Jan. 16th (Exam One) Flashcards
What is the problem with spending 90% of your time indoors?
Other than physical activity, being outside is important because it exposes us to sunlight increasing Vitamin D levels.
What is the difference ecologically between consumers and producers?
Producers are the base of the food chain because they produce their own food (energy) that is used by consumers
Consumers are organisms that cannot create their own food and rely on other organisms for energy.
What is the chief reason why we could not survive life on earth without plants?
The most immediate issue with a planet without plants is the lack of energy they provide to the entire food chain.
They make up like 90 percent of the biomass on earth.
What is the basis for the phylogenetic separation of the different domains?
Separations are based upon the genes that a particular organism possesses and the morphology of the species.
Specifically, different varieties of rRNA have been very important in distinguishing Eukarya from Bacteria and Archaea
Fossil records are also important.
What are the characteristics of the kingdom of fungi?
Eukaryotic
Cell wall contain chitin instead of cellulose
They are heterotrophic (consumers)
Their storage carbohydrate is glycogen.
Are Algae considered plants?
Nope.
They are a non-specific group of aquatic photosynthetic organisms in the Kingdom Protista
What domain and family do plants fall into?
Mainly autotrophic or heterotrophic?
Eukarya and Plantae
They are mainly autotrophic
(producers)
What are the four types of land plants that we dicussed?
- Bryophytes (Liverworts, Mosses)
- Seedless, Vascular Plants (ferns, fern allies)
- Gymnosperms
- Angiosperms (mono or di cots)
In the evolution of plants, from the origin, describe how the four types of land plants evolved.
- First split gave us bryophytes (no vasculature, no seeds)
- Second split gave us seedless vascular plants
- Third split gave us the first plants with seeds.
- Fourth split gave us the diversification to flowering plants (gymnosperms) to angiosperms (flowering/ fruiting)
How did cockleburs lead to velcro?
They are a plant that have these small hooks on their surface.
This idea is essentially what velcro uses.
How did osage oranges (hedge apples) lead to barded wire?
The tree/bush that produces this plant has limbs that have sharp pricks that alternate.
Early ranchers would plant these bushes to contain horses.
Based on what you know generally, what are all the properties of life that you can think of?
- Organized (composed of cells)
- Uses energy (metabolism)
- Maintains stable internal environment (homeostasis)
- Responds to stimuli in environment
- Reproduce
- Grow and Develops
- Can adapt and evolve
What is the main transport form of plant carbohydrates?
Sucrose
What is the main storage form of plant carbohydrates?
Starch
What is the main structural form of plant carbohydrates?
Cellulose
What are the two forms of glucose?
the alpha and beta
What do two glucose monosaccharides make?
What type of bond is this?
Maltose
alpha 1,4 glycosidic linkage
What is sucrose made of?
One glucose molecule
One fructose molecule
What is amylose a form of?
What type of glucose linkages are used to create the polysaccharide?
It is a form of starch
alpha linkages are used
What type of linkage is used in creating cellulose?
beta1,4 glycosidic linkages
Why can’t we break down cellulose?
Because our digestive system lacks bacteria that produce the enzyme beta-glucosidase
What is the storage form of lipids in plants?
Triglycerides (triglycerols)
What part of the plant contains the most lipids?
Why?
The seeds.
They provide high amount of energy for germination and seedling growth.
What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids?
Saturated fatty acids do not have any double bonds and are ‘saturated’ with Hydrogens.
Unsaturated fatty acids have double bonds and this causes a kink in the structure, making them less dense, and therefore liquid at room temp.
Do plants have more saturated or unsaturated lipids?
Why?
Plants have more unsaturated lipids because they must survive at a variety of temperatures.
More, unsaturated lipids are easier to mobilize for uses like germination etc.
Think about some other functions of lipids in plants that you know generally and list them.
- Structure (membranes)
- Signalling molecules
- Waxes (protection from water loss)
- Pigments (chlorophyll)
What are nucleic acids made of?
Made of smaller units called nucleotides: deoxyadenosine monophosphate (Thymine, Cytosine, Guanine, Adenine)
What are the two main functions of nucleic acids?
- Store genetic information that can be passed to subsequent generations
- Allow for expression that define the organisms structure and function
How much genetic information do we share with a banana?
Why?
We share like 40 percent
Reasons why we can have some of the same genes is because there are common genes present in all four families.
Think about things like DNA/RNA Poly, things involved in cell division.
Its not that we have the exact same genes as them, but the genes for these things don’t change completely - parts of the gene for DNA Poly in a human are going to be the same to a plant’s, others will not be.
