Cellular Respiration, Photosynthesis, and Nutritional Biochemistry

Vocabulary flashcards covering cellular respiration, photosynthesis, macronutrient biochemistry, digestion, and ecological carbon and energy cycles based on lecture review notes.

Breathing Rate and Heart Rate Response to Exercise

The physiological acceleration of heart and lung activity during exercise that speeds up to supply more food and oxygen into muscle cells.

Skin Temperature Response to Exercise

A decrease in surface temperature that occurs during exercise because blood normally located in the skin is redirected toward working muscles.

Exhaled Carbon Dioxide Response to Exercise

An increase in the concentration of $CO_2$ breathed out during physical activity, driven by cellular respiration occurring at a much faster rate.

Chemical Reaction

A process in which one or more substances change to form a new substance with distinctly new properties.

Law of Conservation of Mass

The principle stating that mass cannot be created or destroyed within a system.

Law of Conservation of Energy

The principle stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another.

Biological Food Types

The three macronutrient categories that provide usable chemical energy to the body: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

Chemical Energy

The specific form of potential energy contained and stored within the chemical bonds of food molecules.

Forms of Energy

Five major physical forms of energy other than chemical energy: mechanical, electrical, light, thermal, and sound.

Fats

The food macromolecule that provides the highest amount of energy for the body, releasing the most thermal energy and calories per gram when burned.

Glucose

A simple sugar that serves as the fundamental monomer subunit for complex carbohydrates.

Amino Acids

The fundamental molecular subunits that link together to build proteins.

Glucose vs. Fructose

Two isomeric monosaccharides that share identical molecular components but differ in their structural shape.

Nitrogen

The specific chemical element found in proteins that distinguishes them from carbohydrates and fats.

Constituent Elements in All Foods

The universal chemical elements present in all food types: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ($O_2$, $CO_2$, and hydrogen).

Monosaccharide

A simple single-sugar unit; examples include glucose, fructose, and galactose.

Disaccharide

A sugar molecule consisting of two linked monosaccharide units; examples include sucrose, lactose, and maltose.

Polysaccharide

A complex carbohydrate composed of long chains of multiple linked sugar units, such as starch.

Non-Caloric Activities and Stimulants

Activities like sleeping, exercising, or consuming caffeine that do not supply true biological energy because they lack chemical energy and calories.

Food Burning Reaction

A chemical combustion reaction wherein carbon derived from food combines with oxygen ($O_2$) to produce carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and water.

Benedict's Solution

A chemical indicator for simple sugars that turns from blue to reddish when heated in their presence.

Iodine Indicator

A chemical indicator that identifies the presence of starch by turning black.

Enzyme

A catalytic protein that speeds up a chemical reaction and can be reused repeatedly because it is not consumed as a reactant.

Nitrogen Isotopes in Metabolic Tracking

Isotopically labeled nitrogen molecules incorporated into rat food by researchers to track the pathway and destination of dietary nitrogen in living tissues.

Primary Non-Energy Role of Proteins

Building, repairing, and replacing old and damaged cells within bodily tissues.

Hydrolysis (Addition of Water to Food)

A digestive process (such as the action of saliva) where adding water to complex food molecules breaks them apart into their component subunits.

Condensation / Dehydration in Food Molecules

The chemical process of taking water away from food subunits to bond them back into larger, complex structures.

Four Outcomes of Ingested Food

The physiological paths of consumed food: converted into immediate energy, used to build and repair tissues, stored as fat, or eliminated as waste.

Capillaries in the Small Intestine

The microscopic blood vessels where digested food molecules and essential nutrients pass from the digestive tract into the bloodstream.

Veins

Circulatory vessels responsible for carrying blood back toward the heart.

Arteries

Circulatory vessels responsible for transporting blood away from the heart.

Hemoglobin

The iron-containing protein found within red blood cells that binds and transports oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body.

Sickle-Cell Anemia

A genetic condition in which abnormally sickle-shaped red blood cells clog vessels, and reduced total red blood cell counts diminish oxygen delivery.

Carbon Cycle

The continuous biogeochemical movement and recycling of carbon between living organisms, the atmosphere, and the Earth.

Environmental Energy Flow

The unidirectional trophic pathway where energy flows continuously from the Sun to producers, to consumers, and finally to decomposers.

Stomata

Microscopic pores located on the surface of plant leaves through which atmospheric carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) enters the plant.

Plant Biomass Origin

The primary source of a plant's physical mass, which is derived from carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) absorbed from the surrounding air rather than soil.

Bromothymol Blue

A chemical indicator for carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) that turns yellow in high concentrations and remains blue when little or no $CO_2$ is present.

Photosynthesis Reactants and Products

The process utilizing reactants $CO_2 + H_2O$ to generate products $O_2 + \text{Sugar}$.

Chloroplast

The specialized organelle inside plant cells where photosynthesis takes place.

Cellular Respiration Reactants and Products

The metabolic process utilizing reactants $O_2 + \text{Sugar}$ to produce $CO_2 + H_2O$.

Mitochondria

The eukaryotic organelles present in both plant and animal cells where cellular respiration takes place.