1. Unit 3 Structure and Function Notes Part 1 It’s Alive or, Is It?
M. Elizabeth
Martin Luther King, Jr. JHS
2006

2. Chapter 2 It’s Alive, or Is It
2.1 Characteristics of Living Things
2.2 The Simple Bare Necessities of Life
2.3 The Chemistry of Life
Chapter 2 Review

3. 2.1 Characteristics of Living Things
The six characteristics of Living Things:
All living things have cells
All living things sense and respond to change
All living things reproduce
All living things have DNA
All living things use energy
All living things grow and develop

4. 2.1 Characteristics of Living Things
All living things have cells
Unicellular (single celled organisms)
Multicellular (organisms made of more than one kind of cells)
Excludes viruses because virus are organisms that are made of DNA/RNA and a protein coat – not exactly a cell.

5. 2. All living things sense and respond to change
An important part of sensing and responding to environmental changes is maintaining homeostasis.
Homeostasis– the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite a changing external environment

6. 3. All living things reproduce
There are two types of reproduction:
Asexual – a single parent produces an identical offspring.
Lots of organisms reproduce this way (bacteria and algae). When cells are cloned they are reproduced in this way.
Sexual – requires two parents. Results in a lot better chance for genetic variation.

7. 4. All living things have DNA
DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid
Provides instructions for making molecules – proteins that take part in all cellular functions and in the synthesis of other kinds of molecules needed for cells to exist.
Sometimes called the blueprints of life.
Reproduction involves making copies of DNA that is transferred to offspring.
The transmission of characteristics/traits from one generation to another is called ____________
heredity

8. 5. All living things use energy
Metabolism – all chemical activities that use or make available energy.
Producers – organisms that obtain energy from the sun (photosynthetic) or certain bacteria that use inorganic chemicals (chemosynthetic)
Consumers – organisms that obtain energy by eating other organisms.
Decomposers – Organisms that get their food from breaking down nutrients from dead organisms or animal wastes.

9. 6. All living things grow and develop
Even single celled organisms like bacteria grow slightly in size.
Babies grow to adult from a single cell

10. 2.2 The Simple Bare Necessities of Life
Food
Water
Air
A Place to Live

11. Food
Organisms use protein, fats, and carbohydrates as our basic food groups.
Organisms may also need trace minerals or vitamins in addition to the basic food groups.
Organisms differ in their food needs.

12. Food We have discussed: make their own food eat other organisms
Producers
Consumers
Decomposers
Food eaters can also be broken down into type:
Autotrophs
Heterotrophs
make their own food
eat other organisms
eat dead organisms
- Create their own food
- Obtain food from others

13. Essential Elements – Chemistry of Life
The basic elements that make up most of biological molecules are
Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Phosphorous
Sulfur

14. Main Types of Molecules – Chemistry of Life
The Main Types of Biological Molecules
Proteins – made of amino acids. Enzymes are special proteins that allow cell reactions to occur.
Carbohydrates – starches made of sugars
Lipids – fats, phospholipids (what membranes are made of)
Nucleic Acids – made of nucleotides
ATP – useable cellular energy – adenosine tri phosphate

15. Water Water is the essence of life
70 percent of most cells are made of water
Humans can survive about 3 days without water
The chemical formula for water is H2O

16. Air
Mixture of several different gases the main ones in order of highest concentration:
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Argon
Water Vapor
Carbon Dioxide

17. Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
Oxygen is used for aerobic respiration in both plant and animal cells
Oxygen is not used for anaerobic (without oxygen) respiration
Green plants and other photosynthetic organisms need carbon dioxide in addition to oxygen.
The carbon dioxide is for photosynthesis and oxygen used for aerobic respiration.

18. Photosynthesis
The energy that powers photosynthesis comes from the sun light.
Occurs in the chloroplasts within plant cells
Chlorophyll a green pigment in chloroplasts absorb the sun’s energy that is then used to create glucose sugar
Starch is the complex carbohydrate plants use to store the glucose sugar molecules that plants produce during photosynthesis.

19. Photosynthesis The chemical reaction for photosynthesis is:
6CO2 + 6H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2
C6H12O6 is the chemical formula for glucose
Glucose is the main product of photosynthesis.
Oxygen is produced as a byproduct of splitting water during photosynthesis
Sunlight

20. Respiration
Occurs in mitochondria found in both animal and plant cells
Oxygen is used to convert stored sugar (glucose) into useable chemical energy (ATP)

21. A Place to live Some organisms need a lot of space to live.
This is why governments are starting to create habitat management plans so that there are places for animals to live.
Animals need the help with finding a place to live because people have out competed animals for living place resources.

22. Could life as we know it exist on Earth if air only contained oxygen?
Life could not exist as we know it if air only contained oxygen because green plants, algae, and some bacteria need carbon dioxide gas as well as oxygen.
Without carbon dioxide photosynthesis could not occur and there would not be producers which consumers need to eat.

23. Review phospholipids asexual Nucleic acids Heredity Metabolism
In the cell membrane, ________________ (protein or phospholipid) molecules form two layers.
When a planarian worm is cut in half, each half develops into a whole worm. This is an example of __________ (asexual or sexual) reproduction.
(Proteins or Nucleic acids)______________ are sometimes called the blueprints of life.
(Homeostasis or Heredity) _______________is the passing of traits from one generation to the next.
(Metabolism or Homeostasis) _____________ refers to all of the chemical activities that an organism’s cells perform.
asexual
Nucleic acids
Heredity
Metabolism

24. 6. _________ is a complex carbohydrate manufactured by plants.
Starch
6. _________ is a complex carbohydrate manufactured by plants.
a. Oil c. Starch
b. Protein d. Hemoglobin
7. When a duck dives under water, its inner eyelids automatically raise to cover the duck’s eyes. In this case, water acts as__________
a. homeostasis. c. a reaction.
b. a stimulus. d. an enzyme.
8. The molecule that provides energy for cellular processes is__________
a. ATP. c. RNA.
b. DNA. d. protein.
a stimulus
ATP

25. amino acids. nucleotides. nucleic acids
9. The subunits of proteins are __________
a. enzymes. c. nucleotides.
b. amino acids. d. sugar molecules.
10. The subunits of nucleic acids are __________
11. Cells do not use ___________for energy storage.
a. fats c. carbohydrates
b. oils d. nucleic acids
nucleotides.
nucleic acids

26. 12. Plant cells need carbon dioxide which is used for __________
a. cellular respiration. c. photosynthesis.
b. reproduction. d. fertilization.
13. The energy that powers photosynthesis comes from ______________.
a. light from the sun. c. gas molecules.
b. sugar breakdown. d. soil chlorophyll.
14. Chlorophyll absorbs ________________.
a. water. c. light energy.
b. carbon dioxide. d. soil oxygen
photosynthesis
Light from the sun
Light energy

27. a. ribosomes. c. mitochondria.
15. Food molecules are broken down to release energy by the _______________.
a. ribosomes. c. mitochondria.
b. endoplasmic reticulum. d. chloroplasts.
16. Most of the ATP produced by a cell is made in the __________________.
mitochondria
mitochondria