A typical animal cell is said to contain some 10 billion protein molecules that need to be sorted into their proper compartments. That’s a lot of proteins. Can 10 billion protein molecules even fit into a cell? An average protein encoded by human genome is 450 amino acids (AA) in length, and the average mass of an amino acid in a protein is 110 daltons. Given that the average density of a protein is 1.4 g/cm3, what fraction of the volume of a cell would 10 billion protein molecules occupy? Consider a liver cell, which has a volume of about 5000 mm3, and a pancreatic exocrine cell, which has a volume of about 1000 mm3.

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A typical animal cell is said to contain some 10 billion protein molecules that need to be sorted into their proper compartments. That’s a lot of proteins. Can 10 billion protein molecules even fit into a cell? An average protein encoded by human genome is 450 amino acids (AA) in length, and the average mass of an amino acid in a protein is 110 daltons. Given that the average density of a protein is 1.4 g/cm3, what fraction of the volume of a cell would 10 billion protein molecules occupy? Consider a liver cell, which has a volume of about 5000 mm3, and a pancreatic exocrine cell, which has a volume of about 1000 mm3.

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