), endocytosis (where receptor proteins are recycled from the cell surface), and autophagy(where in old or unneeded organelles or proteins, or microbes that have invaded the cytoplasm are delivered to the lysosome). Autophagy may also lead to autophagic cell death, a form of programmed self-destruction, or autolysis, of the cell, which means that the cell is digesting itself. - Other functions include digesting foreign bacteria (or other forms of waste) that invade a cell and helping repair damage to the plasma membrane by serving as a membrane patch, sealing the wound. In the past, lysosomes were thought to kill cells that are no longer wanted, such as those in the tails of tadpoles or in the web from the fingers of a 3- to 6-month-old fetus. While lysosomes digest some materials in this process, it is actually accomplished through programmed cell death, called apoptosis.