GENERAL BIOLOGY

 BIOMOLECULES
o Biological molecule
o Occur naturally in living organisms
o All life forms are composed of biomolecules
o Monomers-building blocks
o Polymers- composed of monomers
 Organic compounds
o Carbon-containing compounds
o Carbs, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids
A. CARBOHYDRATES
o product of the photosynthesis
o source of energy
o joined by glycosidic bond
o Cn(H2O)n- general formula
1. Monosaccharides- One sugar
 Glucose- fuel
 Galactose- can help identifying blood types
 Fructose- sweetest sugar
2. Disaccharides- mono + mono
 Glycosidic bond (joins simple sugar to form di or poly)
 Sucrose- glucose + fructose (jam)
 Lactose- glucose + galactose (milk sugar)
 Maltose- glucose + glucose (beer sugar)
 Form through removal of water (dehydration synthesis)
 Broken down into mono through hydrolysis (adding of water)
3. Oligosaccharides- few sugar
 Found in plants such as onions, beans, legumes, wheat & asparagus
4. Polysaccharides- many
 Joined by glycosidic bond
Structural Polysaccharides-structural parts of living things
 Cellulose- support and protect the cell walls of plants & other organisms such as
bacteria.
 Trichonympha campanula- bacteria responsible for digestion of cellulose
 Chitin- shiny part in animals
 Cuticle- plants
Storage Polysaccharides- storage of energy
 Starch- in plants
 Glycogen- in animals
B. LIPIDS
o Joined by ester bond
o Adipose tissue
1. FATS- composed of one glycerol and three fatty acids
 Unsaturated Fats
 Healthy
 Organic material
 Saturated Fats
 Unhealthy
 Animals fats
 Trans-fat- oils
 Good cholesterol- low lipoprotein
 Bad cholesterol- high lipoprotein
 2. PHOSPOLIPIDS- made up of glycerol, two fatty acids and phosphate group
 Hydrophilic
 Water-loving
 Heads interact with water
 Hydrophobic
 Water-hating
 Tails are directed away from the watery environment
3. SPHINGOLIPIDS
 contain organic amino alcohol sphingosine
 located mainly in the cell membrane of mammalian cells
4. WAXES- found as coatings on leaves and stems
 Contains oils
 Energy
 Joined by ester bond
5. STEROIDS
 10x energy
 Not advisable
 Cholesterol
 Essential component of animal cell membrane
 Sex hormones
 Male hormones- testosterone
 Female hormones- progesterone & estrogen
 Adrenocorticoid hormones
 Adrenal glands
C. NUCLEIC ACIDS
 Discovered by Friedrich Miescher
3 COMPONENTS OF NUCLEOTIDES
 Nitrogenous bases
 Adenine
 Thymine
 Guanine
 Cytosine
 Phosphate group (sugar)
 Pentose
Base + sugar = nucleoside
Base + sugar + phosphate = nucleotide
D. PROTEINS- vital organic substance in the organism’s body
 Most abundant and most complex
 Made up of monomers of amino acids
 Joined by peptide bonds
 STRUCTURE OF PROTEIN
 Primary structure- sequence of amino acids
 Secondary structure- structure of protein molecule
 Tertiary structure- compact structure of protein molecule
 Quaternary structure- three-dimensional arrangement of two or more polypeptides

 EVOLUTION- gradual change from one form to another through period of time
o PROPONENTS OF EVOLUTION
 Jean-baptiste de Lamarck- Lamarckism
 Theory of inheritance of acquired traits
 Theory of use and disuse
 Thomas Malthus
  “An essay of principle of population”
 Large number of populations = competition
 Shortage of food
 Carolus Linnaeus
 “Systema Naturae”- classifying organism
 Need to adopt in order to survive
 Charles Darwin
 “Origin of Species”
 Natural Selection- fittest organisms will survive the changes in the environment
 Adaptation-an organism adapts to changes in the environment

o TYPES OF FOSSILS
Fossil- any preserved part or tissue of an organism that once lived
 Casts
 Total decay of the organism takes place, the mold is filled with another material,
forming a cast
 Molds
 Hard body structures like teeth, shells, and bones from molds
 Imprints
 Feathers and leaves are soft body structures that may form imprints or
impressions on developing sedimentary rocks
 Petrified Fossils
 When minerals replace the hard parts of organisms, they create petrified fossils.
Sometimes certain organisms are preserved in amber, which produces a
transparent covering; while others become trapped in tar, preventing decay.
o Homologous Structure
 different functions, same structure
o Analogous Structure
 Different structure, same functions
o Vestigial Structures
 Reduced in size and appear to have no function

 ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
o Form a new environment (depend on what happen)
 Primary Succession
 Takes 500 years to build new environment (climax)
 No life previously existed
 Ex. Volcanic eruption
 Pioneer species: lichens and mosses
 Secondary Succession
 100 years
 Where life has form an ecosystem (foundation)
 Pioneer species: grass
 Climax Community
 The main or final stage of ecological succession

o SOURCES OF VARIATION
 Mutation
 change in the chemical structure of gene
 Crossing-over
 exchange of chromosome segments
  Recombination
 supply new genes
 Migration
 movement of organisms into or out of population
 Isolation
 separation of populations into groups that no longer interact

 HUMAN EVOLUTION
o Australopithecus Afarensis
 Lucy
 4 ft
 Discovered by Donald Johanson
 Afar, Ethiopia
 3.2-3.8 million years old
 Lucy in the sky with diamonds by The Beatles
o Homo Habilis
 5 ft
 Handyman
 Bipedal
o Homo Erectus
 5’4-5’7 ft
 Fire
 Java, China, Africa
o Homo Neanderthalensis
 Neanders, Germany
o Homo Sapiens
 Barter system
 Wise man
o Homo Sapiens Sapiens
 Wisest of the wise
 Hominid
 Refers to the member of human family

 TROPHIC LEVELS
o Producer
 Autotrophs
 Can make their own food by the process of photosynthesis
o Consumer
 Heterotroph
 Can’t make their own food
 Rely on another organism
 Herbivore- plants
 Carnivore- animals
 Omnivore- animals & plants
o Decomposer
 Breakdown tissues of dead plants and animals
o Detritivores
 Use food as energy sources for their own metabolic processes
 Prefer dead prey for their subsistence
o Habitat
 Surrounding in which a particular species can be found
  Niche
 Role of an organism in a habitat
o Predator
 Kills and partakes of the dead organism
o Prey
 Organism that is taken
o Competition
 When organism fight for one and the same resource
 2 TYPES
 Intraspecific Competition- compete with members of their own kind
 Interspecific Competition- compete with other species
o Symbiosis
 Means living together
 3 TYPES
1. Mutualism
 symbiotic relationship in which both organism benefit from each other
2. Commensalism
 neither organism is eaten, but one organism benefits and the other is
neither helped nor harmed
3. Parasitism
 one organism benefit and the other is harmed
 Parasites- organism that live in or on other organism in order to survive
 Hosts- organism that are harmed
 2 TYPES
A. Endoparasitism- parasites live in the organisms
B. Ectoparasitism- parasites live om organisms
o Scavenging
 Biotic relationship that is not necessarily a symbiotic relationship
 Scavengers
 Consumers that feed on dead organisms which they themselves have not killed