1 & 2 - In the Beginning & White Light Flashcards
What are the characteristics needed for a structure to be classified as alive?
Growth, Reproduction, Heredity, Respond (to environment), Cellular comp, Metabolism, Homestasis
What are the main levels of classification (Linnean)
Did King Philip Cum Over For German Sausages
Domain- Kingdom-Class-Order- Phylum- Genus- Species
What is LUCA?
The ancestor to all current life (Bacteria, Archea, Eukaryotes)
What features did LUCA possess?
DNA, RNA, Protein, Carbohydrates & a Lipid bilayer membrane
Describe the Urey-Miller experiment
Urey- Miller experiment showed thatwith just water, ammonia, hydrogen and methane – and electric sparks to mimic lightning – you could form several of the protein precursors necessary for life on Earth.
And all of this somehow turned into life
What complex molecules arose from what simple molecules?
Amino Acids -> Proteins -> Enzymes
Sugars -> Cellulose & chitin -> Cell Walls
Fatty Acids -> Phospholipids -> Membranes
Nucleotides -> Nucleic Acids -> Genetic Material
What source of energy did LUCA use and where did that energy come from
Chemiosmosis - Peter Mitchell
Energy was readily available through environment
Chemical (it was a chemotroph) (ATP)
fuck you
Why do we think the electron transport chain was a feature of LUCA
ETC is present in both Archae and bacteria
What is the Chemiosmotic Hypothesis?
Electron Transport Chain
- action of ATP synthase coupled with proton gradient (which causes a proton motive force -> allows ATP synthase to phosphorylate ADP & inorganic P to ATP)
- This was present in LUCA
Theory that suggested the electron transport chain - ATP- was made via producing a electrochemical gradient by pumping H+ down its gradient and H+ flows back through the F-Type ATP Synthase
How do chemotrophs use chemiosmosis
They use chemicals from the environment as reductants since they cannot make energy. Therefore they must rely on a world out of equilibrium.
Examples of these reductants include Fe2+,H2S, S, H2,NH3…. These are all high energy and chemically reactive
What are Heliobacteria?
- archea that shows archeal system of photosynthesis (diff. to the system prod. by bacteria)
What mechanisms do heliobacteria use in terms of primitive photosynthesis?
These mfers use retinal bacterorhodopsin (unrelted to retinal bound to rhodopsin found in eyes (evolved separately))
“it shows cis-trans isomerism” - Binham
“i like sookin cock” - also Binham
Why bacterial photosynthesis was better than bacterorhodpsin
- Bacterorhodpsin have no reducing power -they have to capture reducing power from chemical sources whereas bacteria photosynthesis can (using NADH and NADPH act as reductants)
- Having bacterial photsynthesis with electron transport chain means more H+ ions are pumped per photon of light=more efficent
- Less flexible as have to no reducing system in place
