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Bio Processes Unit 5
Bio Processes Unit 5
Movement
1) Muscle contraction exerts a pull on a bone
2) When they relax they stop contracting and become capable of being pulled back to their original
shape
3) Muscles are found in pairs
4) One pulls the bone in one direction, the other pulls it back to its original position - working in
opposition to each other as antagonistic pairs
Antagonistic pair muscles work in opposition of one another
Bones matrix of collagen and calcium salts
Cartilage chondrocytes collagen fibrils elastic
Tendons- bundles of collagen fibres connects muscle to bone
Ligaments bone to bone
Joints ball and socket, pivot, saddle, hinge
Control of heartbeat
1)The sinoatrial node (SAN the hearts pacemaker) sends a wave of electrical excitation causing the
atria to contract
2)Excitation spreads to similar tissue called the atrioventricular node.
3)The AVN is excited as a result of the SAN from which the wave of depolarisation passes to the
bundle of His
4)The bundle of His carries the electrical excitation from the AVN down to the Purkyne tissue.
(The Purkyne tissue penetrates through the septum of the heart spreading between and around the
ventricles)
5) As the depolarisation travels through the tissue it sets of the contraction of the ventricles starting
at the bottom and so squeezing blood out of the heart.
Bodily response to exercise
1) Atria fill with blood at start of cardiac cycle with stretch receptors in the muscle walls of the heart
responding to the stretching by sending nerve impulses to the cardiovascular control centre.
2) At the start of a period of exercise more blood than usual returns to the heart because the big
muscle blocks in the legs and arms squeeze more blood along the veins when they work
3) Increased blood flow into the atria causes the receptors to be more stretched than usual making
them send more nerve impulses to the cardiovascular centre of the brain.
4) This consequently sends more nerve impulses along the sympathetic nerve to the SAN causing an
increase in heart rate.
5) An increase in stretching of the heart atrial muscle as blood returns from the body also makes the
muscles contract harder to increase the volume of blood released in every stroke.
6) Baroreceptors found in the sinuses of the carotid arteries in the neck are also important in the
feedback control of the heart rate particularly as exercise ends.
7) An increase in blood pressure of the arteries stretches the baroreceptors which send nerve
impulses to the cardiovascular centre causing the parasympathetic system to slow down the heart
rate and cause a widening of the blood vessels to lower blood pressure.
8) The reverse process occurs when exercise starts as the blood vessels dilate with adrenaline
causing the blood pressure to fall
9) The stretching of the baroreceptors is reduced and when they dont stimulate the cardiovascular
control centre it immediately sends signals along the sympathetic nerve to stimulate the heart rate
and increase blood pressure again.
Control and regulation of breathing
1) Inhalation occurs when impulses from the respiratory centre (medulla) travel along sympathetic
nerves causing the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm to contract.
2)As the lungs inflate, stretch receptors in the walls of the bronchi send nerve impulses increasingly
rapidly to the respiratory centre.
3)These impulses eventually inhibit the respiratory centre and stop stimulating the breathing
muscles.
4) Breathing in stops and with the relaxation of the muscles, exhalation occurs.
Homeostasis maintenance of a steady internal state in the body regardless of changes in the
internal or external conditions
Negative feedback system a change is conditions is registered by receptors and results in effectors
stimulated to restore equilibrium
Positive feedback effectors work to increase the effect which has triggered the response
Cardiac volume volume of blood pumped in each heartbeat
Cardiac output cardiac volume x heart rate
Sympathetic nervous system excitatory speeds up heart rate
Parasympathetic inhibitory slows heart rate
Baroreceptor sensors sensitive to pressure
Components of lung volume
Ventilation rate = tidal volume x frequency of respiration
Control and regulation of breathing
1) The respiratory centre (in the medulla of the hindbrain) sends impulses along sympathetic nerves
causing the intercostal muscles and diaphragm to contract.
2) As the lungs inflate stretch receptors in the walls of the bronchi send nerve impulses to the
respiratory centre
3) Eventually the nerve impulses inhibit the respiratory centre causing it to stop stimulating
breathing muscles.
4) As breathing in stops, the muscles relax and exhalation starts.
For
Athletes have the right to make their own
decision
Drug-free sport isnt fair anyway different
athletes have access to various training facilities,
coaches, equipment.
Athletes that want to compete at high levels may
only be able to using performance enhancing
drugs
Against
Some are illegal
Some may gain an advantage by taking drugs
not through hard work or training
Serious health risks blood pressure and heart
problems
Some may not be fully informed about the risks
Sensitivity in plants
Meristem areas of cell division and elongation which occur behind the tip of a root or shoot
Red light (580 to 660nm) stimulates germination
Far red light (700-730nm) inhibits germination
Phytochrome plant photoreceptor blue-green pigment that reacts with different types of light
Pr - absorbs red light (leads to flowering)
Pfr absorbs far red light (in this form the plant is germinating, growth of internodes are inhibited as
etiolation is not necessary)
(Pfr to Pr in dark)
When one form absorbs light it converts reversibly into the other form.
Photoperiods
Long-day plants build up of Pfr during daylight hours stimulates flowering
Short-day plants lack of Pfr stimulates flowering
Myelin sheath fatty layer around nerve fibre made of Schwann cells repeatedly wrapped around
themselves.
Nodes of ranvier gaps between the Schwann cells
Axon fibres that carry impulses away from nerve cell body
Dendrons fibres that carry impulses towards the cell body
Action potential
1) Stimulus excitation of the neurone cell membrane causing sodium ion channels to open
making it permeable to sodium with ions diffusing into the neurone down the electrochemical
gradient making the inside of the neurone less negative.
2) Depolarisation if potential reaches the threshold of -55mv, more sodium channels open with
ions diffusing into the neurone.
3) Repolarisation when potential difference is +30mv, sodium channels close and potassium
channels open with the membrane being more permeable to potassium ions leading them to diffuse
out of the neurone causing the neurone to progress towards resting potential.
4) Hyperpolarisation potassium ion channels are slow to close so too many potassium ions diffuse
out of the neurone with the potential difference becoming more negative than the resting potential
at -70mV.
5) Resting potential ion channels are reset with the sodium-potassium pump returning the
membrane to its resting potential until the membrane is excited by another stimulus.
There is a refractory period during which ion channels cant be opened acting as a time delay
between one action potential and the next, ensuring that action potentials are unidirectional and
pass along as discrete impulses.
Synapses
1) The arrival of an impulse at a synaptic knob increases the permeability of the presynaptic
membrane to calcium ions as calcium ion channels open up.
2) Calcium ions then move into the synaptic knob down their concentration gradient.
The effect of an influx of calcium ions is to cause the synaptic vesicles which contain a transmitter
substance or neurotransmitter to move to the presynaptic membrane.
3) Each vesicle contains around 3000 neurotransmitters. Some vesicles fuse with the presynaptic
membrane releasing transmitter substance into the synaptic cleft.
4) The molecules diffuse across the gap and become attached to specific protein receptor sites on
the post-synaptic membrane.
5) This opens sodium ion channels in the membrane and there is an influx of sodium ions into the
fibre causing a change in the potential difference across the membrane and an excitatory postsynaptic potential to be set up.
6) With sufficient EPSPs the positive charge in the post-synaptic cell exceeds the threshold level and
an action potential is set up which then travels on along the post-synaptic neurone.
7) The neurotransmitter can also have the opposite effect if different ion channels open in the
membrane allowing inwards movement of negative ions causing the inside to be more negative than
the normal resting potential.
8) An inhibitory post-synaptic potential results which makes it less likely that an action potential will
occur in the post-synaptic fibre.
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Receptors 1) Light enters the eye through the pupil where the amount of light that enters is
controlled by the muscle of the iris.
2) Light rays are focused by on the retina lining the inside of the eye by the lens
3) It is the retina that contains photoreceptor cells that detect light
4) In the retina the fovea is an area where lots of photoreceptors are contained
5) When light hits the photoreceptors they bleach the light-sensitive pigments causing a chemical
change.
6) A nerve impulse is triggered along a bipolar neurone (which connects photoreceptors to the optic
nerve) consequently taking impulses to the brain.
Rods (peripheral parts of retina) - only give information in black and white sensitive to low light/
movement
Cones (in fovea) give information in colour red-sensitive, green-sensitive and blue-sensitive which
are stimulated in different proportions so different colours are seen involving the pigment iodopsin.
Rods contain a light-sensitive pigment called rhodopsin which is made of retinal and opsin.
When it is dark the rods are not stimulated: 1) sodium ions are pumped out of the cell using active
transport but sodium ions diffuse back in to the cell through open sodium channels.
2) The inside of the cell is only slightly negative compared to the outside so the cell membrane is
said to be depolarised, triggering the release of neurotransmitters.
3) These neurotransmitters inhibit the bipolar neurone so it cant fire an action potential therefore
no information goes to the brain.
The process when the rods are stimulated by light.
1) Light energy causes rhodopsin to break apart into retinal and opsin in a process called bleaching
(where light energy changes cis-retinal into trans-retinal) causing the sodium ion channels to close.
2) Sodium ions are actively transported out of the cell so they cant diffuse back in.
3) Sodium ions build up on the outside of the cell making the inside of the membrane
hyperpolarised.
4) In this state it stops releasing neurotransmitters meaning that theres no inhibition of the bipolar
neurone.
5) The bipolar neurone is no longer inhibited causing it to depolarise. If the change in potential
difference reaches the threshold with an action potential transmitted to the brain via optic nerve.
Pupil reflex
1) Light enters the eye
2) the brighter the light the more action potentials travel along neurones in the optic nerve to the
brain
3) This is detected by a control centre in the midbrain
4) The impulses then travel along two neurones into further control centres where they synapse
with branches of the parasympathetic cranial nerve (the oculomotor) which transmits impulses to
the iris
5) These stimulate the effects i.e. the muscles of the iris with the circular muscles contracting and
the radial muscles relaxing so the pupil constricts.
Adam Clarke www.brain-freeze.co.uk
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Against
Difficult to generalise results from animals
Pain and distress can be caused in animals
Computer models/ cultures of human cells can
be used as safer alternatives
Animals right activitists say that animals have the
right not to be experimented on
L-Dopa
Because dopamine cant cross the blood-brain barrier a precursor to it is used, which allows the
sythnesis of more dopamine in the substantia nigra.
MDMA
Ecstasy blocks the serotonin reuptake transport system so synapses are completely flooded with
serotonin which cant be returned to the presynaptic knob. Alternatively the drug may make the
transport system release all the serotonin from the presynaptic knob into the synapse affecting the
post-synaptic membrane by flooding the brain with impulses.
Genetically modified microorganisms
1) Isolate and cut out required gene
2) Place gene into plasmid vector using DNA ligase
3) Place plasmid into host bacterial cell
4) Downstream processing- use bioreactor to remove human insulin for use
Genetically modified plants
1) Insert required gene into bacterium plasmid
2) Infect plant with modified bacteria so the gene becomes part of the plant chromosome.
3) Tumour develops in the plant with cells containing gene tumour cells are cultured with new
plants grown containing the new genes.
Ethics of using genetic modification
For
Technology may be used only for wealthy
GM Crops higher yield / more nutrition
reduce famine
Pest resistant save money
Use GMO to make enzymes
GM bacteria human insulin
Vaccines in plant tissue environment already
suitable
Cheaper drugs more available
Against
Genetic modification violates rights of organism
Transmission of genetic material crossover
with wild organisms
Safety of genetically modified food