organisation Flashcards
What are cells?
- the basic building blocks of all living organisms
What are tissues?
- a group of specialised cells with a similar structure and function
What are organs?
- a number of different of tissues working together to perform a specific function
Describe the relationship between organs, organ systems and organisms
*organs are organised into organ systems,
* they work together to peform a specific function
* and to form organisms
What is the digestive system?
- an example of an organ system
- several organs work together to digest and absorb food
What are the products of digestion used for?
- building new carbohydrates, lipids and proteins; some glucose is used in respiration
What happens during the first stage of the digestive system (mouth)?
- mechanical digestion takes place by chewing in the mouth
- salivary glands secrete amylase - begins catalysing the digestion of starch
- breaks it down into simple sugars like glucose and maltose
Describe the path of food in the body
- mouth -> oesophagus -> stomach -> small intestine -> bloodstream (soluble molecules only) -> large intestine -> rectum
What is the function of the stomach? What are the adaptations of the stomach?
- has a muscular wall which contracts and churns the food, mixing it to form a liquid, increasing surface area for enzymes to work on
- secretes pepsin (a type of protease enzyme) which breaks down proteins into amino acids
- produces hydrochloric acid which both kills harmful microorganisms in the food and provides optimal pH conditions for the pepsin to work
What is the role of the pancreas in digestion?
- secretes lipase, protease and carbohydrase enzymes into the small intestine to digest the food and the small intestine itself produces all of these enzymes in smaller amounts
What is the role of the small intestine in digestion?
- where soluble molecules are absorbed into the blood
What is the role of the large intestine in digestion?
- absorbs water from undigested food to produce faeces
- passes out of your body through the rectum and anus
Where is bile made and stored?
- made in the liver
- stored in the gall bladder
Where does bile get released into and why?
- the small intestine
- neutralises the hydrochloric acid from the stomach to provide optimal alkaline pH conditions for the pancreatic enzymes to work
- emulsifies fats to form small droplets which increases the surface area for lipase enzymes to work on and digest more quickly
- the alkaline conditions and large surface area increase the rate of fat breakdown by lipase
What happens once the molecules are broken down into smaller, soluble ones e.g. amino acids, fatty acids, glycerol and simple sugars?
- they’re absorbed across the lining of the small intestine and into the bloodstream via diffusion and active transport
What do digestive enzymes do? e.g. lipase
- convert food into small soluble molecules that can be absorbed into the bloodstream and used by cells
What happens to the remaining material that isn’t absorbed into the bloodstream?
- passes into the large intestine where excess water is absorbed back into the blood and faeces remain which are then stored in the rectum and excreted
What is an enzyme?
- enzymes are known as biological catalysts; they increase the rate of reaction without being used up
What is the function of an enzyme?
- can break up large molecules and join small ones
- protein molecules and the shape of the enzyme is vital to its function
- this is because each enzyme has its own uniquely shaped active site where the substrate binds
What do carbohydrase enzymes help break down, where are they made and what do they work in?
- help break down carbohydrates into simple sugars, like glucose and maltose
e.g. analyse - starch into maltose - made in the salivary glands, pancreas and small intestine
- work in the mouth and small intestine
What do protease enzymes help break down, where are they made and what do they work in?
- help break down proteins into amino acids
- made in the stomach, pancreas and small intestine
- work in the stomach and small intestine
What do lipase enzymes help break down, where are they made and what do they work in?
- help break down lipids into glycerol and 3 fatty acid molecules
- made in the pancreas and small intestine
- work in the small intestine
Why does rate of enzyme activity increase as temperature increases initially?
- enzymes have more kinetic energy so are moving more quickly
- therefore there are more frequent, successful collisions with substrates, so more enzyme-substrate complexes form per second, increasing rate of catalysation
Describe what happens at 37ºC in terms of enzyme activity
- at 37ºC, the rate of enzyme activity reaches a maximum (the optimum temperature) where the rate of activity is at its highest
Describe what happens past the optimum temperature in terms of enzyme activity
- the rate of enzyme activity rapidly decreases to 0 the more you increase the temperature
- this is because temperatures that are too high affect the bonds that hold the enzyme together, causing the active site to change shape
- the enzyme becomes denatured because the substrate can no longer fit into the active site, so the enzyme can no longer catalyse the reaction
How is the rate of enzyme activity affected by pH?
- if the pH falls too low or too high above the optimum pH (7), the bonds holding the enzyme in its specific folded shape will begin to dissolve
- causing the active site to distort so the substrate molecule no longer fits and the enzyme can no longer catalyse the reaction
- so the enzyme becomes denatured and rate of enzyme activity decreases
Explain the lock and key model
- enzymes have an active site on their surface which is complementary to the substrate molecule (the reactant)
- the substrate must fit perfectly and be complementary to the shape of the active site in order to bind to it and form an enzyme-substrate complex
- the substrate is then broken down into the products of the reaction
Why are enzymes very specific in the chemical reactions that they catalyse?
- the active has a specific shape and the substrate must fit perfectly and be complementary to the active site in order to form an enzyme-substrate complex
What is the main function of the circulatory system?
- to get nutrients and oxygen to every cell in the body and take waste products like carbon dioxide and urea to where they can be removed from the body
How does a single circulatory system works?
- deoxygenated blood travels from the heart to the gills, for example, where it is oxygenated and then returns back to the heart after it gives oxygen to the cells
What are the problems with a single circulatory system?
- the blood loses a lot of pressure as it only goes to the heart once, so it travels to organs slowly, so cannot deliver lots of oxygen
How does a double circulatory system work?
- deoxygenated blood flows into the right atrium and then into the right ventricle and travels from the heart to the lungs to undergo gaseous exchange
- oxygenated blood flows into the left atrium and then into the left ventricle which pumps it all around the body (organs) and then returns back to the heart
What are the advantages of a double circulatory system?
- maintains a relatively high blood pressure throughout so that it can travel quickly around the body and deliver oxygen more efficiently
What is the function of the heart?
- an organ consisting mainly of muscle tissue that pumps blood around the body in a double circulatory system
Describe the structure of the heart
- muscular walls to provide a strong heartbeat
- muscular wall of left ventricle is thicker because blood needs to be pumped all around the body rather than just to the lung
- 4 chambers that separate oxygenated blood from deoxygenated
- valves to make sure blood does not flow backwards
- coronary arteries cover the heart to provide its own oxygenated blood supply
Explain the process of the heart
- blood flows into right atrium through vena cava, and left atrium through pulmonary vein
- atria contract forcing the blood into the ventricles
- ventricles then contract, pushing blood in the right ventricle into pulmonary artery to be taken to the lungs, and the blood in the left ventricle to the aorta to be taken around the body
- as this happens, valves close to make sure the blood does not flow backwards
What is the function of the aorta?
- the main artery which carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle of the heart to the rest of the body
What is the function of the vena cava?
- a vein that brings deoxygenated blood from the body into the right atrium of the heart
What is the function of the pulmonary artery?
- an artery that takes deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs for oxygenation
What is the function of the pulmonary vein?
- a vein that carries oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart
What is the function of the coronary arteries?
- arteries that branch out of the aorta and spread around the heart muscle, in order to provide oxygen to the muscle cells of the heart – this allows heart muscles to respire and release energy needed for muscular contraction
What is the function of the right ventricle?
- a heart chamber that pumps blood to the lungs where gas exchange takes place
What is the function of the left ventricle
- a heart chamber that pumps blood around the rest of the body
Why does the left ventricle have a thicker muscular wall than the right?
- in order to provide enough force to provide a high blood pressure to pump the blood long distances all around the body
What is the natural resting heart rate controlled by?
- a group of cells located in the right atrium called pacemaker cells that send electrical impulses, which stimulate the heart muscles to contract rhythmically
- without this, the heart would not pump fast enough to deliver the required amount of oxygen to the whole body
What happens if the pacemaker cells stop working?
- an artificial pacemaker can be implanted, which is an electrical device that corrects irregularities in the heart rate
What are the three different types of blood vessel?
- arteries
- veins
- capillaries
What is the function of the arteries?
- they carry very high-pressure blood from the heart to the organs in the body
- AWAY from the heart
What are the adaptations of the arteries?
- have very thick muscular walls to withstand the high blood pressure within them
- have a layer of elastic fibres which help them to stretch when surges of blood pass through, and recoil in between surges, keeping the blood flowing correctly and preventing artery damage due to the high pressure of the blood
- have narrow lumens to maintain the high blood pressure needed to carry blood from heart to organs
What is the function of the veins?
- carry low pressure blood from the body to the heart
- TOWARDS the heart
What are the adaptations of the veins?
- as blood is low pressure and travelling slowly, the blood could move backwards; the veins therefore contain valves to prevent the backflow of low-pressure blood
- they have thin walls; the walls do not need to be thick as the blood is low pressure
- they have a large lumen because they transport blood at low pressure
What is the function of the capillaries?
- very narrow thin blood vessels that connect branches of arteries to veins
What are the adaptations of the capillaries?
- very thin walls (one cell thick) to allow for a short diffusion path, increasing rate of diffusion and exchanging of substances
- their walls are very permeable to allow high rates of diffusion and exchange of substances
- very small lumen to increase the SA:Vol ratio; this facilitates better exchange of oxygen, nutrients and other toxins to and from the blood and tissues.
How would you calculate rate of blood flow?
- volume of blood / number of minutes
Where are the lungs found?
- thorax (top part of body) and protected by ribcage
What is the function of the lungs?
- the organ where gas exchange occurs
- supply oxygen to blood and remove carbon dioxide
What is the function of the trachea?
- it brings air into the lungs and is supported by rings of cartilage which prevent it collapsing
What is the function of the bronchi?
- branches off the trachea to bring air into the lungs; also supported by rings of cartilage