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Ch-1 - Notes

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Ch-1 - Notes

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bigbossbader00
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CH-1- Characteristics of living Organisms

The seven characteristics that distinguish living things from non-living objects are MRS.
GREN
Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition
➢ Movement : an action by an organism causing a change of position or place.
➢ Respiration: The chemical reactions that break down nutrient molecules in living
cells to release energy.
➢ Sensitivity: Ability to detect or sense changes in the environment and to make
response.
➢ Growth : Permanent increase in size and dry mass by an increase in cell number o
cell size or both.
➢ Reproduction: Process that make more of the same kind of organism.
➢ Excretion: Removal from organisms of toxic materials the waste products of
metabolism and substances in excess of requirements.
➢ Nutrition: Taking in of nutrients which are organic substances and mineral ions
containing raw materials or energy for growth and tissue repair, absorbing and
assimilating them.

CLASSIFICATION: The scientific ordering of living organisms in a hierarchical series of


groups on the basis of their relationships (morphological, evolutionary and other
characteristics) is called classification.

The Binomial System: The system of assigning a scientific name consists of two
components (Genus and species) to an organism is called binomial system of nomenclature.

The rules for writing a scientific name of an organism are:


The scientific name consists of two components (first genus and second species).
➢ Genus always starts with a capital letter and species with a small letter.
➢ Both genus and species should be italicized (in printing form) or separately
underlined in hand written form.
➢ Examples: Rana tigrina (frog) and Homo sapiens (human beings)

The sequence of classification is


Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species (Kuwait Provide Crude Oil
For Gulf State).

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➢ All living things are divided into 5 kingdoms.
➢ Each kingdom has certain characteristics that all members of that group shared. They
are: Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protoctists, Bacteria (Prokaryotes).

How Organisms are Classified


➢ Originally, organisms were classified using morphology (the overall form and shape
of the organism, e.g. whether it had wings or legs) and anatomy (the detailed body
structure as determined by dissection)
➢ As technology advanced, microscopes, knowledge of biochemistry and eventually
DNA sequencing allowed us to classify organisms using a more scientific approach
➢ Studies of DNA sequences of different species show that the more similar the base
sequences in the DNA of two species, the more closely related those two species are
(and the more recent in time their common ancestor is)
➢ This means that the base sequences in a mammal’s DNA are more closely related to
all other mammals than to any other vertebrate groups

Common Cell Structures


The cells of all living organisms contain the following:
➢ Cytoplasm
➢ Cell membrane
➢ DNA as genetic material (either found in the nucleus or free in the cytoplasm)
(Note- When viewed under an electron microscope (at a much higher magnification), all
cells also
contain the following:
➢ Ribosomes for protein synthesis
➢ Enzymes for respiration (in many, but not all types of cells, found in mitochondria)

Main features of The Five Kingdoms


Animals
• Plants
• Fungi
• Protoctists
• Prokaryotes

Main features of all animals:


➢ They are multicellular Main features of all animals:
➢ Their cells contain a nucleus but no cell walls or chloroplasts
➢ They feed on organic substances made by other living things.

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Main features of all plants:
➢ They are multicellular
➢ Their cells contain a nucleus, chloroplasts and cellulose cell walls
➢ They all feed by photosynthesis.

Main features of all fungi (e.g. moulds, mushrooms, yeast)


➢ usually multicellular
➢ cells have nuclei and cell walls not made from cellulose
➢ do not photosynthesize but feed by saprophytic (on dead or decaying material) or
parasitic (on live material) nutrition

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Main features of all Protoctists- (e.g. Amoeba, Paramecium, Plasmodium
Most are unicellular but some are multicellular • All have a nucleus, some may have cell
walls and chloroplasts • This means that some protoctists photosynthesise and some feed
on organic substances made by other living things

Main features of all Prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)


➢ They are often unicellular
➢ Their cells have cell walls (not made of cellulose) and cytoplasm but no
nucleus or mitochondria

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Vertebrates All vertebrates have a backbone. There are 5 classes of vertebrates:

Invertebrates
➢ One of the morphological characteristics used to classify invertebrates is
whether they have legs or not
➢ All invertebrates with jointed legs are part of the phylum Arthropods
➢ They are classified further into the following classes:

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Ferns & Flowering Plants
➢ At least some parts of any plant are green, caused by the presence of the pigment
chlorophyll
➢ which absorbs energy from sunlight for the process of photosynthesis
➢ The plant kingdom includes organisms such as ferns and flowering plants Ferns:
➢ Have leaves called fronds
➢ Do not produce flowers but instead reproduce by spores produced on the underside
of fronds

Flowering plants:
➢ Reproduce sexually by means of flowers and seeds
➢ Seeds are produced inside the ovary found at the base of the flower
➢ Can be divided into two groups – monocotyledons and dicotyledons

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How to distinguish between monocotyledons and dicotyledons:
1. FLOWERS
➢ Flowers from monocotyledons contain petals in multiples of 3
➢ Flowers from dicotyledons contain petals in multiples of 4 or 5
2. LEAVES
➢ Leaves from monocotyledons have parallel leaf veins
➢ Leaves from dicotyledons have reticulated leaf veins (meaning that they are all
interconnected and form a web like network throughout the leaf)

Features of Viruses
➢ Viruses are not part of any classification system as they are not considered living
things
➢ They do not carry out the seven life processes for themselves, instead they take
over a host cell’s metabolic pathways in order to make multiple copies of
themselves
➢ Virus structure is simply genetic material (RNA or DNA) inside a protein coat.

Constructing & Using a Key


➢ Keys are used to identify organisms based on a series of questions about their
features
➢ Dichotomous means ‘branching into two’ and it leads the user through to the
name of the organism by giving two descriptions at a time and asking them to
choose
➢ Each choice leads the user onto another two descriptions

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➢ In order to successfully navigate a key, you need to pick a single organism to
start with and follow the statements from the beginning until you find the
name
➢ You then pick another organism and start at the beginning of the key again,
repeating until all organisms are named.

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