BIOLOGY REVISION

CELLS & CELL MEMBRANES

CELL THEORY
Cells were first described in 1665 and cell theory suggested in the 1830s. Today it is:
1. All living organisms are made of cells - they may be unicellular or
multicellular
2. The cell is the basic unit of life
3. Cells are formed from pre-existing cells during cell division
4. Energy flow (the chemical reactions that create life) occurs within cells
5. Hereditary information (DNA) is passed on cell to cell as cell division
occurs
6. All cells have the same basic chemical composition
With the discovery of viruses, the cell theory could be disproven. Viruses seem to be
living as they reproduce (but use resources of a host cell) and pass on genes. They
do, however, need a host cell to survive.
Points 1 and 2 were suggested in the 1830s while the others were added later as
new discoveries were made. This is the result of the advancement of the microscope
from a light microscope (x1000) to an electron microscope (x50 mill) in the 1930s.
However, with an electron microscope are that you cant see in colour or observe
living specimens. Recently lasers have been used to build an image via computer by
scanning an object in a microscope. This is confocal laser scanning microscopy and
can produce highly detailed images. Although this is not as high a magnification as
electron microscopy, it produces clearer images than light microscopy.

PLANT AND ANIMAL CELLS

Cytoplasm: Most chemical reactions go on
here controlled by enzymes
Cell Membrane: Controls what enters and
leaves the cell
Nucleus: Contains DNA which controls the
activities of the cell
Cell Wall (cellulose): Strengthens the cell
Vacuole: Contains liquid cell sap to help keep the cell turgid
Chloroplast: Contains chlorophyll which absorbs the light needed for photosynthesis
Plants and animals are multicellular so certain cells are specialised e.g. red blood,
nerve, egg, sperm, root hair, leaf and xylem cells etc.

MICROBES: BACTERIA
Cell Wall: Made of murein
Chromosome (DNA): Floats freely
in cytoplasm
May have: flagella (tail to move),
capsule (gummy outer covering) and pilus
(protein rod which helps cells to
attach to each other)

Bacteria are thought to have been the first forms of life from which all others have
evolved. They produce asexually by dividing in two.

MICROBES: EUGLENA
Eyespot: Can detect light
Vacuole: Contractile vacuole helps remove excess
water
Euglena is
an algal
cell which
is a type of
protist.

MICROBES: YEAST
Cell Wall: Made of chitin and glucans
Yeast is a unicellular fungus. Yeast
reproduces asexually by budding.

MICROBES: VIRUS
Viruses are smaller than bacteria and were first seen
in 1931. They can only reproduce inside a host cell.
The release of new viruses results in the destruction
of the host cell and new viruses then attack new cells.

ENZYMES
The chemical reactions in cells are controlled by enzymes which are biological
catalysts. The DNA in the nucleus of a cell tells it what amino acids to produce. The
amino acids make up different proteins by linking together to form a chain which is
then folded to form a specific shape and they can make hormones, muscle tissue or
be made into enzymes by living cells. The specific shape of an enzyme enables it to
perform its specific function. This is called the active site and the shape is held by
chemical bonds.
Each enzyme has an optimum pH and temperature at which it works best (usually
around 37 degrees). Changing the pH or increasing the temperature too much
denatures the enzyme as it breaks the chemical bonds which hold together the
active site. This means the enzyme can no longer function by forming an enzymesubstrate complex at the active site.

Digestive enzymes (lipases, proteases and carbohydrases) are used in biological

washing powders to remove stains from textiles. This use of enzymes enables lower
temperatures to be used which require less energy.

DNA
DNA is made up of two long chains of alternating sugar and phosphate molecules
connected by bases and twisted to form a double helix. There are four bases, A, T, C
and G (adenine and thymine, cytosine and guanine), and the order of these bases
forms a code which determines the order in which different amino acids are linked
together to form different proteins. The code consists of triplets of bases along the
DNA each of which codes an individual amino acid in the protein.
Watson and Francis Crick were racing against another scientist, Linus Pauling, to
discover the structure of DNA. Pauling began his model first but proposed DNA to be
triple helix. This wasnt possible as there were fundamental mistakes with it. Watson
and Crick began their own model when they learned of this but had seen evidence
he had not: Maurice Wilkins had shown them the findings of Rosalind Franklin, his
junior partner. Franklin and Wilkins had been using X-ray diffraction to study DNA
beaming X-rays through the molecule to give a shadow picture of its structure by
how they bounced off its component parts. Armed with this evidence, Watson and
Crick proposed the correct double helix structure of DNA in 1953. For their work
Watson, Crick and Wilkins received a Nobel Prize in 1962. Franklin, however, had
died in 1958 so did not receive one and her work was not recognised until much
later.

MITOSIS & MEOSIS

Mitosis enables organisms to grow, replace worn out cells and repair any damaged
tissues. Mitotic division produces two daughter cells that are genetically identical and
have the same number of chromosomes as the mother cell. Before the mother cell
divides it duplicates its chromosomes so that each of the daughter cells can have a
set.
Meiosis halves the chromosome number for the formation of gametes so that you do
not end up with a zygote that had 92 chromosomes rather than the normal 46. Each
meiotic division produces four daughter cells that have half the chromosomes of the
mother cell. As chromosomes come in pairs which are not identical and the gametes
only get one from each pair the daughter cells are therefore not genetically identical.

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

In animals growth and cell division occurs in nearly every tissue. In plants, however,
they only occur in particular areas called the meristems. These are found in the tips

of stems and roots, buds and in a special tissue inside stems and roots which makes
them widen called cambium. Plants also have a different pattern of growth to animals
which grow to a compact finite size and stop whereas plants grow throughout their
lives and spread out.

STEM CELLS
In mature tissues cells have generally lost the ability to become different cells. Some
cells, such as those in bone marrow, do not lose this ability and are called stem cells.
These adult stem cells can differentiate into different cells and therefore can replace
damaged tissue, as do embryonic stem cells or cells in the blood from the umbilical
cord. Plants have stem cells in their shoot and root tips which retain their ability to
differentiate into other cells throughout the life of the plants.

CELL MEMBRANE
In order to get in and out of cells, substances must travel through the cell membrane.
It is selectively permeable meaning it only lets through some molecules. Generally,
large molecules cant get through but small ones can. There are three processes by
which substances can move through the cell membrane:
Diffusion the movement of a substance down the concentration
gradient (i.e. from an area of high concentration to an area of low
concentration). It does not require energy but only certain substances pass
through the cell membrane in this way, most importantly oxygen and carbon
dioxide.
Osmosis the diffusion of water through a selectively permeable
membrane, from a region of high water (low solute) concentration to a region
of low water (high solute) concentration.
Active Transport the movement of a substance up the concentration
gradient, thus it requires energy.