Properties of Living systems Flashcards
what are the 8 characteristics of organisms
- Highly organized
- have genetic program
- grow and develop
- respond to stimuli
- maintain homeostasis
- process energy
- can reproduce
- adapt to environment
Organisms have complex organization; cell is the basic unit of life; cam be uni or multicellular; assemble macromolecules
Living things are highly organized
Storing of genetic information in DNA and can be passed on from parent to offspring
Living things have a genetic program
All organisms pass through a life cycle and the instructions for development are found in the genes
Living organisms grow and develop
Organisms respond to their environment; life cannot be separated from the environment
Living things respond to stimuli
Cells need appropriate conditions to function properly; How do organisms maintain constant internal conditions?
Living things maintain homeostasis
Homeostasis
organisms undergo chemical changes to maintain life; acquire nutrients from environment to sustain themselves; What has all the essential biochemical processes for cells to maintain life?
Living things process energy
Metabolism
organisms give rise to offspring similar to themselves; what is the passing on from traits to off spring? and what is the production of differences among traits across individuals?
Living things reproduce
Heredity
Variation
Traits that confer advantages become more common in a population; what do you call the interaction between heredity and variation?
Living things adapt to their environment
Evolution
What are the characteristics of animals
- Multicellular eukaryotes
- Lack cell walls
- Heterotrophic
- Most are motile
- Most have tissues
What do you call animals who have tissue level organization or higher?
Eumetazoans
What are the 4 Macromolecules?
- Carbohydrates
- Proteins
- Lipids
- Nucleic Acids
What mainly functions as structural elements and chemical energy sources and are the most abundant?
Carbohydrates
What is a simple sugar, a monomer, and has a single carbon molecule chain? give examples
Monosaccharides
1. glucose
2. galactose
3. fructose
What is a monosaccharide and is a key organic compound that typically forms a chain but forms a cyclic compound in water
Glucose
What is formed by two simple sugars (monosaccharides) by a shared molecule? give examples
Disaccharides
1. sucrose
2. lactose
3. maltose
What has long chains of monosaccharides (polymers)? give examples
Polysaccharides
1. Starch
2. Chitin
3. Glycogen
4. Cellulose
What polysaccharide is an important structural component of arthropod exoskeletons?
Chitin
What polysaccharide stores sugar in animals?
Glycogen
What are fat and fatlike substances with low polarity and insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents?
Lipids
What is a true fat used for energy storage composed of glycerol and 3 fatty acid molecules
Triglycerides
What component in triglyceride has 2 Hydrogen per 1 Carbon, solid at room temp, common in animals
Saturated fat
What component in triglycerides have 2 or more carbons double bonded, liquid at room temperature and more common in plant oils?
Unsaturated fats
What is the main component of molecular organization in tissues and is similar to triglycerides except it has 2 fatty acid chains, one phosphate group, and an organic base, and is amphiphilic?
Phospholipids
What are complex alcohols that are structurally unlike fats but have fat-like properties?
Steroids
It is composed of amino acids linked in one ore more chains
Proteins
How are proteins linked?
Peptide bonds
What group of proteins are linked and how?
Carboxyl covalently linked to amino
True or false: Thousands of amino acids can be linked in the same chain
True
How many different amino acids are there?
20
How many levels of structural organization do proteins have?
4
What is the sequence of amino acids?
Primary Structure
What has recurring structural patterns in the amino acid chain formed by varying bond angles?
Secondary Structure
What has a complex and stable 3D structure formed by the bends and folds?
Tertiary Structure
What are proteins with more than one polypeptide chain
Quaternary Structure
What are the two functions of proteins?
Structural framework of cells and cellular components and Enzymes
What are the biological catalysts for various chemical reactions in the organism
Enzymes
What are complex polymers made of nucleotides and encode genetic information for biological inheritance
Nucleic acids
What are the 5 nitrogenous bases?
Purines: Adenine, Guanine
Pyrimidines: Cytosine, Thymine, Uracil
What are the Purine-Pyrimidine binds?
Adenine-Thymine/Uracil
Guanine-Cytosine
What are the two kinds of nucleic acids?
DNA and RNA
What is double stranded; antiparallel, and stores genetic information but does not directly participate in protein synthesis?
DNA
What is single-stranded and uses uracil instead of thymine?
RNA
What are the steps to the central dogma?
- Replication
- Transcription
- Translation
What occurs in the nucleus and DNA is precisely copied by DNA polymerase and each daughter cell receives identical DNA strands?
Replication
What occurs in the nucleus and the RNA polymerase transcribes triplet codes (codon) into mRNA where Uracil substitutes Thymine?
Transcription
What occurs in the ribosomes found in the cytoplasm and the ribosomes move along the mRNA and tRNA adds amino acid that corresponds to the codon?
Translation
where were organic molecules synthesized from?
Abiotic chemical Reactions
What were the hypothetical conditions of the early Earth?
- Lots of water
- Chemically reducing atmosphere (low amounts of molecular oxygen)
What experiment simulated these hypothetical early Earth conditions?
Miller-Urey Experiment
What did the stages in the Miller-Urey Experiment lead too?
- Set up resulted in formation of simple organic molecules
- Chemical evolution involved polymers formed by monomers by dehydration reactions
What happens in aqueous solutions?
Amphiphilic molecules form membrane-bound vesicles with organic solutes concentrated within the vesicles
True or false: Natural selection could occur once replication began
True
What were most likely the early replicators?
RNA due to its catalytic properties including self-replication
