Essay Example on Cell Division & Regulation in Multi-Cellular Organisms

The cells of any living organisms occur in a highly organized community. The cells become even highly organized if they occur in a multi-cellular organism. The numbers of cells in a multi-cellular organism have to be tightly regulated. Firstly, they are regulated by controlling the rate of cell division (Veloso, & van Kan, 2018). Controlling the rate of cell division does not efficiently regulate the rate of cells in a multi-cellular organism. For this reason, when cells are no longer needed by the body they are programmed to die. Some scientists refer to death as cells committing suicide. Programmed cells death is scientifically known as apoptosis. Apoptosis is the process where cells in the human body are programmed to self destruct when the body no longer needs them or their services.

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Apoptosis is a process that is very essential for living organisms. It occurs in both plants and animals. The rate of apoptosis in adult animals is very high and shocking. Half of more than the nerve cells produced die as soon as they are formed. In a healthy adult human, the born marrow is responsible for the highest cell death (Dickman, Williams, Li, Figueiredo, & Wolpert, 2017). Remarkably, so many cells death seem so wasteful but the process is very necessary. Apoptosis helps shape an animal's physical features and organs. Apoptosis help gets rid of all the body features that might be potentially harmful to the cells that are still needed. A perfect example would be the tail of the tadpole which dies and withers off when the animal turns into a frog.

The tail is not needed anymore but, its existence might affect the growth of the young frog. In humans, distinct fingers would not exist if the dead cells on the nails were not dropped. Most importantly, apoptosis help support the immune system of humans thereby preventing serious illnesses like cancer. During viral infections, the viral load is reduced through the cells getting killed off before they spill over and get into contact with the virus particles. The act of self-sacrifice hampers the possibility of the virus spreading to the other parts of the organism, just like the dying cells prevent the spread of cancer.

In plants apoptosis also occurs. Higher plants experience cell death just like the same cell plants. In the xylem of the plants as the water rises to the leaves there are dreaded spaces left in between which act as evidence of the dead cells between plants (Nagata, 2018). The apoptosis process is very necessary for plants. Unlike animals, plants do not move. When infected by a disease they use to slash and burn techniques to cope with the infection. All the cells existing in the infected area kill themselves to bring to a stop the spread of the disease. Apoptosis is, therefore; a technique that plants use to prevent infections spreading just like it does prevent the spread of cancer in humans and other animals.

The intracellular machinery responsible for apoptosis is similar in all animal cells. Cells in their natural form are created with the instinct ability to self destruct. However, to prevent other cells from self-destruction a mediating factor called intracellular proteolytic cascade prevents the contents of the dying cells from spilling over (Shekhawat, Jahagirdar, Yadav, & Sharma, 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, from the above analysis, it is clear that cell death is important for life. It is only a myth to think that if our cells don't die, we might live longer. In fact, if cells do not self destruct the mortality rate of plants and animals, humans included would be reduced. Viral infections and cancer would get severely destruct organs if not by the help of apoptosis. For all living organisms, natural programmed cell death is absolutely necessary. In the essay, we have summed up that Apoptosis help gets rid of all the body features that might be potentially harmful to the cells that are still needed.

References

Dickman, M., Williams, B., Li, Y., de Figueiredo, P., & Wolpert, T. (2017). Reassessing apoptosis in plants. Nature plants, 3(10), 773.

Veloso, J., & van Kan, J. A. (2018). Many shades of grey in Botrytis-host plant interactions. Trends in plant science, 23(7), 613-622.

Shekhawat, M., Jahagirdar, D., Yadav, S., & Sharma, N. K. (2019). Induction of Apoptosis in HeLa by Corn Small RNAs. Nutrition and cancer, 71(2), 348-358.

Nagata, S. (2018). Apoptosis and clearance of apoptotic cells. Annual review of immunology, 36, 489-517.