Merly Moya

AC1705068
SC160 Basic Biology
Assignment 03
May 31, 2018

While I was observing the coral garden in the exhibition they had at the museum, I could not stop

thinking about how that organism, planted on the ground was classified as an animal. It seemed like a

plant, although I knew that just because plants are apparently still, that does not make them less alive than

animals or humans are. Life is something surprising and extraordinary. The power to contemplate the

movement and interaction between living beings and how we are related and interconnected with each

other, leads us to ask ourselves the old question: What is life? What are its properties? What makes it up?

Biologists have identified several common features that all living organisms have in common.

These are:

1. Order

Living beings are very organized, which means they contain specialized, complex and

coordinated parts. Even unicellular organisms are complex! Within each cell, atoms form molecules,

which form organelles and cellular structures. In multicellular organisms, similar cells form tissues. The

tissues, in turn, collaborate to create organs, which are structures of the body with a different function.

The organs work together to form organ systems.

2. Regulation

Life depends on a vast number of chemical reactions intertwined between organisms and the

environment around them. Consequently, living beings have the ability to maintain a stable level of

internal conditions. For example, according to an article in the Rush University Medical Center, the

hypothalamus works with other parts of the body as the skin, sweat glands, and blood vessels, to form the

heating and cooling system of our body. When the heat activates the sweat glands, these glands carry

water, along with salt of the body, to the surface of the skin in the form of sweat. Once on the surface, the
water evaporates. The water that evaporates from the skin cools the body, keeping the temperature in a

healthy range, close to 98.6 degrees. Cold-blooded animals, on the other hand, lack the ability to generate

their own body heat, so they regulate it by changing the environment. For example, a reptile will lie in the

sun to warm itself, or cool off by taking a dip in the water or moving to a rock under a shade (Ilo Hiller,

1983).

3. Growth and Development

Living organisms grow when the number or size of their cells increases. Development includes

all the changes that occur during the life of an organism. For instance, as humans, our lives began in the

womb of our mothers, first as an embryo, whose cells were divided and increased until all our organs

were fully formed. Throughout our existence, our body will develop through childhood, adolescence,

adulthood and old age.

4. Energy processing

All organisms use a source of energy for their metabolic activities. For example, some

organisms, like plants, capture their energy from the sun and together with carbon oxide from the air,

water, minerals, and chlorophyll, produce glucose or sugar, which is their food. In contrast, we obtain our

energy from food, much of which are plants.

5. Response to the Environment

Living organisms respond to stimuli or changes in their environment. For example, you withdraw

your hand instantaneously if you feel that the heat of the stove flame burns you. The tropism of plants is

also a good example; you can observe how a plant that is inside a house near a window turns its leaves

towards the source of sunlight that enters through the window. That shows a response to the change of

their environment.

6. Reproduction
 Living organisms reproduce according to their species. Reproduction can be asexual, involving a

single-parent, or sexual, requiring two parents. Unicellular organisms can reproduce simply by dividing in

two. Humans reproduce sexually; two progenitor organisms produce sperm and eggs, each containing half

of their genetic information; when these cells fuse, they form a new individual with a complete genetic

set.

7. Evolution

Populations of living organisms can undergo changes, which means that the genetic make-up of a

population can adapt to its environment over time. In some cases, hereditary traits, such as darker coat

color in animals, may progressively darken to camouflage in dark grass, or the shape of a bird's beak may

gradually narrow or widen, depending on what is the best shape needed to feed itself and survive in new

environments. For generations, a hereditary trait that provides a fitness advantage may become

increasingly common in a population, making the population better adapt to its environment.

The Smallest Unit of Life

It is fascinating to think how life is composed of microscopic elements. Cells are the smallest units

among the elements that make up living beings. The smallest known cells correspond to some bacteria, and

they are not more than 0.2 microns in diameter, although bacteria usually measure between 1 and 2 microns

in length. In addition, they perform functions such as nutrition and reproduction and are carriers of genetic

information. It constitutes in itself a complete organism.

The cell is basically formed by the cytoplasm, a nucleus, and a membrane. The cytoplasm is formed

by organic and inorganic substances mixed in water and of viscous consistency. In the cytoplasm are the

different cellular organelles, which carry out cellular functions. For example, the mitochondrion is a type

of organelle that is responsible for supplying most of the energy needed for cellular activity or respiration.

Another interesting organelle is the Golgi apparatus, which makes proteins and lipid (fat) molecules for use

elsewhere in and outside the cell (NIH, 2018). The nucleus, which is surrounded by a double membrane

and with a certain spherical shape, is inside the cytoplasm and keeps inside the chromosomal material or
DNA, called Chromatin. It also contains the nucleolus, which is formed by ribonucleic acid (RNA) and

proteins, to perform the function of ribosome formation. The membrane is the layer that surrounds and

protects the cytoplasm and the nucleus. In addition, it regulates the entry of nutrients and also the

elimination of waste.

Cell reproduction usually happens through mitosis. When a cell reaches a certain degree of

development, it is divided into two equal daughter cells which replicate the entire DNA of the mother

cell. Another type of cell reproduction is meiosis. In this case, a diploid cell develops two divisions in

succession and, in this way, generates four haploid cells.

Cells are designed to work according to the organism of which they are a part of. For example,

the cells of plants produce their own food through photosynthesis. The chlorophyll in the leaves traps

sunlight. From the sunlight and carbon dioxide, the crude sap is transformed into elaborated sap, which

constitutes the food of the plant. The plants breathe during the night, taking oxygen from the surrounding

air and eliminating carbon dioxide. They do it through small holes in the lower part of the leaves called

stomata, and also through the stems, roots, the leaves themselves and even the flowers. The roots absorb

the oxygen in the soil through the water. In addition, the plant produces oxygen that is expelled by the

leaves.

DNA and The Laws of Mendel

DNA is the deoxyribonucleic acid responsible for containing all the genetic information of an

individual or living being, this information is unique and unrepeatable in each organism since the

combination of elements is uniquely constructed. This acid also contains the genetic data that will be

hereditary through generations. (DefinitionABC, 2018). DNA could be described as a complex chain of

polymers or macrocells, which are double woven through hydrogen bonds. The DNA structure becomes

more complex from the pairs of nucleotides, forming histones, nucleosomes and the chromatids that make

up the chromosomes. Chromosomes are located in the nucleus of a cell. In humans, their specific

combination is what determines the gender of the living being, the gender is determined in the so-called

pair 23; if the pair is XX it will be a female, and if the combination is XY it will be a male.
 In 1865, The Augustinian monk Gregor Johan Mendel published a set of basic rules about the

transmission of genetic inheritance from parents to children. It was a work done by the study of two pea

plants. The plants produced yellow seeds and green seeds. When crossing both plants, only yellow seeds

were obtained; they differentiate between dominant character and recessive character. The results have

become known as Mendel's Laws.

Mendel's First Law essentially says that, if two parents with different traits intersect, the first

generation will have similarities to each other and will keep the characteristics from the parent with the

dominant allele. The second law says that genetic factors are separated from each of the parents in

individual alleles that will come together to procreate offspring with the characteristics of the first

generation, but in the second generation, new genetic features observed in the parents are manifested but

united in a random way in the offspring of the first generation. Mendel's third law says that, in addition,

there are traits generated independently, through distant chromosomes that do not intervene with each

other, and as in the second law, these traits are manifested more clearly in the second generation of

individuals.

Cancer and the Mechanisms of Gene Control

Cancer is a genetic disease, a consequence of an alteration of the hereditary material, although

it is not always hereditary. Cancer cells have higher mutation rates than normal cells and accumulate

numerous genetic defects that affect the stability of the hereditary material and the cell's DNA capacity to

repair itself. In addition, their patterns and mechanisms of epigenetic regulation are altered, affecting the

genes.

According to the Genetic Science Learning Center, out-of-control growth leads to cancer by

turning off genes that encode proteins that slow down cell growth and activate genes that encode proteins

that accelerate cell growth.

Researchers are exploring pharmacological therapies that can change the epigenetic profiles of

cancer cells. The challenge presented by epigenetic therapies is to discover how to direct drugs towards

the right genes in the right tissues. It is our hope that research in this area of biology will advance and,
that in the near future, we will be able to obtain a cure for cancer; after all, life with all its intricacies and

perfect design is such a beautiful gift worth of preservation.

 References

Rush, 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/discover-health/how-body-

regulates-heat

Ilo Hiller, 1983. https://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/discover-health/how-body-regulates-heat

NIH, 2018. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved from:

https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/golgi-complex

Definición ABC, 2018. Ciencia, ADN. Retrieved from:

https://www.definicionabc.com/ciencia/adn.php

Genetic Science Learning Center. (2013, July 15) Gene Control. Retrieved May 29, 2018, from

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/control/