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Why are lysosomes called suicidal bags of a cell, and what role do they play in human cells?
Lysosomes, discovered by Christian de Duve, are membrane-bound sac-like structures present in animal cells. They contain more than 50 hydrolytic enzymes that are capable of degrading materials entering the lysosomes such as biomolecules, receptors etc., thus playing an important role in cellular metabolism and signaling. Lysosomes are called suicidal bags of a cell because they are capable of destroying the same cell in which they are present. This is called autolysis and usually happens when a cell is damaged.
The materials targeted for degradation inside a cell are taken up in a vesicle through the process called endocytosis. This vesicle is generally coated and is pinched off the cellular membrane with the help of family of proteins called GTPases. The vesicle sheds its coat after budding from the membrane and forms an early endosome, a tubulo-vesicular structure that acts as the primary sorting station in the pathway. Any cargo meant for recycling...