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Molecular design of Life
What is Life ?
Overwhelming diversity of the living world
Life has been viewed as an intangible
property that defies simple explanation
Described in operational term: Movement,
Reproduction, Adaptation, Responsiveness
to external stimuli
Despite the rich diversity of living
organisms, from the blue whale to the
smallest of microorganisms, all obey the
same chemical and physical laws that rule
the universe.
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Visualization of
Phagocytosis
Moving Amoeba
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What is Life ?
Life is complex and dynamic
All organisms are primarily composed of
organic (carbon-based) molecules that
have three dimensional shapes
Their methods for sustaining biological
processes are similar
Living processes (growth and development)
involve thousands of chemical reactions.
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Visualization of
3D Molecular structure

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What is Life ?
Life is organized and self sustaining
Living organisms are hierarchically
organized systems (each level is based on
the one below)
The molecules that make up living
organisms, referred to as Biomolecules
In multicellular organisms levels of
organization: tissues, organs and organ
systems
At each level of organization the whole is
greater than the sum of the parts
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Organized systems
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What is Life ?
Life is organized and self sustaining
Emergent properties (Hemoglobin)
Continuous acquisition of both energy and
matter and removal waste molecules.
These tasks are accomplished by hundreds
of biochemical reactions that are catalyzed
by enzymes
The sum total of all reactions in a living
organism is referred to as Metabolism
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What is Life ?
Life is cellular
Cells differ widely in structure and function
Each is surrounded by a membrane that
controls the transport of some chemical
substances into and out of the cell.
The membrane mediates the response of
the cell to components of the extracellular
environtment.
Cells arise only from the division of existing
cells.
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What is Life ?
Life is information-based
Organization requires information
Living organisms can be considered to be
information-processing systems
Interacting molecules within cells, between
cells and generation of future cells
Genetic information specifies the linear
sequence of amino acids in proteins and
how and when those proteins are
synthesized
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What is Life ?
Life adapts and evolves
All life on earth has a common origin, with
new forms arising from other forms
DNA mutations can be repaired or have no
effect on the functioning of the organism
On rare occasions mutations may
contribute to an increased ability of the
organism to survive, to adapt to new
circumstances and to reproduce
The interplay of environtmental change and
genetic variation can lead to favorable
traits and different forms of life.
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Prokaryotes
Form and Function
Life is based on morphological units known
as cells (1838)
Two major classifications of cells: the
Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes
Prokaryotes (various types of bacteria)
have relatively simple structures and
unicellular (they may form colonies)
Viruses, are not classified as living because
they lack the metabolic apparatus to
reproduced outside their host cells
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Prokaryotes
Form and Function
Prokaryotes are the most numerous and
widespread organism on Earth
Highly adaptable metabolism suit them to
an enormous variety of habitats
Certain types of bacteria may thrive in or
even require conditions that are hostile to
eukaryotes (chemical environments, high
temperature and lack of oxygen)
Rapid reproductive rate and ability of many
bacteria to form spores
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Prokaryotic cell
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Prokaryotes
Form and Function
Prokaryotes have relatively simple
anatomies (cell membrane, cell wall,
capsule, cytoplasm chromosome, RNA
enzymes and ribosomes)
Prokaryotes employ a wide variety of
metabolic energy sources (autotrophs,
chemolithotrophs, photoautotrophs,
heterotrophs, obligate aerobes and obligate
anaerobes)
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Prokaryotes
Prokaryotic classification
Taxonomy are inaplicable to prokaryotes
because the relatively simple structures
provide little indication of their phylogenetic
relationships
Based on cell wall properties: 3 major
types: Mycoplasma, Gram-positive bacteria
and Gram-negative bacteria
Mycoplasmas are the smallest of all living
cells and possess ~20% of the DNA of an
E.coli
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Some prokaryotic cells
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Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes cellular architecture
Structural complexity allows sophisticated
regulation of living processes
They have internal membrane-enclosed
organelles.
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Structure of cells
Plasma
Membrane
Endoplasmic
Retikulum
Golgi Apparatus
Lysosome
Mitochondrion
Cytoplasm
Nucleus
membrane
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Eukaryotes
Eukaryotic phylogeny and differentiation
One of the most remarkable characteristics of
eukaryotes is their enormous morphologial
diversity, on both the cellular and organismal
levels (an amoeba, an oak tree and a human
being)
Taxonometric schemes based on gross
morphology as well as on protein and nucleic acid
sequences: three kingdoms (Fungi, Plantae,
Animalia, Protista)
Anatomical comparisons among living and fossil
organisms indicate that the various kingdoms of
multicellular organisms independently evolved
from Protista
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The origin of life
We cannot hope to determine exactly
how life arose
The development of life occupied three
stages:
Chemical evolution
The self organization
Biological evolution
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The origin of life
The unique properties of Carbon
Elements (C, H, O, N, P and S) form
covalent bonds, comprise ~92% of the dry
weight of living things.
Carbon has the unique ability to form a
virtually infinite number of compounds as a
result of its capacity to make as many as
four highly stable covalent bonds combined
with its ability to form covalently linked C-C
chains of unlimited extent
Over 17 million chemical compounds,
nearly 90% are organic (carbon containing)
substances.
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The origin of life
Chemical evolution
We are far from certain as to how life
arose .
Earths atmosphere contain significant
quantities of O
2
, H
2
O, N
2
, CO
2
and smaller
amounts of CO, CH
4
, NH
3
, SO
2
and possibly
H
2
.
UV radiation from the sun or lightning
discharges caused the molecules to react to
form simple organic compounds such as
amino acids, nucleic acids bases and
sugars.
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The origin of life
The rise of living systems
Living systems have the ability to replicate
themselves
The inherent complexity of such a process
is such that no manmade device has even
approached having this capacity.
There is an infinitesimal probability that a
collection of molecules can simply gather at
random to form a living entity.