How life works Flashcards
What do all cells require?
All cells require a carbon source, energy plus water. They also need other essential elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron.
What is vital within a membrane?
The concentration of energy and convertible matter within a membrane is vital
What results in cellular growth?
The metabolic conversion of carbon and energy results in cellular growth.
Cell growth is followed by…
cell growth is followed by division whereby daughter cells each retain the information to convert energy
What do cells use as an energy resource?
Cells us Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) as their energy source for many cellular reactions.
How is ATP generated?
ATP is generated from carbohydrates through respiration.
What are the three main steps in cellular respiration?
glycolysis, krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation
What happens in glycolysis?
Glucose is split into 2 pyruvate molecules in the cytosol, generating 2 ATP molecules.
Define cellular differentiation.
different cells having different functions.
Krebs Cycle steps:
Krebs cycle occurs in the mitochondria in eukaryotes and cytosol in prokaryotes.
As pyruvate crosses the mitochondrias double membrane it gets converted into
Acetyl CoA (coenzyme A) by oxidative decarboxylation (decarboxylation is the removal of carboxyl groups to leave an acetyl group which then combined with coenzyme A (CoA)
During the cycle, electrons from the acetyl group are transferred to NAD+ and FAD creating NADH2 and FADH2
This only generates a small amount of ATP.
Electron transport chain steps:
The NADH2 and FADH2 produced by the Krebs cycle are then oxidised
Occurs in inner mitochondrial membrane in eukaryotes and cell membrane in prokaryotes
During oxidation electrons are transferred from NADH2 and FADH2 by electron transport chain to give rise to NAD+, FAD and H2O
Oxygen is also converted into water
The energy produced from oxidation drives the conversion of ADP to ATP
30-36 ATP molecules generated
Anaerobic respiration:
-Anaerobic respiration does produce ATP but is less efficient (produces 2-30 ATP molecules)
-More common in prokaryotes
-O2 in the Electron transport chain is replaced with compounds such as sulphate (SO42-), nitrate (NO3-), or sulphur (S) as electron acceptors
Fermentation:
-More common in prokaryotes
-Glycolysis still occurs but not Krebs cycle (only 2 ATP molecules generated)
Lactic acid fermentation:
Prokaryotes and some eukaryotes under low O2 (e.g. muscle cells)
Glycolysis occurs and pyruvate is converted to lactate by the oxidation of NADH to NAD
Describe the evolution of cellular metabolism.
Cellular metabolism arose from simple processes which broke down organic molecules in the absence of oxygen (similar to glycolysis)
Anaerobic respiration in prokaryotes (unicellular organisms have less demand for ATP than multicellular organisms)
Then ATP helped develop photosynthesis
Then oxidative metabolism arose
Can see relics of these systems in some of todays prokaryotic cells (archaebacteria and eubacteria)
Do mitochondria or chloroplasts contain large numbers of genes today?
Neither mitochondria or chloroplasts have large numbers of genes today.
Why may have mitochondria or chloroplasts lost their genes?
It is suggested that they have lost genes by transfer of genes to the nucleus or by loss as genes with similar functions already present in the nucleus.
How many genes chloroplasts got?
chloroplast genomes so far examined only appear to contain 50 – 200 genes (a bacterium like E. coli contains ~4000 genes)
What is differentiation?
unspecialised cells become more specialised and take on more complex functions.
How can a cell become specialised?
For a cell to become specialised, the cell has to express a particular set of genes.
What do all cells arise from?
All cells arise from stem cells.
Stem cells can have different levels of…
Stem cells can have different levels of potency
Where do stem cells commonly start off as and get produced?
Embryonic stem cells, and are produced at the blastula stage of embryonic development.