Shared traits of all living things

Quiz 1 Reading 1

Homeostasis

The ability of living things to maintain a constant internal environment despite external changes.

Organization

The arrangement of matter in living things into one or more cells, which are the basic units of structure and function.

Metabolism

The set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in living organisms, encompassing both anabolism and catabolism.

Anabolism

The part of metabolism that involves building up larger molecules from smaller ones.

Catabolism

The part of metabolism that involves breaking down larger molecules into smaller ones.

Growth

An increase in size or mass of an organism, often dependent on the rates of anabolism and catabolism.

Adaptation

A characteristic or trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment.

Response to stimuli

The ability of living things to detect and react to changes in their environment.

Reproduction

The biological process by which living things produce offspring.

Evolution

The change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.

Virus

A microscopic infectious agent that can only replicate inside a host cell, not considered a living organism by traditional definitions.

Chemical response to stimuli

Movement or reaction of an organism in response to chemical changes in its environment, also known as chemotaxis.

Light response to stimuli

Movement or growth of an organism in response to light, also known as phototropism.

Unicellular organisms

Organisms that consist of a single cell, such as bacteria, which can maintain homeostasis.

Constant internal environment

The stable internal conditions that living organisms maintain, also referred to as homeostasis.