Chemistry of Life Flashcards
Organic Compound
chemical compounds that contain the element carbon (C) and are produced by living organisms. Organic compounds are composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O), while some also contain other elements such as nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and Sulphur (S)
Inorganic Compound
Chemical compounds that do not contain the element carbon (C) and are not produced by living organisms, e.g. water, gases and mineral salts
Solvent
the liquid in which a solute is dissolved to form a solution.
a liquid, typically one other than water, used for dissolving other substances
Reagent
a substance or mixture for use in chemical analysis or other reactions.
Macronutrient
nutrients that provide calories or energy and are required in large amounts to maintain body functions and carry out the activities of daily life. There are three broad classes of macronutrient: proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Micronutrient
nutrients that are required by the body in lesser amounts for its growth and development. They play a major role in the metabolic activities of the body. These include vitamins and minerals
Mineral Salts
Inorganic substances/ elements that are needed and absorbed by living organisms. Plant roots absorb mineral salts from the soil, whereas humans and animals obtain them from the food they eat.
Deficiency Disease
a disease caused by a lack of essential dietary elements and especially a vitamin or mineral
Macroelements
Mineral salts that are needed in large quantities (E.G. calcium, phosphorous, sodium, potassium)
Microelements
Mineral salts that are needed in small quantities (E.G. Iron, Iodine)
Cholesterol
A white, wax-like substance that forms part of cell membranes and hormones.
Saccharides
ring-shaped units
Monosaccharides
One saccharide. Three types include: glucose, fructose, galactose
Disaccharides
Two monosaccharides. Three types include: maltose, sucrose, lactose
Polysaccharides
Long chains of monosaccharides. Three types include: starch, glycogen, cellulose
Polymers
Large molecules that are made up of long chains of single units
Monomers
Single units
Glucose
Forms the building blocks of starch, glycogen and cellulose.
Starch
The form in which glucose is stored in the plant
Glycogen
The form in which excess glucose is stored in the liver and skeletal muscles of humans and animals.
Cellulose
Forms the structural component of plant cell walls
Phospholipid
A lipid in which one of the fatty-acid molecules is replaced by a phosphate group (PO4).
Denature
When a protein loses its shape and can no longer perform its function.
Haemoglobin
An iron-containing protein found in the blood.
Enzymes
They are proteins that accelerate chemical reactions inside living cells. Also, as biological catalysts, they accelerate a chemical reaction by lowering the activation energy, without themselves being changed by the reaction.
Catalysts
Substances that accelerate chemical reactions
Metabolic Reactions
Chemical reactions that take place in living cells
Anabolic Reaction
A metabolic reaction where a complex molecule is built up from simple molecules. Energy is usually required.
Catabolic Reaction
A metabolic reaction where a complex molecule is broken down into simple molecules. Energy is usually released.
Hydrolysis
The process of adding water to complex molecules to break them down into simple molecules during digestion. Require the help of enzymes.
Enzyme Action
The process during a chemical reaction where substrates is/are changed from one form to another.
Nucleic Acids
Are large organic molecules that are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorous.
Two types include:
- DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
- RNA (ribonucleic acid)
DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)
Found in the nucleus; stores information as genes to make proteins/ carries the hereditary characteristics
RNA (Ribonucleic Acid)
Found in the nucleus and cytoplasm of a cell and forms part of the ribosomes; helps to make proteins from amino acids/ ensure that the amino acids bind to one another in a certain sequence according to the instructions provided by the DNA.
Vitamins
Essential for normal metabolism, growth and development of the human body. Needed in small quantities and are produced by plants.
Microscopes
An instrument that is used to see objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Magnification
The ability to make small objects seem larger, such as making a microscopic organism visible.
Magnification= Image Size/ Actual Size
Electron Microscopy
Electron microscopy (EM) is a technique for obtaining high-resolution images of biological and non-biological specimens.
TEM
Transmission Electron Microscope
SEM
Scanning Electron Microscope
Micrometre
Unit of measurement used to view cells through magnification.
SI Unit: μm / 1×10^-6
Nanometre
Unit of measurement used to view cell structures through magnification.
SI Unit: nm/ 1x 10^-9
Cell Theory
cell theory is the historic scientific theory, now universally accepted, that living organisms are made up of cells
Prokaryotic Cells
A prokaryotic cell is a type of cell that does not have a true nucleus or membrane-bound organelles
Pro- means “before”.
-Karyo- means “nucleus/ nucleur content”.
Eukaryotic Cells
A cell or organism that possesses a clearly defined nucleus. The eukaryotic cell has a nuclear membrane that surrounds the nucleus, in which the well-defined chromosomes (bodies containing the hereditary material) are located.
Eu- means “true”.
Plasmodesmata
They are narrow channels that act as intercellular cytoplasmic bridges to facilitate communication and transport of materials between plant cells. They serve to connect the cytoplasm in the plant and are extremely specialized channels that allow for intercellular movement of water, various nutrients, and other molecules.
Hydrophilic
water-loving; having an affinity for water
Etymology: from Greek hydros, meaning “water” and philia, meaning “friendship”
Hydrophobic
Water-fearing
Cyclosis
Circulation of substances.
Precipitate
Solid result of a reaction.
Colloid
Also known as a suspension. A mixture in which one substance of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance.
Solute
A substance that can be dissolved by a solvent to create a solution. A solute can come in many forms. It can be gas, liquid, or solid. The solvent, or substance that dissolves the solute, breaks the solute apart and distributes the solute molecules equally.
Chromatin
Chromosomes made of protein with DNA wrapped around them.
Selectively permeable
Allows only certain things through.
Hyaloplasm
The clear, fluid portion of the cytoplasm.
Organelle
A subcellular structure that has one or more specific jobs to perform in the cell, much like an organ does in the body.
An organelle is a sub-unit within a cell that has a specialized function.
Cell Membrane
The thin membrane surrounds every living cell. The cell membrane has two functions:
1) to be a barrier keeping the constituents of the cell in and unwanted substances out
2) to be a gate allowing transport into the cell of essential nutrients and movement from the cell of waste products.
Fluid Mosaic Model
Description of the plasma membrane structure as a mosaic of components — including phospholipids, cholesterol, proteins, and carbohydrates — which gives the membrane a fluid character.
Cytoplasm
A thick solution fills each cell and is enclosed by the cell membrane. It is mainly composed of water, salts, and proteins. In eukaryotic cells, the cytoplasm includes all of the material inside and outside the nucleus.
Cytoskeleton
The cytoskeleton is a structure that helps cells maintain their shape and internal organization, and it also provides mechanical support that enables cells to carry out essential functions like division and movement. There is no single cytoskeletal component.
Microtubule
Any minute tubules in the eukaryotic cytoplasm are composed of the protein tubulin and form an important component of the cytoskeleton, mitotic spindle, cilia, and flagella.
Metabolism
The whole range of biochemical processes that occur within a living organism. Metabolism consists of anabolism (the buildup of substances) and catabolism (the breakdown of substances). The term metabolism is commonly used to refer specifically to the breakdown of food and its transformation into energy.
Cell Wall
The cell wall is a rigid covering that protects the cell, provides structural support, and gives shape to the cell. Cell walls are found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, although not all cells have cell walls. Animal cells do not have cell walls.
Primary Cell Wall
the cellulose-containing layer laid down by cells that are dividing and growing. To allow for cell wall expansion during growth, primary walls are thinner and less rigid than those of cells that have stopped growing.
Cellulose
The main substance in the walls of plant cells, helping plants to remain stiff and upright.
Middle Lamella
The middle lamella is a layer that cements the primary cell walls of two adjoining plant cells together. In such cases, the two adjacent primary walls and the middle lamella, and perhaps the first layer of the secondary wall of each cell, may be called a compound middle lamella.
Pectin
Pectin, any of a group of water-soluble carbohydrate substances that are found in the cell walls and intercellular tissues of certain plants. In the fruits of plants, pectin helps keep the walls of adjacent cells joined together.
Secondary Cell Wall
The secondary cell wall is a structure found in many plant cells, located between the primary cell wall and the plasma membrane. Secondary cell walls provide additional protection to cells and rigidity and strength to the larger plant.
Lignin
An important organic polymer that is abundant in the cell walls of some specific cells. It has many biological functions such as water transport, mechanical support and resistance to various stresses.
Plasmodesmata
Plasmodesmata (singular, plasmodesma) are small channels that directly connect the cytoplasm of neighbouring plant cells to each other, establishing living bridges between cells. Similar to the gap junctions found in animal cells, the plasmodesmata, which penetrate both the primary and secondary cell walls, allow certain molecules to pass directly from one cell to another and are important in cellular communication.
Nucleus
A usually round part of most cells that are enclosed in a double membrane, controls the activities of the cell and contains the chromosomes.
Nuclear Membrane
A double membrane enclosing a cell nucleus and having its outer part continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum.
Nuclear Pore
The nuclear pore is a protein-lined channel in the nuclear envelope that regulates the transportation of molecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm.
Nucleoplasm
A type of protoplasm that is composed of thick fluid and constitutes chromatin fibres made up of DNA and usually found in the nucleus of the eukaryotic cells. This fluid contains primarily water, dissolved ions, and a complex mixture of molecules.
Chromatin Network
Chromatin is a mass of genetic material composed of DNA and proteins that condense to form chromosomes during eukaryotic cell division. The primary function of chromatin is to compress the DNA into a compact unit. Most of the chromatin is in a less compact form known as euchromatin. The chromatin is the network of the cell nucleus, which contains all the DNA of the nucleus of the cell.
Hereditary Characteristics
Characteristics that are passed down through DNA.
Ribosome
The complex molecular machine found inside the living cells produces proteins from amino acids during the process called protein synthesis. Specialized cell organelles and found in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
Protein Synthesis
The process of creating protein molecules. Within the cells, proteins are generated involving transcription and translation processes. In brief, transcription is the process by which the mRNA template is transcribed from DNA. The template is used for the succeeding step, translation. In translation, the amino acids are linked together in a particular order based on the genetic code. After translation, the newly formed protein undergoes further processing, such as proteolysis, post-translational modification, and protein folding.
Endoplasmic Reticulum
A continuous membrane system that forms a series of flattened sacs within the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and serves multiple functions, being important particularly in the synthesis, folding, modification, and transport of proteins. All eukaryotic cells contain an endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In animal cells, the ER usually constitutes more than half of the membranous content of the cell.
Smooth ER
An organelle found in both animal cells and plant cells.
The main function of the smooth ER is to make cellular products like hormones and lipids. It also distributes those products throughout the cell and to places in the organism.
Rough ER
A series of connected flattened sacs, part of a continuous membrane organelle within the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells, plays a central role in the synthesis of proteins.
Golgi Body
A cell organelle that helps process and package proteins and lipid molecules, especially proteins destined to be exported from the cell.
Cisternae
A flattened membrane vesicle of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus. A Golgi stack may contain anywhere from three to twenty cisternae, but most contain about six cisternae.
Secretions
Production and release of a useful substance by a gland or cell; also, the substance produced. In addition to the enzymes and hormones that facilitate and regulate complex biochemical processes, body tissues also secrete a variety of substances that provide lubrication and moisture.
Mitochondrion
Membrane-bound cell organelles (mitochondrion, singular) generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. Chemical energy produced by the mitochondria is stored in a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Cristae
Each of the partial partitions in a mitochondrion formed by infolding the inner membrane.
Matrix
The material (or tissue) in between a eukaryotic organism’s cells. The structure of connective tissues is an extracellular matrix. Fingernails and toenails grow from matrices. It is found in various connective tissues.
Cellular Respiration
The process by which organisms combine oxygen with foodstuff molecules, diverting the chemical energy in these substances into life-sustaining activities and discarding, as waste products, carbon dioxide and water.
How your cells make ATP - a molecule used to provide energy for chemical reactions.
Energy
Energy is defined as the ability to do work – which, for biology purposes, can be thought of as the ability to cause some kind of change.
ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate)
The principal molecule for storing and transferring energy in cells.
Chloroplast
Structure within the cells of plants and green algae is the site of photosynthesis, the process by which light energy is converted to chemical energy, resulting in the production of oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds.
Stroma
The colorless fluid surrounding the grana within the chloroplast. Within the stroma are grana (stacks of thylakoid), and the sub-organelles or daughter cells, where photosynthesis is commenced before the chemical changes are completed in the stroma.
Lamellae
A thin layer, membrane or plate of tissue found within a chloroplast of an autotrophic cell. They act as a type of wall at which chloroplasts can be fixed within, achieving the maximum light possible.
Grana
A stack of thylakoid discs. Chloroplasts can have from 10 to 100 grana. Grana are connected by stroma thylakoids, also called lamellae.
Thylakoid
Membrane-bound compartments inside chloroplasts and cyanobacteria. They are the site of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. Thylakoids consist of a thylakoid membrane surrounding a thylakoid lumen.
Chlorophyll
Any member of the most important class of pigments involved in photosynthesis, the process by which light energy is converted to chemical energy through the synthesis of organic compounds. Chlorophyll is found in virtually all photosynthetic organisms, including green plants, cyanobacteria, and algae.
Photosynthesis
The process by which green plants and certain other organisms transform light energy into chemical energy. During photosynthesis in green plants, light energy is captured and used to convert water, carbon dioxide, and minerals into oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds.
Chromoplasts
An organelle containing any plant pigment other than chlorophyll. The pigments may be yellow, orange, or red. Chromoplasts are usually most numerous in the cells of flowers.
Leucoplasts
Colourless plastids located in roots and non-photosynthetic tissues of plants. They may become specialized for bulk storage of starch, lipid or protein and are then known as amyloplasts, elaioplasts, or proteinoplasts.
Tonoplast
The semipermeable membrane surrounding a vacuole in a plant cell.
Cell Sap
A fluid found in the vacuoles (small cavities) of the living cell; contains variable amounts of food and waste materials, inorganic salts, and nitrogenous compounds.
Large Central Vacuole
A large vacuole found inside of plant cells. A vacuole is a sphere filled with fluid and molecules inside a cell. The central vacuole stores water and maintains turgor pressure in a plant cell. It also pushes the contents of the cell toward the cell membrane, which allows the plant cells to take in more light energy for making food through photosynthesis.
Lysosomes
A membrane-bound cell organelle that contains digestive enzymes. They break down excess or worn-out cell parts. They may be used to destroy invading viruses and bacteria.
Vesicle
A self-contained structure consisting of fluid or gas surrounded and enclosed by an outer membrane called the lipid bilayer. This is made up of hydrophilic heads and hydrophobic tails that cluster together.
Contractile Vacuole
A vacuole in a unicellular organism that contracts regularly to discharge fluid and especially water from the cell.
Food Vacuole
A membrane-bound vacuole (as in an amoeba) in which ingested food is digested.
Centrosome
A cellular structure involved in the process of cell division. Before cell division, the centrosome duplicates and then, as division begins, the two centrosomes move to opposite ends of the cell.
Centriole
Self-replicating, small, fibrous, cylindrical-shaped organelle, typically located in the cytoplasm near the nucleus in cells of most animals. It is involved in the process of nuclear division.
Chromatin Material
The loose dense network of uncoiled chromosomes present in the nucleus of the cell. This is clearly visible in the interphase during cell division. It contains DNA, RNA and proteins.
Nucleolus
The dark body that consists of RNA and proteins and is visible in the nucleoplasm
Chromosome
Structures that consist of DNA and proteins (histones) and carry hereditary characteristics.
Concentration
The measure of the amount of a sub-component in a solution. The amount of solute present in a quantity of the solvent.
Diffusion
The spontaneous movement of molecules of a liquid or gas from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until equilibrium is reached.
Endosmosis
Movement of water into a cell
Exosmosis
Movement of water out of cell
Flaccid
Describing plant tissue that has become soft and less rigid than normal because the cytoplasm within its cells has shrunk and contracted away from the cell walls through loss of water (see plasmolysis).
Hydrophobic tails
A tail (two fatty acids) that faces inwards and repels water
Hydrophilic heads
A head (phosphate) that faces outwards and attracts water.
Hypertonic
Higher concentration of solutes outside the cell than inside it resulting in water leaving the cell.
Isotonic
Some concentration of water and solutes on both sides of the membrane.
Hypotonic
Lower concentration of solutes outside the cell than inside it, resulting in water entering the cell.
Lysed
Lysis refers to the breakdown of a cell caused by damage to its plasma (outer) membrane. It can be caused by chemical or physical means (for example, strong detergents or high-energy sound waves) or by infection with a strain virus that can lyse cells.
Osmosis
The movement of water molecules from an area of high water concentration through a selectively permeable membrane to an area of low water concentration until equilibrium is reached.
Plastid
Membrane bound organelle found in the cells of algae
and plant responsible for photosynthesis, storage of products like starch, and for the synthesis of many classes of molecules such as fatty acids and terpenes, which are needed as cellular building blocks and/or for the function of the plant.
Plasmolysis
The process where plant cells shrink due to loss of water.
Respiration
A chemical reaction that happens in all living cells, including plant cells and animal cells. It is the way that energy is released from glucose so that all the other chemical processes needed for life can happen. Do not confuse respiration with breathing (which is properly called ventilation).
Turgid
Cells or tissues that are swollen from water uptake. Turgidity is the state of being swollen or turgid, especially due to high fluid content.
Vacuole
A membrane-bound cell organelle. In animal cells, vacuoles are generally small and help sequester waste products. In plant cells, vacuoles help maintain water balance. Sometimes a single vacuole can take up most of the interior space of the plant cell.
Cancer
A disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably and destroy body tissue.
Carcinoma
Cancer begins in the skin or in tissues that line or cover internal organs.
Sarcoma
Sarcoma is cancer that begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other connective or supportive tissue.
Leukaemia
Cancer found in the blood, and lymphatic and immune system.
Carcinogens
An agent with the capacity to cause cancer in humans. Carcinogens may be natural, such as aflatoxin produced by a fungus and sometimes found on stored grains, or manmade, such as asbestos or tobacco smoke. Carcinogens work by interacting with a cell’s DNA and inducing genetic mutations.
Benign
Tumours that do not penetrate the tissues and is usually enclosed in a capsule.
Malignant
Tumours that spread between the cells of the tissues, damaging them, in the process of metastasis.
Tumour
Mass of cancer cells.
