Final

• The four forms of viral genomes(nucleic acid genetic material) are double-stranded DNA, single-stranded DNA, double-stranded RNA, and single-stranded RNA
• Prokaryotes are probably the most abundant organisms on the planet. They are the primary decomposers on earth. They recycle soil nutrients and breaking down organic matter which can then be used again by plants. If prokaryotes went extinct, dead organic material would build up and nothing would decompose. Most of life would eventually go extinct.
• Essential amino acids are the amino acids that must be obtained from food. Many proteins in animal products such as eggs and meat have a complete set of these amino acids in proper proportion. Vegetarians are able to obtain these amino acids by eating a varied diet of plant proteins, such as the combination of rice and beans
• Mammalian hearts have four chambers.
• Oxygen partial pressure is lowest in blood returning to the heart and lungs(also low in body cells because they use it for cellular respiration). Oxygen partial pressure is highest in the alveoli of the lungs and blood leaving the lungs to return to heart and pumped out of the left ventricle
• Miller and Urey did an experiment that describes a necessary step in the origin of life. The experimental results revealed that abiotic synthesis of small organic molecules, such as amino acids and nitrogenous bases, could occur within the environment of earth before life
• The two divisions of the autonomic nervous systems or sympathetic(fight or flight), and parasympathetic(rest and digest)
• The sympathetic division would be activated, prompting the response that would prepare one for the test, forcing panic in the body in order to arrive at the test faster.
• The two type of photoreceptor cells in the retina of the vertebrate eye are rods and cones. Rods are more sensitive to light, but do not distinguish colors; they enable us to see at night, but only in black and white. Cones provide color vision, but being less sensitive, contribute very little to night vision
• The FSH(follicle stimulating hormone) is the hormone that stimulates the follicle to mature to a secondary oocyte in an ovary
• The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that is responsible for thermoregulation
• A behavior is an action carried out by muscles under control of the nervous system in response to a stimulus. Behaviors are subject to natural selection because they are essential for survival and reproduction
• Host range in a virus refers to the number of species that a virus can infect. Viruses with broad host ranges are generalists and infect numerous species(West Nile Virus). Viruses with narrow host ranges are specialists and only infect one or two species. They may also only infect a particular tissue type within a single species(HIV). The correct match(lock and key) of the viral glycoproteins on the surface of the virus and the receptor proteins of the host cell
• Bacteria and Archaea are generally diverse. They generate diversity, even though they reproduce asexually. They have short generation times. Even with rare mutations, they accumulate quickly in the population. They can also share DNA
• Batesian mimicry involves a harmless species mimicking a harmful one for protection
• Coral is a cnidarian and has a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship with a photosynthetic algae(protist) called zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae provide sugars from photosynthesis to the coral and the coral provide a home for the zooxanthellae. The zooxanthellae give coral its color. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae(zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. The coral will eventually die, if the water does not return to suitable temperatures
• The sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment is called its ecological niche
• A species' fundamental niche is the niche potentially occupied by that species. Fundamental niche is where an animal could live if no other species was present. A species' fundamental niche is often different from its realized niche, the portion of its fundamental niche is often different from its realized niche, the portion of its fundamental niche that it actually occupies in a particular environment. This difference is a result of competition or predation or any species interaction
• Competition is an -/- interaction. G.F. Gause's competitive exclusion principle holds that two species competing for the same limiting resources cannot coexist permanently in the same place. In the absence of disturbance, one species will use the resources more efficiently and reproduce more rapidly than the other. Even a slight reproductive advantage will eventually lead to local elimination of the inferior competitor, an outcome called competitive exclusion.
• A negative feedback loop dampens a stimulus while a positive feedback loop reinforces a stimulus, driving a process to completion. Since negative feedback dampens a stimulus, it prevents excessive pathway activity. In addition, many negative feedback pathways are paired, providing even more balanced control.
• Negative feedback contributes to homeostasis.
• Intense solar radiation near the equator initiates a global pattern of air circulation and precipitation. High temperatures in the tropics evaporate water from Earth’s surface and cause warm, wet air masses to rise and flow toward the poles. The rising air masses release much of their water content, creating abundant precipitation in tropical regions. As a result of the abundant precipitation and more direct sunlight, levels of photosynthesis are highest in these tropical regions.
• The high-altitude air masses, now dry, descend toward Earth around 30° north and south, absorbing moisture from the land and creating an arid climate conducive to the development of the deserts that are common at those latitudes. Some of the descending air then flows toward the poles.
• At latitudes around 60° north and south, the air masses againrise and release abundant precipitation (although less than in the tropics). Some of the cold, dry rising air then flows to the poles, where it descends and flows back toward the equator, absorbing moisture and creating the comparatively rainless and bitterly cold climates of the polar regions.
• Plants have multicellular haploid forms and multicellular diploid forms. Alternation of generations means the multicellular haploid forms alternate with multicellular diploid forms. Animals, like humans, have a multicellular diploid form(the body), but our haploid cells are all single cells(gametes=eggs and sperms)
• Mechanical digestion is the physical breaking apart of food into smaller particles to increase the surface area available for chemical processes.
• Chemical digestion uses a variety of enzymes to break large macromolecules into small monomers that may be absorbed into the cells of the body.
• Enzymatic hydrolysis is chemical digestion, or the breaking of a chemical bond that holds together subunits of a macromolecule with water and digestive enzymes. Breaking larger food mechanically into smaller pieces increases surface area, which aids in chemical digestion
• Bacteria were the first organisms on earth. Life began ~3.5 billion years ago
• Viruses are not considered to be alive by scientists because they cannot replicate or transcribe DNA without a host cell, they do not contain many of the components of living cells, like cytoplasm or a membrane, and they do not exhibit some of the characteristics of living things, such as energy processing or homoestasis
• The two components of the vertebrate CNS are the brain and spinal cord
• The PNS transmits information to and from the CNS and plays a large role in regulating an animal’s movement and internal environment. It’s made up of two efferent components, the motor system and the autonomic nervous system, which carry information from the CNS to the rest of the body. The afferent neurons of the PNS carry information to the CNS from internal and external stimuli.
• Arthropods are the most diverse phylum of animals
• The three domains of life are bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. Bacteria and archaea are prokaryotic
• Fungi get nutrients by absorbing. They are heterotrophic
• Eukaryotes have membrane bound organelles and prokaryotes do not
• T1D is a chronic disease that is characterized by the loss of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas
• T2D is a non-insulin dependent diabetes. It is characterized by a failure of target cells to respond normally to insulin. Insulin is produced, but target cells fail to take up glucose from the blood, and the blood glucose level remains elevated.
• The "RNA world hypothesis" is that the first genetic material was RNA not DNA. Scientist think this because RNA molecules can self-replicate. RNA molecules can fold into several distinct 3D shapes which help their enzymatic activity. RNA has catalytic properites
• In multicellular organisms, a hormone is one of the many types of secreted chemicals that are formed in specialized cells, travel in body fluids, and act on specific target cells in other parts of the body, changing the target cells’ functioning. Hormones are thus important in long-distance signaling. Hormones elicit responses only with a target cell because those target cells have a matching receptor; cells without that receptor are unaffected.