What purpose does endoplasmic reticulum serve a cell?
It provides increased surface area inside the cell
It provides attachment sites for ribosomes
It is involved in intracellular transport
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle found in the cells of eukaryotic organisms. It is an interconnected network of flattened sacs or tubes encased in membranes.
Endoplasmic reticulum has two types, rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) and smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER). Rough ER is studded with the ribosome, the site of protein synthesis. Smooth ER doesn't have a ribosome and is very important to the process of metabolism.
Endoplasmic reticulum has a number of jobs within the cell. This includes the folding and transport of various proteins, specifically carrying them to the Golgi apparatus. Some other proteins, mostly the glycoproteins, move across the ER's membrane. The ER is also responsible for marking these proteins that it transports with a signal sequence. Other proteins are headed outside the ER, so they are packed into transport vesicles and moved out of the cell via the cytoskeleton.