Eukaryote Biology & Universal Principles of Life Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering universal cell features, central dogma concepts, evolutionary genetics, domains of life, endosymbiosis, and model organisms based on the lecture notes.

Universal Determinants of Life

The three fundamental pillars that define life across all living organisms: Heredity, Metabolism, and Compartmentalization.

Templated Polymerization

The universal mechanism by which all cells copy and replicate their hereditary DNA information.

Autocatalytic Process

A cellular cycle where nucleotides are essential to synthesize proteins, and proteins are essential to catalyze the processes required for nucleotide synthesis.

Metabolism

The cellular biochemistry that allows organisms to consume energy, maintain homeostasis, and maintain a non-entropic energy balance favorable for cellular organization.

Biosignature

A biochemical byproduct suggestive of metabolism, such as di-methylsulfide (DMS), used in searching for life on other planets.

Compartmentalization

The containment of life's biochemical factories within an enclosed plasma membrane.

Mycoplasma genitalium

One of the smallest known living organisms, possessing a genome of $525$ total genes derived from $580,070$ nucleotide pairs.

Paralogs

Homologous gene sequences resulting from genome duplication events that can acquire related but distinct cellular functions.

2R Hypothesis

The hypothesis suggesting two major whole-genome duplication events during vertebrate evolution roughly $\sim 500\text{ million years ago}$, facilitating the evolution of the adaptive immune system.

Bacteria

A domain of life characterized by enormous evolutionary diversity and cells lacking a nucleus, containing DNA in a cytoplasmic nucleoid.

Archaea

A domain of life whose organisms externally resemble bacteria, possess genomes more consistent with eukaryotes, and often occupy extreme environmental niches.

Eukaryotes

A domain of life comprising animals, plants, fungi, and protists, characterized by larger genomes and membrane-bound organelles.

Endosymbiotic Theory

The evolutionary theory stating that mitochondria and plastids derived from prokaryotes, supported by their circular genomes, binary fission, and bacterial-like ribosomes.

Asgard Archaeon

An anaerobic cultured archaeon that contains genes previously observed only in eukaryotes, supporting the endosymbiotic theory.

Caenorhabditis elegans

A model organism worm possessing exactly $302$ neurons in the adult hermaphrodite, utilized to map neural circuitry and function.

Toll-like Receptors (TLRs)

Vertebrate immune receptors homologous to Drosophila Toll that signal through TIR domains to NFkB-like pathways.

Danio rerio

The scientific name for zebrafish, a model organism used for live dynamic imaging of cancer cell metastasis.

Drosophila melanogaster

The scientific name for the fruit fly, a model organism in which the Toll receptor was originally characterized during developmental screens.