Page 87 - The Miracle in the Cell

HARUN YAHYA

e've examined how protein synthesis started,
and came about but for it to come about, the
most important need is for raw materials.
And in order to participate in protein syn-
thesis, these raw materials need to go
through certain processes, to be refined to
bring them to a usable state. For example, plastic
and many other products are made from oil, but first the oil must go to
the refinery, and through many chemical processes, in order to bring it to
a state that can be used for production.
The same sort of technology, though much more highly developed,
is found in the cell.

The Laboratory in the Cell

Nutrients entering the cell are broken down as a result of a series of
extensive chemical reactions, resulting in their becoming raw materials
that can then participate in new syntheses. In this way they can be used
in totally new ways-not just as amino acids to form proteins, but many
other chemical substances that the cell will use in many ways.
One organelle within which these processes are carried out, and
which resembles a highly developed chemical laboratory, is the lysosome.
Approximately 36 different enzymes in the lysosome have the duty of
digesting different nutrients. For example five enzymes take part in pro-
tein digestion, four participate in the digestion of nucleic acids, 15 in the
digestion of polysaccharides, six have a role in the digestion of lipids, two
in the digestion of organic sulphates, and four different enzymes take part
in the digestion of organic phosphates. Consider just one enzyme's chem-
ical structure, physical characteristics, complex processes and incredible
speed with which these processes are carried out, and then realize that
there are 36 different enzymes that have duties in an organelle only 1
micron (a thousandth of a millimeter) in size, and it becomes clear how
great a miracle this all is. Such powerful digesters cooperate with each
other in such harmony without harming each other or the cell as a whole.

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