Life Processes Lecture Notes Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from the Life Processes lecture notes covering key concepts in nutrition, respiration, transportation, and excretion.

Life Processes

The basic processes in living organisms necessary for maintaining their life, which include nutrition, respiration, transportation, and excretion.

Movement

The most important criteria to decide whether something is alive, occurring without external help, either visible (body parts) or invisible (molecular movements).

Nutrition

The process of taking food by an organism and its utilization by the body to build the body, for growth, to repair damaged parts, and for energy.

Respiration

The process by which food is burnt in the cells of the body with the help of oxygen to release energy.

Transportation

The process by which food, oxygen, water, and waste products are carried from one part of the body to another.

Excretion

The process by which waste products produced during metabolic activities are removed from the body.

Autotrophic Nutrition

Nutrition in which organisms prepare their own food from simple inorganic substances like carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and water ($H_2O$) in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll.

Heterotrophic Nutrition

Nutrition in which organisms get their food directly or indirectly from plants.

Saprophytic Nutrition

Type of heterotrophic nutrition where organisms get food from dead and decaying organisms by breaking down food material outside their body and absorbing it.

Parasitic Nutrition

Type of heterotrophic nutrition where organisms obtain food from living organisms (host) without killing them.

Holozoic Nutrition

Type of heterotrophic nutrition where organisms take food directly and then digest and absorb it.

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants prepare food using carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and water ($H_2O$) in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll, described by $6CO_2 + 12H_2O \rightarrow C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6H_2O + 6O_2$.

Chloroplasts

Green dot-like structures present inside plant cells that contain chlorophyll.

Stomata

Tiny pores present on leaves through which exchange of gases takes place.

Guard Cells

Pair of cells surrounding each stoma that control its opening and closing by swelling when water enters and shrinking when water is lost.

Pseudopodia

Finger-like projections formed by Amoeba to capture food particles and form a food vacuole.

Salivary Amylase

An enzyme present in saliva that converts starch into sugar in the mouth.

Pepsin

An enzyme produced by gastric glands in the stomach that breaks down proteins in an acidic medium.

Bile

A juice produced by the liver and released into the duodenum that breaks down fats into smaller globules.

Trypsin

An enzyme in pancreatic juice that breaks down proteins in the small intestine.

Lipase

An enzyme in pancreatic juice that breaks down fats in the small intestine.

Villi

Finger-like projections on the inner wall of the small intestine rich in blood vessels that increase the surface area for absorbing digested food.

ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate)

The energy currency molecule of the cell formed from ADP and inorganic phosphate during respiration.

Aerobic Respiration

Respiration that occurs in the presence of oxygen in cytoplasm and mitochondria, yielding carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), water ($H_2O$), and energy.

Anaerobic Respiration

Respiration that occurs in the absence of oxygen, yielding less energy along with end products such as lactic acid or ethanol and $CO_2$.

Fermentation

The process of anaerobic respiration in yeast where glucose is broken down into pyruvate and then converted into ethanol, $CO_2$, and energy.

Alveoli

Tiny air sacs at the ends of bronchioles surrounded by blood vessels where exchange of gases takes place in the lungs.

Arteries

Thick-walled blood vessels without valves that carry pure (oxygenated) blood away from the heart to all parts of the body.

Veins

Thin-walled blood vessels with valves that carry impure (deoxygenated) blood from all parts of the body back to the heart.

Capillaries

Very narrow blood vessels connecting arteries and veins through which exchange of food, water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide with cells takes place.

Double Circulation

A pathway in which blood passes through the heart twice during one complete cycle through the body.

Lymph

A colourless fluid formed from escaped plasma in intercellular spaces that transports digested fats and contains lymphocytes to kill germs.

Xylem

Conducting tissue in plants consisting of vessels and tracheids that transports water and minerals from the roots to all parts of the plant.

Phloem

Conducting tissue in plants consisting of sieve tubes and companion cells that transports food from leaves to other parts of the plant.

Translocation

The process of transporting food from leaves to other parts of the plant via phloem using ATP energy.

Nephron

The basic excretory unit of the kidney consisting of Bowman's capsule, glomerulus, and a long tubular structure.

Bowman's Capsule

A cup-like structure in a nephron containing a capillary bundle called glomerulus that filters nitrogenous waste from blood.

Transpiration

The process by which excess water is lost as water vapor from the plant through stomata.