1. Fundamentals of Biology

2. 4.1 The Ingredients of Life
• A. The Building Blocks
• 1 Organic compounds – molecules containing
C, H, & O
• Make life possible
• High-energy molecules
 Energy used to synthesize
 Energy released in breakdown
• Four types of organic compounds

3. 2 Carbohydrates – sugars
• Glucose – metabolized for energy
• Starches – long chains of simple sugars used
for energy storage
• Chitin – skeletal material
• Cellulose – cell structure

4. 3 Proteins
• Chains of amino acids
• Muscles are mostly made up of proteins
• Enzymes – catalyze reactions
• Structural proteins – skin, hair, skeleton
• Hormones

5. 4 Lipids
• Fats, oils, & waxes
• Energy storage – more than twice as much as
sugar
• Water repellant
• Buoyancy
• Insulation
• Hormones

6. 5 Nucleic Acids
• Store and transmit the genetic information of
all living things
• Long chains of subunits called nucleotides
• DNA – instructions for the construction and
maintenance of an organism; the complete set
is called the genome
• The nitrogen bases are sequenced into genes
that code for a specific protein
• RNA – helps DNA

11. B. The Fuel of Life
• ATP – the molecule used to store energy; like
a rechargeable battery
• You use ~ 125 lbs./day
• Organisms need to capture, store and use
energy
• Most organisms use only two sets of reactions

12. 1 Photosynthesis: Making the Fuel
• Algae, plants, and some microorganisms
• Capture the sun’s energy and use it to make
glucose
 The pigment chlorophyll captures the solar
energy
 CO2 + H2O → C6H12O6 (glucose) + O2
• We rely on photosynthesis for food and oxygen
• Organisms that photosynthesize are called
autotrophs
 Plants on land; bacteria and algae in the ocean

13. 2 Respiration: Burning the Fuel
• Both autotrophs and heterotrophs do it
• Releases the energy from org. compounds
• Reverse of photosynthesis
 Organic matter (glucose) + O2→ H2O + CO2
• Similar to burning wood or oil
• Chemical energy captured in ATP
• Aerobic – uses oxygen, more efficient
• Anaerobic – does not use oxygen, less
efficient

14. 3 Primary Production
• Most of the glucose is used for fuel or
converted into other types of org. compounds
• The organic matter autotrophs make is called
primary production
 Used by the organism for growth and
reproduction
• Autotrophs are also called producers

15. 4 The Importance of Nutrients
• Vitamins, minerals and other substances are
needed to convert glucose into other org.
compounds
• Nitrogen for proteins & nucleic acids
• Phosphorus for nucleic acids
• Silica (SiO2) to make shells
• Iron – necessary, but a limited resource in the
ocean

16. 4.2 Living Machinery
• Organic compounds are organized into
functional units that are alive

17. A. Cells and Organelles
Cell – basic unit of life
 All organisms are made of cells
 Wrapped in a cell membrane
• Cell is filled with jelly-like cytoplasm
• Organelles have specific jobs in the cell

18. 1. Structurally Simple Cells: Prokaryotes
Prokaryotes are primitive cells
 Ancient, simple, small
 No membrane-bound organelles
 Bacteria
Prokaryotes have few structures:
 Cell wall – support
 Ribosomes – assemble proteins
 DNA – loose in the cytoplasm
 Flagella – locomotion

20. 2. Structurally Complex Cells: Eukaryotes
Eukaryotic cells are organized and complex
 Larger than prokaryotes
Have specialized organelles:
 Nucleus – contains chromosomes (DNA)
 Endoplasmic reticulum – make proteins and other org.
molecules for the cell
 Golgi apparatus – package and transport molecules
 Mitochondria – respiration center to provide energy
 Flagella and cilia – for movement
Only in plant & algal cells
 Chloroplasts – photosynthesis center
 Cell wall - support

21. B. Levels of Organization
1. A cell is self-contained and can carry out all the functions
necessary for life
• Unicellular – all prokaryotes and some eukaryotes
• Multicellular – most eukaryotes
 Human body has 100,000,000,000,000 cells
• In multicellular organisms cells specialize to perform
different tasks for the organism
• Cells that act together for a specific job are called tissues
 Muscle, nervous, bone, blood, epithelial
• Tissues are organized into organs to carry out specific
functions
 Liver, kidney, heart, skin, brain
• Organs act together in an organ system
 Skeletal, muscular, excretory, endocrine, digestive

22. 2. Organization exists outside the individual
organism
 Species – one type of organism
 Blue mussel
 Population – a group of one species
 A bunch of blue mussels
 Community – several different populations that live
and interact in an area
 Blue mussels, crabs, barnacles, & chitons living on a
rock
 Ecosystem – the communities living together with the
physical environment
 Living on a rocky shore with seawater, air,
temperature, sunlight, etc.

24. 4.3 Challenges of Life in the Sea
• Marine organisms must cope with different
problems than on land
• They have evolved ways to adapt to their
marine habitat
• Most important is maintaining homeostasis
Keeping their internal condition normal
regardless of the external condition

25. A. Salinity
• Marine organisms are immersed in a medium
– sea water – that can greatly affect their cell
function
• Enzymes and organic molecules are sensitive
to ion concentration (salinity)

26. 1. Diffusion and Osmosis
• Dissolved ions move around in water
• Random movement spreads them out in an even
distribution
• Results in diffusion – movement from high low
concentration
• When concentrations are different inside and
outside a cell, substances will move in/out by
diffusion
 Salt from seawater will diffuse into the cell
 Nutrients will diffuse out of the cell
• The cell membrane blocks block diffusion
 It’s selectively permeable – it allows only some
substances to go in/out

28. • Water is a small molecule and can fit through the
cell membrane
 It also diffuses from high → low concentration
 If a cell has more solutes inside than outside,
water will stream in and swell the cell
 If the seawater has more salt, water will leave
and the cell will shrivel
 This diffusion of water is called osmosis
• Cells may need to move materials against
diffusion (low high)
 e.g. expelling extra salt or taking in more sugar
 Active transport – proteins in the cell membrane
pump materials using ATP
1/3 of the cell’s energy is spent on this

30. 2. Regulation of Salt and Water Balance
• Marine organisms have adapted ways to balance water
and salt
• Osmoconformers –their internal concentrations
change with the salinity of the seawater
 Live in a narrow range of salinity
• Osmoregulators – control internal concentrations to
avoid osmotic problems
 Can tolerate changes in salinity better
 Can change their internal concentrations to match the
seawater
 Salt water fishes lose water by osmosis
 Drink water or reduce urine amount to replace lost
water
 Excrete excess salts in the urine or through the gills

31.  Freshwater fishes gain water by osmosis
Don’t drink water or produce lots of urine
Salt absorbed by gills
 Some marine birds and reptiles have special
glands to get rid of excess salt
 Most algae have rigid cell walls that resist the
swelling caused by osmotic water gain

33. B. Temperature
 Metabolic reactions speed up/slow down
when temperature goes up/down
 Metabolic rate doubles every 10oC
 At extreme temps most enzymes cease to
function
 Marine organisms are adapted to live in a
temp range
 Thus determining what regions of the oceans
they live

34.  Ectotherms – “cold blooded” lose their heat to the
seawater
 Endotherms – “warm blooded” retain heat and keep
their body temp higher than the water
 Mammals, birds, and some large fishes
 Poikilotherms – body temp changes with the temp of
the seawater
 Incl. all ectotherms & endothermic fishes
 Homeotherms – keep internal temp the same,
regardless of outside temp
 Produce more heat as need to keep their metabolic
activity high
 Mammals & birds
 They need to eat more food
 Insulate their bodies with feathers, hair, and blubber

35. C. Surface-to-Volume Ratio
 Heat and materials exchange across the
surface of an organism
 The surface-to-volume ratio (S/V ratio)
determines how rapidly this happens
 As organisms get larger the volume grows
faster than the surface area
 Small organisms rely on diffusion
 Large organisms respiratory and excretory
systems

36. 4.4 Perpetuating Life
A species must reproduce or vanish from the
planet
 Produce a new offspring
 Pass on the genetic information

37. A. Modes of Reproduction
Cells reproduce through cell division
 Cell fission in prokaryotes; mitosis in
eukaryotes
 Results in identical daughter cells

38. 1. Asexual Reproduction
No partner
 Offspring are genetically identical – clones
 Most single-celled organisms reproduce this way
 Some multicellular organisms do:
 Some sea anemones will split in half, making two
smaller ones
–fission
 Some sponges develop growths that break off to
become separate individuals – budding or
vegetative reproduction

40. 2. Sexual Reproduction
 Union of two separate gametes from two parents
 Ovaries – female gonads that produce eggs
 Testes – male gonads that produce sperm
 Meiosis divides the chromosomes in half; Fertilization
combines them to form a full
 set again
 A fertilized egg is called a zygote. It has DNA from both
parents
 This genetic recombination causes variation in the
offspring
 Greatest advantage of sexual reproduction
 The zygote divides by mitosis and eventually forms an
embryo
 May pass through a larval stage on the way to adulthood

41. B. Reproductive Strategies
The goal of reproduction is to pass on the genes
 Varying reproductive strategies to get the same
result
 Broadcast spawning – release millions of eggs
and sperm into the water
 No parental care, most die
 Have few offspring and invest more time and
energy into their survival
 Some use sexual and asexual reproduction
 Some species are hermaphroditic, both sexual
organs

42. 4.5 The Diversity of Life in the Sea
• The vast diversity of organisms in the ocean
came through millions of years of evolution
• The gradual alteration of a species’ genetic
makeup

43. A. Natural Selection and Adaptation
Individual organisms show variation in how they:
 Find food, avoid being eaten, reproduce, find
mates, metabolize, etc.
 The best-adapted produce more offspring than
the others
 This process is called natural selection
 As their genes get passed on the favorable traits
become more common
 The population’s genetic makeup changes over
time as it adapts to its environment
 Populations either adapt to the changes in the
environment or become extinct

44. B. Classifying Living Things
To discuss the huge variety of life forms we
must first classify them
1. The Biological Species Concept
 What is a species? A type of organism?
 A population with common characteristics
that can successfully breed with each other
(fertile offspring)
 If two populations cannot interbreed they are
reproductively isolated

45. 2. Biological Nomenclature
• Organisms are identified with a two-word
name - Genus and species
• Blue whale – Balaenoptera musculus
• Fin whale – Balaenoptera physalus
• Minke whale – Balaenoptera acutorostrata
• Latin or Greek is used for naming
• Common names are confusing, scientific
names are used worldwide to precisely
identify a species

47. Levels of Classification
 Domain
 Kingdom
 Phylum
 Class
 Order
 Family
 Genus
 Species

48. 3. Phylogenetics: Reconstructing Evolution
Organisms are grouped according to their
relatedness
 Related organisms share an evolutionary
history, or phylogeny
 They share a common ancestor
 Look at fossil record, anatomy, reproduction,
embryological development, DNA, behavior,
etc.

50. 4. The Tree of Life
• Classifications have changed over time
• Started with two kingdoms – Animalia and
Plantae
• Then five kingdoms – added Fungi, Monera, &
Protista
• Then three domain system