Life Functions Flashcards
What are the three life functions?
Nutrition
Interaction
Reproduction
What is nutrition?
Living organisms exchange
with the environment the
matter and energy needed to
perform all their functions.
What is interaction?
Living organisms detect changes in their surrounding
environment and respond to them.
What is reproduction?
Living organisms create new
organisms.
Besides the three life functions, all organisms have the ability to _______ and _______.
grow and develop
What is growth?
Organisms increase their size and weight. Usually, most organisms stop growing when they reach a certain size, except for most plants.
What is development?
✦ Development: organisms experience changes in their body structure and function during its life.
What are nutrients?
Nutrients can be defined as the substances organisms need to maintain life. They are used in chemical reactions inside the cells.
What are the three main purposes of nutrients?
Building and repairing structures: Cells must grow (increase their size) and repair old organelles and the cell membrane. To do this they use nutrients.
Regulation of processes: Some nutrients allow organisms to function properly by regulating and coordinating different processes
and reactions.
Supply energy: Required for life processes, they use as a fuel. Most nutrients go to the mitochondria and produce energy
Roots are for plants as hyphaes are for ________.
Fungi
How do unicellular organisms obtain nutrients?
✦ Unicellular organisms obtained the nutrients directly from the surrounding environment. The nutrients, usually dissolved in water, pass through the membrane and get into the cytoplasm
How do aquatic animals (like the mussel) obtain nutrients?
✦ Aquatic animals, like the mussel, filter the sea water to obtain the nutrients dissolved in it.
How do most animals obtain nutrients?
Most animals ingest actively food using the mouth and other specialized structures.
What two types of digestion are there? Define them.
✦ Internal digestion: the break down of food takes places
inside the cells or inside a digestive system. Enzymes are
chemical substances that trigger this transformation.
✦ External digestion: the break down of food takes place in
the surrounding environment by the secretion of digestive
enzymes. Afterwards, nutrients are absorbed through the
membrane.
What two types of nutrients exist?
Inorganic and organic
What two types of nutrition exist?
Autotrophic and Heterotrophic nutrition
What is Autotrophic nutrition?
Autotrophs or autotrophic organisms are capable of transforming inorganic nutrients into the organic nutrients they need. To do this, they need an external source of energy. (The sun)
What is the formula for Photosynthesis (The proccess that autotrophs undergo)
H2O + CO2 + mineral salts — O2 + Glucose
What is clorophyll?
The green color shown by autotrophs, is a pigment called chlorophyll. This substance is located in chloroplasts and allows cells to capture the sunlight necessary to perform photosynthesis.
What are heterotrophs?
Heterotrophs or heterotrophic organisms obtain organic nutrients and transform them into energy needed to perform all life functions. Oxygen (O2) is need in this reaction.
What is the formula for cellular respiration?
Glucose + O2 —- Energy + CO2 + H2O
What are the steps of interaction?
- Stimuli
- Receptor
- Coordination Systems
- Response
- Effectors
What is “stimuli”
Stimuli: changes in the environment of an organism that can be detected and causes a change in the activity of the organism.
What are the two types of stimuli?
External & Internal stimuli
Tell me the characteristics of External stimuli (the “examples”)
Give me a definition and example of EXTEROCEPTORS
“Five senses”
To detect such stimuli, organisms use EXTEROCEPTORS or external receptors. They
provide information about the outside environment and that is why they are located on
the body surface. In most animals, these exteroceptors are complex structures known as
sense organs
What is
