Chapter 1

Question 1

What are the elements that are essential for life?

Answer 1

Carbon, H, O, N, P, and S

Question 2

What metal ions play an important role in metabolism?

Answer 2

K+, Na+, Mg++, Zn++, Fe++

Question 3

What are the 4 major classes of biomolecules?

Answer 3

Proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids

Question 4

What is the dual property of lipids?

Answer 4

Hydrophobic tail, hydrophilic head

Question 5

What can lipids form?

Answer 5

Bilayers

Question 6

What is a cell? Talk about it.

Answer 6

The universal building block.
Living organisms are made of cells.
Some living organisms are unicellular (singe-celled).
Larger organisms are multi-cellular (many-celled), with different functions for different cells.
Cells have some common features but can contain unique components for different organisms.

Question 7

What are the 3 distinct domains of life and what are they defined by?

Answer 7

Bacteria, archaea, and eukarya.
Defined by cellular and molecular differences that evolved over time.

Question 8

What common features do all cells share?

Answer 8

Cytoplasm, plasma membrane, ribosomes, nucleus, nucleoid, nuclear membrane, and membrane-bound organelles

Question 9

What is the central dogma and what does it describe?

Answer 9

Describes the basic principles of biological information transfer.
Information flows from DNA to RNA to protein. DNA is replicated.