Plant

Bacteria
Fungi
 Organisms are composed of elements, in
combinations called compounds

• Living organisms are composed of matter,

which is anything that occupies space and
has mass (weight).
• Matter is composed of chemical elements.
– An element is a substance that cannot be
broken down to other substances.
– There are 92 elements in nature—only a few
exist in a pure state.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

 • Biology / Biosciences:
is the science concerned with the study of life

• Any contiguous living system is called an organism

Characteristics of living organisms

Organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis,

possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and,
through natural selection, adapt to their environment in
successive generations.

A diverse array of living organisms can be found in the

biosphere of Earth, and the properties common to these
organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and
bacteria—are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with
complex organization and heritable genetic information
Characteristics of Living Organisms

1. Growth and Development

2. Reproductionth

3. Organization

4. Heredity

5. Metabolism

6. Homeostasis

7. Respond to stimuli
8. Adaptative evolution
Living things share the following characteristics:

1. Living things are made up of units called cells.

Every organism is composed of at least one cell.

Multicellular
Unicellular or
or many-celled
single-celled

Common House fly

Euglena, Bacteria Musca domestica
Plants and animals
 2. Level of Organization:
Living organisms have different levels of organization

• Both molecular and cellular organization.

• Living organisms are able to organize simple substances
into complex ones.
Living things organize cells at several levels:
• Tissue - a group of cells that perform a common function.
• Organ - a group of tissues that perform a common
function.
• Organ system - a group of organs that perform a common
function.
• Organism - any complete living system.
 Levels of Organization
Cell

Tissue

Organ

Organ System

Organism
3. Growth & Development: Living organisms grow and develop
• For single-celled organisms, growth is mostly an increase in size.
• Multicellular organisms growth through a process called development,
where cells divide and differentiate into different kinds of cells.

• A permanent increase in size and dry mass by

an increase in cell number or cell size or both.

• Increase in cell size and/or number

• Includes: development, aging, death
• Differentiation – cell specialization for a certain job
 4. Reproduction: Living organisms reproduce

• Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known living

organisms

• Reproduction is the biological process by which new

"offspring" individual organisms are produced from their
"parents".
There are two basic kinds of reproduction:
Asexual: only one parent
all offspring are identical; for example, binary fission of
bacteria or amoeba.
Sexual—two cells from different parents unite to produce the
first cell (Zygote) of a new organism.
 Asexual reproduction

Asexual reproduction is the process by which an organism

creates a genetically similar or identical copy of itself without
a contribution of genetic material from another individual

Growing Bud

Bud

Separation

New Individual

Bacteria divide asexually via Hydras is able to reproduce

binary fission by budding
 Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is a biological process by which organisms
create descendants that have a combination of genetic material
contributed from two different members of the species

Each of two parent organisms contributes half of the offspring's

genetic makeup by creating haploid gametes

Male Female

Animals (including humans)

and plants reproduce
sexually

Twoo cells from different parents unite to produce the

first cell of a new organism.
 5. Respond to stimuli
• Living things respond to their environment
• Organisms detect and respond to stimuli from their
environment.
• A stimulus is a signal to which an organism responds.
• External stimuli include temperature and light etc.
Examples of stimuli :
Light, Sound, Temperature, Chemicals and Touch, etc

• Internal stimuli come from within the host, such as blood

sugar level.
 A Stimulus is any change either internal or external
which leads to a response. This could be a noise, smell
or the changes in blood sugar level.

A Receptor is a specialized cell which can sense the

stimulus. There are lots of different types of receptors,
some can sense light, while others can sense heat etc.

A Coordinator is a cell or organ which 'decides' what

to do. It gives a message to the effector to do
something.

The Effector is an organ which responds to the

stimulus. This could be a muscle which contracts or an
organ like the liver which may perform a complex task
like lowering the blood sugar levels after a meal.
The Response is what happens when the organism reacts to the stimulus.
The stimulus could be either external or internal.

An example of an external stimulus would be the response of the iris to

bright light. Bright light can damage the retina. In this case the light is the
stimulus. The receptors are the light sensitive cells of the retina. The brain
is the coordinator which decides that the light is too bright and stimulates
the effector, in this case the circular muscles of the iris. The response is
that the iris contracts making the pupil narrower and so reducing the
amount of light which enters the eye.

An internal stimulus could be the body's temperature control. The

stimulus in this case is the temeprature of the blood. The hypothalamus of
the brain is the receptor and the brain is the coordinator. There are a
number of effectors in this case. The sweat glands, erector muscles and the
blood vessels of the skin are just a few.
Chemotaxis: is a migratory response that is elicited by
chemicals: that is, a response to a chemical concentration
gradient. For example, chemotaxis in response to a sugar
gradient has been observed in motile bacteria such as E. Coli.

Unicellular (e.g. protozoa) or multicellular (e.g. worms)

organisms are targets of chemotactic substances.

A concentration gradient of chemicals developed in a fluid

phase guides the vectorial movement of responder cells or
organisms. Inducers of locomotion towards increasing steps of
concentrations are considered as chemoattractants, while
chemorepellents result moving off the chemical

Chemotaxis is described in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, but

signalling mechanisms (receptors, intracellular signaling) and
effectors are significantly different
 7. Homeostasis (Greek, same condition):
Maintaining a stable internal environment is called Homeostasis

Living things
maintain a stable
internal
environment.

Even though external environmental conditions may vary widely,

most organisms must keep internal conditions, such as temperature
and water content, fairly constant.
 8. Metabolism:
Living things obtain and use materials and energy
Nutrition (also called nourishment) is the provision,
to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of
food) to support life. Many common health problems can be
prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.
There are six major classes of
nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins,
and water.
Nutrient are categorized as either macronutrients (needed in
relatively large amounts) or micronutrients (needed in smaller
quantities).
The macronutrients include carbohydrates (including fiber), fats,
protein, and water. The micronutrients are minerals and
vitamins.
• The combination of chemical reactions through
which an organism builds up or breaks down
materials as it carries out its life processes is
called as metabolism.

• Nutrients (which are organic substances and

mineral ions, containing raw materials or energy)
are required for growth and tissue repair by all
living organisms.
The human body contains chemical compounds,
such as water, carbohydrates (sugar, starch, and
fiber), amino acids (in proteins), fatty
acids (in lipids), and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).

These compounds in turn consist of elements such

as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus,
calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and so
on.
All of these chemical compounds and elements
occur in various forms and combinations
(e.g. hormones, vitamins, phospholipids, both in
the human body and in the plant and animal
organisms that humans eat.