Life Processes Practice Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering life processes, modes of nutrition, photosynthesis, and human digestive anatomy based on the provided lecture notes.

Life Processes

The various basic functions performed by living organisms to maintain and sustain life.

Nutrition

The process of taking in food and converting it into energy and other vital nutrients required for life.

Autotrophic Nutrition

A mode of nutrition where organisms prepare their own food, such as green plants and blue-green algae.

Heterotrophic Nutrition

A mode of nutrition where organisms are dependent on other organisms for food, such as animals and fungi.

Holozoic nutrition

A type of nutrition involving organisms ingesting whole food material, which is then digested and absorbed inside their bodies.

Saprophytic nutrition

A mode of nutrition where organisms feed on dead and decaying matter, digesting food externally and then absorbing the nutrients.

Parasitic nutrition

A mode of nutrition where organisms derive nutrition from plants or animals (the host) without killing them, by living on or inside them.

Photosynthesis

The process of capturing light energy and transforming it into chemical energy (glucose).

Chloroplasts

The site of photosynthesis in leaf cells which contains chlorophyll to trap sunlight.

Stomata

Tiny pores mainly on the underside of leaves that facilitate gas exchange ($CO_2$ intake and $O_2$ release) and transpiration.

Guard Cells

Cells that control the opening and closing of stomata by swelling with water to open the pore or shrinking to close it.

Glycogen

The form in which carbohydrates are stored in the human body.

Starch

The form in which carbohydrates are stored in plants.

Potassium hydroxide (KOH)

A substance used in experiments to absorb carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) present inside a container.

Pseudopodia

Finger-like temporary extensions of the cell surface used by Amoeba to engulf food.

Cilia

Hair-like structures used by Paramecium to push food into the oral groove.

Ingestion

The process of taking food into the body.

Digestion

The breakdown of complex food substances into simpler, soluble forms with the help of enzymes.

Absorption

The process by which digested food passes into the cytoplasm of a cell or into the bloodstream.

Assimilation

The utilization of absorbed food for energy, growth, and repair of body cells.

Egestion

The removal of undigested and waste food from the body.

Alimentary canal

A long hollow tube consisting of organs such as the oesophagus, stomach, and intestines through which food passes during nutrition.

Peristaltic movement

The movement used to transport food from the mouth to the stomach through the oesophagus.

Salivary amylase

An enzyme in saliva that breaks down starch (complex sugar) into maltose (simple sugar).

Pepsin

A protein-digesting enzyme secreted by gastric glands in the stomach.

Bile

A secretion from the liver that emulsifies fat in the small intestine.

Villi

Small, finger-like projections in the inner wall of the small intestine that increase the surface area for the absorption of nutrients.

Trypsin

A pancreatic enzyme that breaks down proteins.

Lipase

An enzyme present in pancreatic juice that breaks down fats.

Cellulose

A component of plant material that is difficult to digest, requiring herbivores to have a longer small intestine.