THE STUDY OF LIFE

• Enumerate and describe the characteristics of life

  Order - parts go where they’re supposed to

  Growth and development -

  Regulation - of body temperature

  Reproduction - producing offspring

  Response to environment - responding to stimuli

  Energy processing -

  Evolutionary adaptation - organisms can mimic environment after an extended period of time in order to survive
• Unifying themes in biology

  • Organization
  • Information
  • Energy and Matter
  • Interactions
• Hierarchy of Life

  1. Biosphere
  2. Ecosystems
  3. Communities
  4. Populations
  5. Organisms
  6. Organs
  7. Tissues
  8. Cells
  9. Organelles
  10. Molecules
• Structures correspond with specific functions and vice versa
• The cell is the smallest unit of organization capable of performing all activities required for life
• Every cell is enclosed by a (delimiting) membrane that regulates passage of materials between the cell and its environment/other cells
• Bacteria and archaea are prokaryotic cells
• Prokaryotic cells do not have a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles
• Eukaryotic cells have membrane-bound organelles
• The largest organelle of a eukaryotic cell is the nucleus
• DNA area in prokaryotic cell clumped together

  Nucleoid
• In eukaryotes, DNA are tightly-coiled into chromosomes
• The four  simple nucleotides

  A, G, C, and T
• Genes are the units of inheritance
• DNA are molecules that have a set of instructions called genes
• DNA are double helical molecules
• A single strand of DNA contains an order of nucleotides
• Gene expression is the process of converting information from gene to cellular product
• Describe the steps of genetic expression

  1. Replication
  2. Transcription
  3. Translation
• In gene expression, transcription is when DNA is transcribed into RNA
• In gene expression, translation is when RNA is translated into protein
• study of sets of genes in one or more species

  genomics
• study of whole sets of proteins and their properties

  proteomics
• • The entire set of proteins expressed by a given cell is called a proteome 
• Energy enters ecosystem as light and exits as heat
• Chemical energy generated by plants and other photosynthetic organisms (producers) is passed along to consumers
• Chemicals cycle within an ecosystem, where they are used and then recycled
• Competition leads to evolution
• Ecosystems contain organisms that interact with each other (harmful or not)
• Human interaction as consumers has caused many problems

  1. Climate change
  2. Burning of fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide
  3. Shifting of wind and precipitation patterns
  4. Fast extinction
• Organisms also interact continuously with the physical factors in their environment, and the environment is affected by the organisms living there
• Ancestral populations give rise to descendant populations
• Result of evolution is speciation
• Two part names in classification

  genus + epithet
• Plants produce own food through photosynthesis 
• For nutrients intake, Fungi absorbs nutrients
• For nutrients intake, animals ingest food
• Single-celled eukaryotes that have plant and animal characteristics

  protista
• Some protists are less closely related to other protists that they are to plants, animals, or fungi
• DNA and cells are present all living organisms