🛤️ ROUGH ER: NETWORK
PAGE 1 OF 5 — THE CELLULAR HIGHWAY
THE HOOK
FOLDED MEMBRANES, BIG JOB
Deep inside a cell spreads a maze of folded membranes called the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER for short. When ribosomes dot its outer surface, scientists call it rough ER. Those tiny protein factories build new chains right into the ER lumen, the space inside the membrane tunnels. Rough ER is the cell's production and packaging line, turning genetic recipes into proteins that will travel to membranes, organelles, or out of the cell entirely.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Rough ER gets its bumpy look from thousands of ribosomes stuck to the outside. Under an electron microscope those dots make the membrane look rough, which is exactly how it got its name.
NETWORK!
ER
🕸️ ER membranes fold into sheets and tubes
🛤️ They spread through much of the cytoplasm
🛤️ They spread through much of the cytoplasm
ROUGH
🔧 Ribosomes stud the outer membrane surface
🏭 That is what makes this ER "rough"
🏭 That is what makes this ER "rough"