Where is the nucleolus located?
Though known to exist since the eighteenth century, the primary function of the nucleolus was not discovered until the 1960s. It is now been determined that nucleoli manufacture the subunits that combine to form ribosomes, the cell’s protein-producing factories. Accordingly, the size of nucleoli depends upon the ribosomal requirements of the type of cell in which they are found. In cells that produce large amounts of protein, and thus call for significant numbers of ribosomes, the size of the nucleolus is considerable, sometimes occupying as much as 25 percent of the total volume of the nucleus.
