BIOC2600 1.0

• Living organisms are characterized by a high degree of complexity and organization, the extraction, transformation, and systematic use of energy to create and maintain structures and to do work, the interactions of individual components being dynamic and coordinated, the ability to sense and respond to changes in surroundings, and a capacity for fairly precise self-replication while allowing enough change for evolution.
• Organisms belong to three distinct domains of life: Bacteria and Archaea are microorganisms.
• Living organisms are made of cells, with the simplest living organisms being unicellular (single-celled) and larger organisms being multicellular (many-celled), with different functions for different cells.
• Cells have some common features but can contain unique components for different organisms.
• All of these compounds are carbon-based.
• Biomolecules are compounds of carbon with different functional groups.
• Coli growing on glucose are examples of organic compounds from which most cellular materials are constructed.
• All cells share some common structural features.
• This collection of molecules includes amino acids, nucleotides, sugars, carboxylic acids, etc….
• Eukaryotic cells have a variety of membrane organelles.
• Nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, are polymers of nucleotides that store and transmit genetic information and some RNA have structural and catalytic roles.
• Bacteria and Archaea have a different cell structure from Eukarya.
• Animal and plant cells contain identical and unique components.
• Macromolecules include large molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, and polysaccharides.
• Polysaccharides are polymers of simple sugars like glucose with three major functions: energy-rich fuel stores, rigid structural components of cell walls in plants and bacteria, and extracellular recognition elements that bind proteins on other cells.
• Cells also contain an universal set of small molecules, a collection of thousands of different small organic molecules can be found dissolved in the cytosol of all cells, and they are the central metabolites in the major pathways occurring in every cell.
• Structural hierarchy on the molecular organisation of cells is a fundamental concept in cell biology.
• Macromolecules are the major constituents of cells, making up the largest fraction (besides water) and are the most versatile of biomolecules.