Campbell Biology 10th Edition Fall 2015 UCONN BIO 1107 Chapter One Evolution the Themes of Biology and Scientific Inquiry Key Concepts 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 Inquiring About Life The study of life reveals common themes The Core Theme Evolution accounts for the unity and diversity of life In studying nature scientists make observations and form and test hypotheses Science benefits from a cooperative approach and diverse view points 1 Evolution is the process of change that has transformed life on Earth from its earliest beginnings to the diversity of organisms living on it a Fundamental organizing principle of biology 2 Biology is the scientific study of life posing questions about the living world and seeking answers through scientific inquiry 3 Figure 1 2 Some Properties of Life a Order b Energy processing c Evolutionary adaptation d Regulation e Growth and development f Response to the environment g Reproduction Concept 1 1 the study of life reveals common themes 1 Five unifying themes i Organization ii Information iii Energy and matter iv Interactions v Evolution 2 Theme new properties emerge at successive levels of biological organization a The study of life extends from the global scale of the entire living planet to the microscopic scale of cells and molecules i Reductionism reduces complex systems to simpler components that are more manageable to study a Provides a necessarily incomplete view of life on earth b Levels of Biological Organization Figure 1 3 i The Biosphere ii Ecosystems iii Communities 1 An ecosystem consists of all the living things in a particular area along with all the nonliving components of the environment with which life interacts iv Populations 1 The array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem is a biological community each form of life is called a species 1 A population consists of all the individuals of a species living within the bounds of a specific area 2 A community is the set of populations that inhabit a particular area v Organisms vi Organs and organ systems 1 Maple leaves are an example of an organ a body part that carries out a particular function in the body 1 The cell is life s fundamental unit of structure and function a One cell is about 40 micrometers across vii Tissues viii Cells ix Organelles x Molecules c Emergent Properties i Beginning at the molecular level and zooming out allows us to see properties emerge at each level that are absent from the preceding level ii Emergent properties are due to the arrangement and interactions of parts as complexity increases iii Emergent properties are not unique to life iv To explore emergent properties more fully biologists complement reductionism with systems biology the exploration of a biological systems by analyzing the interactions among its parts v Systems biology can be used to study life at all levels d Structure and Function i Studying structure and biological function gives clues to how things work 1 Example from the animal kingdom a hummingbird s anatomy allows the wing to rotate at the shoulder which allows it to uniquely hover and fly backwards e The Cell An Organism s Basic Unit of Structure and Function i All cells share certain characteristics ii Prokaryotic cells are single celled microorganisms 1 Bacteria singular bacterium 2 Archaea singular archaean iii Every other cell is eukaryotic including plant and animal cells iv Eukaryotic contains membrane enclosed organelles 1 Some organelles such as DNA containing nucleus are found in all cells 2 Other organelles are particular to the type of cell such as cell walls and chloroplast is specific to plant cells only v Prokaryotic cells lack a nucleus or other membrane enclosed organelles 3 Theme Life s Processes Involve the Expression and Transmission of Genetic Information a Chromosomes contain genetic material in the form of DNA deoxyribonucleic acid b DNA The Genetic Material i Each chromosome contains one very long DNA molecule with hundreds or thousands of genes ii Genes are the units of inheritance 1 Encode the information necessary to build all of the molecules synthesized within a cell which establishes that cell s identity iii DNA molecules are made up of two long chains called strains which are arranged in a double helix 1 Chains are made up of four basic nucleotides a Adenine b Thymine c Cytosine d Guanine 2 Each nucleotide matches up to the other one A T G C 3 Each stand is connected by these nucleotides which are kept in place by a sugar and phosphate backbone iv Genes control protein production indirectly using a related molecule called RNA ribonucleic acid 1 The sequence of nucleotides is translated into mRNA messenger RNA which is then translated into a series of amino acids 2 These stages result in a specific protein with a unique shape and function v The entire process of which the information in a gene directs the manufacture of a cellular product is called gene expression vi All forms of life employ the same genetic code essentially a particular sequence of nucleotides says the same thing in one organism as it does in another c Genomics Large Scale Analysis of DNA Sequences i The entire library of genetic instructions that an organism inherits is called their genome ii Instead of investigating a singular gene researchers study whole sets of genes and or other DNA in one or more species called genomics iii The term proteomics refers to the study of sets of proteins and their properties 1 The entire set of proteins expressed by a given cell or group of cells is called a proteome iv Important research developments have made the genomic and proteomic approaches possible 1 High throughput technology tools that can analyze many biological samples very rapidly 2 Bioinformatics the use of computational tools to store organize and analyze the huge volumes of data that results from high throughput methods 3 Formation of interdisciplinary research teams groups of diverse specialists that may include computer scientists mathematicians engineers chemists physicists and biologists from a variety of fields 4 Theme Life Requires the Transfer and Transformation of Energy and Matter a The input of energy primarily from the sun and the transformation of energy from one form to another make life possible b The energy from the sun is used to produce sugars which is done by photosynthesis c Food from producers plants and photosynthetic organisms passes onto consumers and so on i The energy from the producers goes down about 10 each