What Does it Mean to Be Alive?

1
What Does it Mean to Be Alive?
The Characteristics of Life
2
Life!!!
All living things share some basic properties.

1. Cellular Organization
2. Reproduction
3. Metabolism (Obtain and Use Energy)
4. Homeostasis
5. Heredity
6. Responsiveness
7. Growth and Development
8. Adapt Through Evolution

3
All Living Things are Made Up of Cells
1.
Smallest unit capable of all life functions
Unicellular Organisms

• Entire organism is made up of one single cell
• Bacteria and protists

4
Multicellular Organisms

• The organism is made up of many cells
• Cells have specialized functions within the
  organism

5
2.
All Living Things Reproduce
Reproduction is the process of producing new
organisms of the same type
Asexual Reproduction

• A single parent organism reproducing by itself

6
Sexual Reproduction

• Two different parent organisms contribute genetic
  information
• Involves the combination of male and female sex
  cells

7
All Living Things Obtain and Use Energy
3.
Living organisms need energy to grow, develop,
repair damage, and reproduce
8
Anabolism
The process of building up complex substances
from simpler substances

• Building up cells and cellular components
• Photosynthesis

9
Catabolism
The process of breaking down complex substances
into simpler substances to release energy

• Digestion
• Cellular Respiration

10
Metabolism
The total of all chemical reactions in an organism

• Anabolism Catabolism Metabolism

11
All Organisms Maintain Homeostasis
4.

A stable state of conditions in the body that are
necessary for life

• Body temperature
• Blood volume
• pH balance
• Water balance

12
5.
All Organisms Pass Along Hereditary Traits
Genes carry hereditary information Genes are
composed of DNA Heredity is the reason children
resemble their parents
Mutations change DNA code and can be passed from
generation to generation
13
All Living Things Respond to Their Environment
6.
An example is a plants leaves and stems growing
toward light

• Organisms react to stimuli
• Light
• Temperature
• Odour
• Sound
• Gravity
• Heat
• Water
• Pressure

14
7.
All Living Things Grow
Growth means to get bigger in size
15
All Living Things Develop
Development involves a change in the physical
form or physiological make-up of an organism
16
8.
All Living Things Adapt to Their
Environment Through Evolution
Adaptation

• A process that enables organisms to become better
  suited to their environment
• Species obtain adaptations through evolution
  over great periods of time

17
An Example of Adaptation
Desert plants have succulent waxy leaves and
stems to store water and reduce water loss
18
All living things are classified into groups
called Kingdoms

• There are 6 kingdoms
• Archaebacteria
• Eubacteria
• Protista
• Fungi
• Plantae
• Animalia

19
Classifying Kingdoms
Nutrition
of cells
Reproduction

• Autotrophic
• -uses suns energy
• -makes own food

Heterotrophic -consumes living or dead organisms
to obtain energy
Unicellular -one cell

• Multicellular
• -more than one cell

Sexual -production of offspring from fusion of 2
sex cells (offspring differ from parents)
Asexual -offspring produced from a single parent
(genetically identical to parent
20
Classifying Kingdoms
Habitat
Cell Type Prokaryotic Eukaryotic

• -where does the organism live?

• -circular chromosome
• -no membrane bound organelles (e.g. no true
  nucleus)
• -very small (less than 2 um)
• -reproduce by binary fission

-double stranded chromosomes in nucleus -membrane
bound organelles -larger (10-100 um) -reproduce
by mitosis or meiosis