Chapter 1: An Introduction to Biology

Properties of Life

Unity
All

modern forms of life display a common set of characteristics Based on biological evolution

Diversity
Many

types of environments with diverse organisms

Seven Characteristics of Life

1.
2. 3. 4. 5.

6.
7.

Cells and organization Energy use and metabolism Response to environmental changes Regulation and homeostasis Growth and development Reproduction Biological evolution
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1-Cells and organization

The Cell Theory: all organism made of cells Different forms of life exist, we are part of it Living organism range from unicellular to multicellular organism Cells have internal order separated from the environment. Cells within the body have certain arrangement and functions

1- Cells and organization

Living and non-living things are made from the same chemicals Both are organized. Non-living things are homogeneous inside However, living things are organized differently. They are non-homogenous The unit of living organism is the cell The cells are non-homogenous and made from non-living molecules

2- Energy use and Metabolism

In order to keep their organization, Living things need to grow and repair For these processes we need energy and materials taken from the environment The ultimate source of energy for living things is ? The chemical and energy transformation occur in the cells is called metabolism

Energy flow

3- Response to the environmental changes

Living organism interact with their environment They respond to outside stimuli ( chemicals, light and temperature ) in different ways Their ability to respond results in movement Plant leaves turn toward the sun, animals dart toward safety These movement are called behavior Living organism survive in their environment because they can respond

4-Regulation and Homoeostasis

Homoeostasis is the maintenance of internal conditions constant Internal conditions of temperature, water balance and blood composition remain almost constant Living organism regulate their cellular metabolism so nutrient are used at appropriate rate, and new cellular components are synthesized when needed

5-Growth and Development

Growth: living organism grow by producing more or larger cells New bacterial cells are small in size, they increase in volume by synthesis of additional cellular component Development: produce organism with definite set of characteristic Plant and animal begin as zygote that divide to develop into complete organsim
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4- Living things reproduce

To maintain their existence, living should make copy similar to themselves or they should reproduce Life comes only from life Simple unicellular organism reproduce by diving into two new organism Most multicellular organism need two parents to reproduce When reproduce, living organism copy the information need to make new life

7 Biological Evolution

Characteristics of living organism may change over long time or many generation This change is called biological evolution These changes occur within the species to produce more surviving individuals and more adapted to the environment Evolution result from changes in genetic of living organism Example, long snout of anteater

Adaptation is the function or behavior that allow the species to maintain their existence Species who can not adapt to their environment extinct Adaptation to different conditions in the environment result in diversity

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Levels of Organization
1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8.
9. 10.

Atoms Molecules and macromolecules Cells Tissues Organs Organism Population Community Ecosystem Biosphere
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Evolutionary History
Life began on Earth as primitive cells 3.5-4 bya Those primitive cells underwent evolutionary changes that gave rise to the species we see today Understanding evolutionary history helps us understand the structure and function of an organisms body

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Two mechanisms of evolutionary change

1.

Vertical descent with modification

Progression of changes in a lineage (in series of ancestors) New species evolve from pre-existing species by the accumulation of mutations Natural selection takes advantage of beneficial mutations (new species dominate)

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Example
Evolutionary change involves modifications of existing structures Structures may be modified to serve new purposes Legs used for walking were modified into a dolphins flipper or a bats wing

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2.

Horizontal gene transfer

Genetic exchange between different species Relatively rare Genes that confer antibiotic resistance are sometimes transferred between different bacteria species

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Tree or web of life?

Horizontal gene transfer was an important part of the process that gave rise to modern species Tree of life focuses on vertical evolution Web of life includes the contribution of horizontal gene transfer

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Classification
Taxonomy is the grouping of species based on common ancestry 3 domains

Bacteria-

unicellular prokaryote Archaea- unicellular prokaryote Eucarya- unicellular to multicellular eukaryotes

4 kingdoms

Protista, fungi, plantae and animalia

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A species is placed into progressively smaller groups that are more closely related evolutionarily Approach emphasizes the unity and diversity of different species Jaguar example

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How living things are classified?

1.

2. 3.

A. Taxonomy and Scientific Names Taxonomy is the discipline of identifying and classifying organisms. Scientific name is binomial. Scientific name of a species -- underlined or in italics -- contains two parts: first name is genus; second name is a specific epithet of organism. Classification uses groups: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum/division, kingdom, and domain

 1. a. b.

c.

B. Five Kingdom and Three Domain Systems Living things on the planet have commonly been categorized into five kingdoms: Monera -- prokaryotic, unicellular organisms (archaebacteria and eubacteria); Protista -- eukaryotic, unicellular, colonial, and simple multicellular organisms (protozoa, etc.); Fungi -- eukaryotic, mostly multicellular, filamentous organisms that absorb their nutrients;

d. Plantae -- eukaryotic, multicellular, and photosynthetic organisms (plants); e. Animalia -- eukaryotic, multicellular organisms (animals) that ingest their nutrients

1.

a. b. c.

Biochemical evidence suggest kingdoms might be organized into three higher domains: Archeae (ancient prokaryotes); Bacteria (more derived prokaryotes); Eukarya (eukaryotes, including the protists, fungi, plants and animals).

Genomes and Proteomes

Genome
The

complete genetic makeup of an organism

Evolutionary history and relatedness of all living organisms can be illuminated by genome analysis Genomics
Techniques

used to analyze DNA sequences

in genomes
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Proteomes
The

complete complement of proteins that a cell or organism can make

The genome carries the information to make its proteome Proteomics

Techniques

used to analyze the proteome of a single species and the comparison of proteomes of different species
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Biology as a scientific discipline

Science is the observation, identification, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena The scientific method is used to test theories

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Investigate life at different levels

Different branches of biology study life at different levels using a variety of tools. As new tools become available, they allow scientists to ask new questions

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Understanding biology

Curiosity is the key Not a rigid set of steps 2 general approaches

Discovery-based science 2. Hypothesis testing
1.

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Hypothesis Testing/Scientific Method

Five stages
1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

Observations are made regarding natural phenomena. These observations lead to a hypothesis that tries to explain the phenomena. A useful hypothesis is one that is testable because it makes specific predictions. Experimentation is conducted to determine if the predictions are correct. The data from the experiment are analyzed. The hypothesis is accepted or rejected.
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Discovery-based science
Collection and analysis of data without the need for a preconceived hypothesis Goal is to gather information

Test

drugs to look for action against disease Sequence genomes and proteomes

Often leads to hypothesis testing

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Theory
Broad

explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is substantiated by a large body of evidence Allows us to make many predictions Also can never be proved true

Due to overwhelming evidence, extremely likely to be true

Example
The

theory that DNA is the genetic material Overwhelming body of evidence supports this theory

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Two key attributes of a theory

1.

2.

Consistency with a vast amount of known data Ability to make many correct predictions

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Hypothesis or theory?

Hypothesis
Proposed

explanation for a natural phenomenon Educated guess based on previous observations or experimental studies

Example
Maple

trees drop their leaves in autumn because of shortened amount of sunlight

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Hypothesis must make predictions that can shown to be correct or incorrect Additional observations or experiments support or reject a hypothesis A hypothesis is never really proven

We

may not have found the true explanation for a phenomenon

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Common features

Data are often collected in two parallel manners

Control

and experimental sample Differ by only one factor

Data analysis
Statistically

significant differences Apply statistical analyses to determine if the control and experimental samples are likely to be different from each other because of the single variable that is different between the two samples
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If the two sets of data are found not to be significantly different, we would reject our hypothesis. Alternatively, if the differences between the two sets of data are significant, we would accept our hypothesis, though it is not proven

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