Cytosol facts for kids

The cytosol is the watery fluid found inside every cell. Think of it as the cell's "soup" or "jelly." It fills up the cell and surrounds all the tiny parts (called organelles) that do different jobs. Many important things happen in the cytosol, like making energy for the cell.

What is Cytosol?

The cytosol is also known as intracellular fluid (ICF). This means "fluid inside the cell." It's a very important part of the cytoplasm, which includes the cytosol and all the organelles floating in it.

What Does Cytosol Do?

The cytosol is a busy place! It's where many of the cell's chemical reactions take place. For example, a process called glycolysis happens here. Glycolysis is how cells start to break down sugar to get energy.

Special Proteins in the cytosol also help the cell understand messages from outside. This is like the cell's way of "listening" to its environment. These proteins help with signal transduction, which means they pass signals from one part of the cell to another.

What is Cytosol Made Of?

The cytosol is mostly water. But it also has many other things dissolved in it, like tiny charged particles called ions. It contains small molecules and large molecules that can dissolve in water, such as proteins. About 20% to 30% of the cytosol is made of proteins.

The cytosol has a pH level of about 7.0. This means it is mostly neutral, not too acidic or too basic. For comparison, the fluid outside the cell usually has a pH of about 7.4.

Images for kids

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  The cytosol is a crowded solution of many different types of molecules. They can take up to 30% of the cell's volume.

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  This image shows the amount of intracellular fluid (fluid inside cells) in humans.

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  Carboxysomes are special protein structures found inside the cytosol of some bacteria. On the left is a picture from an electron microscope, and on the right is a model of their shape.

See also

In Spanish: Citosol para niños