Eukaryote

A Eukaryote is an organism, such as plants, animals, fungi, and protists, which possesses eukaryotic cells. The word eukaryote means "true nucleus". In addition to having its genome compartmentalized inside the nucleus, eukaryotes perform many functions inside other membrane-bound compartments called organelles.

Eukaryotic organisms also have other specialized structures, called organelles, which are small structures within cells that perform dedicated functions. As the name implies, organelles can be thought of as small organs. There are a dozen different types of organelles commonly found in eukaryotic cells.

Cellular Organelles

 * Main Article: Cellular organelle


 * Nucleus - holds genomic DNA in eukaryotes
 * Mitochondria - performs cellular respiration in eukaryotes
 * Chloroplast - performs photosynthesis in eukaryotes
 * Ribosome - translates mRNA into polypeptides in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes
 * Golgi apparatus - processes and packages various macromolecules into vesicles
 * Endoplasmic reticulum - a transport network for macromolecules
 * Vacuole - storage cavity
 * Lysosome - performs cellular digestion