Your body is made up of trillions of cells, and each of your cells is like a tiny town with factories that make products and packaging centers that box up the products and ship them off. These cell factories are called organelles. In this lesson, you'll learn about one type of organelle called the Golgi apparatus. It's the packaging center of the cell.
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Golgi is pronounced 'gol-gee.' The Golgi apparatus, or Golgi body as it's sometimes called, is named after Camillo Golgi, the Italian biologist that discovered the organelle. If you were to look at the Golgi apparatus under a powerful microscope, you might think it looks like a stack of pancakes. Wouldn't it be nice if Mr. Golgi had named this organelle the pancake? It sure would be easier to remember its name!
The Golgi apparatus floats in the cytoplasm of your cells. Cytoplasm is the jelly-like fluid inside the cell membrane. When you look in the cytoplasm, you'll find the Golgi apparatus near another organelle called the rough endoplasmic reticulum, or rough ER. These two organelles like to hang out in the same neighborhood because they work together. The rough ER makes proteins and sends them to the Golgi apparatus.
Once the Golgi apparatus receives a protein from the rough ER, it is ready to go to work. The Golgi apparatus prepares and changes the protein by sending it through its flat pancake-like layers. After the protein has been modified, it is packaged by the Golgi apparatus and placed into shipping containers called vesicles. These vesicles are sacs that break away from the Golgi apparatus, kind of like lifeboats leaving a ship. The free vesicles can travel to different areas of the cell, or to the cell membrane where they dump their contents outside of the cell. Having vesicles that can travel out of the cell membrane is helpful for getting rid of things the cell no longer needs.
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The Golgi apparatus also make lysosomes, a type of organelle that contains digestive enzymes. Lysosomes are important because they break down large bits of foods that come into the cell so the food can be used as energy. Lysosomes also help clean up your cell by digesting bacteria, viruses and worn out organelles.
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