Textbook Chapter 1 Flashcards
Define evolution
Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present-day ones; also defined more narrowly as the change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation.
Evolution in detail.
Evolution refers to the process of change that has transformed life on Earth, and accounts for unity and diversity of life. It explains evolutionary adaptations, that organisms adapt to their environment.
Define biology
The scientific study of life.
List the properties of life
-Order
-Evolutionary Adaptation
-Regulation
-Energy Processing
-Growth and Development
-Response to Environment
-Reproduction
Common themes about the study of life or biology
-Organization
-Information
-Energy and Matter
-Interactions
-Evolution
Define emergent properties.
New properties that arise with each step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arrangement and interactions of parts as complexity increases.
Define systems biology.
An approach to studying biology that aims to model the dynamic behaviour of whole biological systems based on a study of the interactions among the system’s parts.
At each level of the biological hierarchy, there is a correlation between __ and ____.
Structure and function.
Describe the theme of organization in detail
Hierarchy of life goes as follows:
biosphere-> ecosystem->community->population->organism->organ->tissue->tissue->cell->organelle->molecule->atom
Each step higher than atom has emergent properties resulting from interactions among components at the lower levels. Biologists. use a system called reductionism to study complex systems by breaking them down into simple components and their interactions.
Structure and function are correlated at all levels of biological organization, with the cell being the lowest level of organization that can sustain life, and can either eukaryotic (membrane enclosed organelles containing DNA within a nucleus) or prokaryotic (lacking these organelles).
Eukaryotic cell vs Prokaryotic cell.
A type of cell with a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles. Organisms with eukaryotic cells (protists, plants, fungi, and animals) are called eukaryotes.
A type of cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles. Organisms with prokaryotic cells (bacteria and archaea) are called prokaryotes.
Describe Information in detail
Genetic information is encoded in the nucleotide sequences of DNA. It is DNA that transmits heritable information from parent to offspring. DNA sequences (called genes) program a cell’s protein production by being transcribed into RNA and then translated into specific proteins, a process referred to as gene expression. Gene expression results in RNAs that are not translated into protein but also serve other important functions.
Define DNA.
A double-stranded, helical nucleic acid molecule, consisting of nucleotide monomers with a deoxyribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T); capable of being replicated and determining the inherited structure of a cell’s proteins.
Define genes.
A discrete unit of hereditary information consisting of a specific nucleotide sequence in DNA (or RNA, in some viruses).
Define gene expression.
The process by which information encoded in DNA directs the synthesis of proteins or, in some cases, RNAs that are not translated into proteins and instead function as RNAs.
Define genome and genomics.
The genetic material of an organism or virus; the complete complement of an organism’s or virus’s genes along with its noncoding nucleic acid sequences.
The study of whole sets of genes and their interactions within a species, as well as genome comparisons between species.
Define proteome and proteomics.
The entire set of proteins expressed by a given cell or group of cells.
The systematic study of the full protein sets (proteomes) encoded by genomes.
Define bioinformatics.
The use of computers, software, and mathematical models to process and integrate biological information from large data sets.
Describe Energy and Matter in detail.
Energy flows through an ecosystem. All organisms must work perform work which requires energy. Producers convert energy from sunlight into chemical energy, some of which is passed on to consumers with the rest lost as that energy. Chemicals cycle between the environment and organisms.
Define producers and consumers.
An organism that produces organic compounds from CO2 by harnessing light energy (in photosynthesis) or by oxidizing inorganic chemicals (in chemosynthetic reactions carried out by some prokaryotes).
Organisms that feed on other organisms or their remains.
Explain the Theme of Interactions.
In feedback regulation, a process is regulated by its output or end product. In negative feedback, accumulation of the end product slows its production. In positive feedback, an end product speeds up its own production.
Organisms interact continuously with physical factors. Plants take up nutrients from the soil and
chemicals from the air and use energy from the sun.
Feedback regulation
The regulation of a process by its output or end product.
Classification
Biologists classify species to large and broader groups. Domain Bacteria and Archaea consist of prokaryotes, with Eukarya consisting of smaller subgroups including protists, and the kingdoms Plantae, Fungi and Animalia. There is a large amount of diversity but also unity between different species.
Darwin and Natural Selection
Darwin stated natural selection as the mechanism that drives evolutionary adaptations of populations to their environments. Natural selection is the evolutionary process that occurs when a population is exposed to environmental factors that consistently cause individuals with certain heritable traits to have greater reproductive success in comparison to the individuals without those traits.
Scientific Inquiry
In scientific inquiry, scientists make observations (collect data) and use inductive reasoning to draw a general conclusion, which can be developed into a testable hypothesis. Deductive reasoning makes predications that can be used to test hypotheses. Hypotheses must detestable; science can neither address the possibility of the supernatural or the validity of religious beliefs. Hypotheses can be tested by conducting experiments or when it is not possible, by making observations. The core idea of science is to test ideas, which is influenced by exploration and discovery, community analysis and feedback and societal outcomes.
Controlled experiments such as the study investigating coat colouration in mouse populations, are designed to demonstrate the effect of one variable by testing control groups and experimental groups that differ in only one variable.
