Cellular compartments are enclosed parts within cells that compartmentalize cellular processes. The main compartments are the nucleus, organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts, and the cytosol. Compartments establish physical boundaries that allow different metabolic processes to occur simultaneously and generate microenvironments for regulating biological processes spatially and temporally. Compartments are usually enclosed by a single or double lipid bilayer membrane and help localize specific cellular functions.

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Cellular compartment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cellular compartments in cell biology comprise all of the closed parts within the cytosol of a eukaryotic
cell, usually surrounded by a single or double lipid layer membrane. These compartments are often, but not
always, defined as membrane enclosed regions. The formation of cellular compartments is called
compartmentalization.
Both organelles, the mitochondria and chloroplasts (in photosynthetic organisms), are compartments. Other
compartments such as peroxisomes, lysosomes, the endoplasmic reticulum, the cell nucleus or the Golgi
apparatus are not of endosymbiotic origin. Smaller elements like vesicles, and sometimes even
microtubules can also be counted as compartments.
It was thought that compartmentalization is not found in prokaryotic cells.,[1] but the discovery of
carboxysomes and many other metabolosomes revealed that prokaryotic cells are capable of making
compartmentalized structures, albeit these are in most cases not surrounded by a lipid bilayer, but of pure
proteinaceous built.
Contents
1 Types
2 Function
3 Establishment
4 References
Types
In general there are 4 main cellular compartments, they are:
1. The nuclear compartment comprising the nucleus
2. The intercisternal space which comprises the space between the membranes of the endoplasmic
reticulum (which is continuous with the nuclear envelope)
3. Organelles (the mitochondrion in all eukaryotes and the plastid in phototrophic eukaryotes)
4. The cytosol
Function
Compartments have three main roles. One is to establish physical boundaries for biological processes that
enables the cell to carry out different metabolic activities at the same time. This may include keeping
certain biomolecules within a region, or keeping other molecules outside. Within the membrane­bound
compartments, different intracellular pH, different enzyme systems, and other differences are isolated. With
mitochondria, the cytosol has an oxidizing environment which converts NADH to NAD+. With these cases,
the compartmentalization is physical.

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Another is to generate a specific micro­environment to spatially or temporally regulate a biological process.
As an example, a yeast vacuole is normally acidified by proton transporters on the membrane.
A third role is to establish specific locations or cellular addresses for which processes should occur. For
example, a transcription factor may be directed to a nucleus, where it can promote transcription of certain
genes.
For protein synthesis, all the organs used for it are relatively near one another, the nucleolus makes the
ribosomes which synthesize the proteins, the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rough ER) is near the nucleus
as well. The Golgi body is also near the rough ER for packaging and redistributing. The functional
component of a eukaryotic cell is the organelles.
Establishment
Often, cellular compartments are defined by membrane enclosure. These membranes provide physical
barriers to biomolecules. Transport across these barriers is often controlled in order to maintain the
concentration of biomolecules within and outside of the compartment.
References
1. Campbell, Neil A.; Reece, Jane B.; Urry, Lisa A.; Cain, Michael L.; Wasserman, Steven A.; Minorsky, Peter V.;
Jackson, Robert B. (2008). Biology (8th ed.). p. 559. ISBN 978­0­8053­6844­4.
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