General Biology II: Animal Diversity, Physiology, Microbiology, Algae, and Fungi

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering viruses, animal phyla, physiological systems, bacteriology, algae, and mycology from the BIO 102 curriculum.

Virion

A complete, infectious virus particle consisting of a central nucleic acid core (DNA or RNA) enclosed within a protective protein capsid.

Capsomere

Repeating protein subunits that assemble to form the protective protein coat (capsid) of a virus in either helical or polyhedral arrangements.

Phagineae

An order of viruses in the classification by Holmes (1948) that specifically infects bacterial hosts (bacteriophages).

Phytophagineae

An order of viruses in the classification by Holmes (1948) that specifically infects plant hosts.

Zoophagineae

An order of viruses in the classification by Holmes (1948) that specifically infects animal hosts.

Choanocytes

Specialized collar cells equipped with flagella found in sponges (Porifera) that create water currents and trap suspended food particles.

Syconoid Sponge Structure

A sponge body morphology featuring incurrent and radial canals lined with choanocytes, dermal pores, prosopyles, apopyles, and a central spongocoel opening to an osculum.

Nematocysts

Specialized stinging organelles located within cnidocytes on the tentacles of coelenterates (cnidarians), utilized for prey capture and antipredator defense.

Acoelomate Flatworm Body Plan

A triploblastic body organization seen in phylum Platyhelminthes that completely lacks a fluid-filled body cavity (coelom), packing organs in solid mesenchyme tissue (parenchyma).

Phasmids

Caudal sensory organs located at the posterior end of certain roundworms, used to divide phylum Nematoda into classes Phasmidea and Aphasmidea.

Metamerism

The structural condition of having the body divided into a linear series of similar repeating segments (metameres or somites) separated by transverse septa, characteristic of Annelida.

Clitellum

A thickened, non-segmented glandular region of the body wall situated between segments 14–17 in earthworms and leeches that secretes a cocoon for egg storage.

Parapodia

Paired lateral, fleshy outgrowths of the body wall equipped with numerous setae, functioning in locomotion and respiration in polychaete annelids.

Ecdysis

The periodic shedding or moulting of the rigid, non-stretchable chitinous exoskeleton in arthropods to permit body enlargement and developmental progression.

Class Bivalvia

A class of molluscs having a two-valved hinged shell characterized by an umbo, growth rings, lateral teeth, pseudocardinal teeth, and a pallial line.

Neopilina galatheae

A limpet-like living fossil mollusc of the class Monoplacophora, featuring a single circular shell, broad ventral foot, multiple pairs of lateral gills, and a surrounding mantle.

Class Polyplacophora

A marine molluscan class commonly called chitons, characterized by an oval body shielded dorsally by eight articulated shell plates encircled by a spicular girdle.

Water Vascular System

A unique hydraulic network of fluid-filled canals ending in tube feet, serving echinoderms for locomotion, gas exchange, and prey capture.

Balanoglossus

An enteropneust acorn worm of phylum Hemichordata having an unsegmented body differentiated into an anterior proboscis, collar, branchial region with a mid-dorsal ridge, and hepatic region.

Subphylum Urochordata

A chordate subphylum comprising tunicates (sea squirts) whose sessile adults possess a protective tunic enclosing a perforated branchial basket, oral siphon, and atrial siphon.

Subphylum Cephalochordata

Marine, fish-like chordates (such as Amphioxus) that retain a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, pharyngeal gill slits, and postanal tail throughout their adult life.

Endostyle

A ciliated, mucous-secreting longitudinal groove located on the floor of the pharynx in invertebrate chordates, functioning to bind and trap microscopic food particles.

Lophophore

A specialized, horse-shoe-shaped or circular fold of the body wall bearing ciliated tentacles around the mouth, used for suspension filter feeding in Bryozoa and Brachiopoda.

Corona

A ciliated crown-like structure located at the anterior head end of rotifers, utilized for locomotion and creating water currents to draw in suspended food.

Pedicle

A muscular, flexible stalk-like structure emerging from the posterior part of brachiopod shells that anchors the animal securely to rocky or sandy substrates.

Filter Feeding

A suspension-feeding strategy in which an animal extracts microscopic nutrients, plankton, or organic debris from surrounding water using specialized filtering structures.

Deposit Feeding

A nutritional mode wherein animals ingest soft sediment or soil, extracting and assimilating the living and nonliving organic matter contained within it.

Suction Feeding

A prey-capture mechanism predominant in bony fishes involving rapid expansion of the buccal cavity to generate negative pressure, sucking water and prey inward.

Mastication

The mechanical processing and chewing of food by teeth, tongue, and saliva in the mouth to decrease particle size and create a lubricated bolus for swallowing.

Tracheal System

A respiratory network of branching chitinous tubes (tracheae and tracheoles) in terrestrial arthropods that delivers atmospheric oxygen directly to cells via body spiracles.

Flame Cell

A specialized protonephridial excretory cell in flatworms with internal cilia whose rhythmic flickering creates fluid currents to propel metabolic waste toward ducts.

Renette Cells

Specialized ventral glandular cells that form the basis of the H-shaped tubular excretory canal network in nematodes, eliminating metabolic wastes through an anterior pore.

Ammonotelism

The direct excretion of nitrogenous metabolic waste in the form of highly toxic, highly soluble ammonia, common in aquatic organisms such as protozoa, fish, and crustaceans.

Ureotelism

The mode of excretion where ammonia is converted by the liver into less toxic urea before expulsion via the kidneys, characteristic of mammals, adult amphibians, and sharks.

Uricotelism

The water-conserving excretion of nitrogenous waste in the form of insoluble uric acid paste or pellets, utilized predominantly by reptiles, birds, and terrestrial insects.

Nitrogenous Waste Excretion Pathways

Biochemical metabolic processing of amino groups derived from proteins and nucleic acids into ammonia (aquatic organisms), urea (mammals and amphibians), or uric acid (birds and reptiles).

Open Circulatory System

A vascular plan found in arthropods and non-cephalopod molluscs where a dorsal tubular heart propels hemolymph into open tissue sinuses (hemocoel), returning through ostia.

Closed Circulatory System

A continuous vascular arrangement found in annelids and vertebrates where circulating blood remains entirely confined within distinct muscular vessels and capillary networks.

Parthenogenesis

A form of uniparental reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops directly into a viable offspring, observed in aphids, honeybees, whiptail lizards, and turkeys.

Ovoviviparity

An internal reproductive pattern in which fertilized eggs are retained within the female, developing exclusively on yolk nutrients until hatching internally before live birth.

Cleavage

A succession of rapid mitotic divisions undergone by a zygote without cytoplasmic growth, partitioning the egg into numerous smaller cells called blastomeres.

Gastrulation

A morphogenetic developmental phase characterized by cell inward migrations that produces the primary germ layers (ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm) and primitive gut (archenteron).

Peptidoglycan

A rigid macromolecular meshwork consisting of alternating polymers of $N$-acetylglucosamine (NAG) and $N$-acetylmuramic acid (NAM) cross-linked by short peptides, constructing bacterial walls.

Teichoic Acids

Negatively charged polyol phosphate polymers anchored within the peptidoglycan matrix of Gram-positive bacteria, functioning in ion transport, antigenic specificity, and cell wall stability.

Protoplast

A viable, metabolically active bacterial cell whose entire peptidoglycan cell wall has been completely digested and removed, typically by lysozyme.

Bacterial Endospore

A dehydrated, highly resistant dormant bacterial survival structure possessing a core fortified with calcium and dipicolinic acid, a thick peptidoglycan cortex, and a protein coat.

Peritrichous

A bacterial flagellar arrangement in which multiple flagella are distributed uniformly across the entire outer surface of the bacterial cell.

Mesophiles

Microorganisms that demonstrate optimum growth within intermediate temperatures ranging between $25\text{--}40\,^\circ\text{C}$, encompassing most human pathogenic bacteria.

Plasmolysis

The shrinkage and detachment of the bacterial cytoplasm and plasma membrane from the rigid cell wall when placed into a hypertonic external solution.

Cryptogams

Flowerless, seedless lower plants (including algae, fungi, bryophytes, and pteridophytes) that propagate via spores and feature concealed reproductive structures.

Phanerogams

Seed-bearing, vascular plants (comprising gymnosperms and angiosperms) that possess distinct flowers or cones and differentiated reproductive organs.

Phycobilisomes

Granular protein complexes situated on photosynthetic membranes in Cyanophyta and Rhodophyta containing accessory phycobiliproteins like phycocyanin and phycoerythrin.

Heterocyst

A specialized, pale, thick-walled cell in filamentous cyanobacteria (e.g., Anabaena) that carries out atmospheric nitrogen fixation using the enzyme nitrogenase.

Floridean Starch

The principal reserve carbohydrate synthesized and stored in the cytoplasm of red algae (phylum Rhodophyta).

Chrysolaminarin

A soluble polysaccharide carbohydrate stored in specialized vacuoles within diatoms and golden-brown algae (phylum Bacillariophyta).

Laminarin

A principal glucose storage polysaccharide stored alongside mannitol as a food reserve in brown algae and kelps (phylum Phaeophyta).

Paramylum

A specialized crystalline $\beta$-1,3-glucan carbohydrate storage product manufactured and accumulated by euglenoids (phylum Euglenophyta).

Mycology

The specialized scientific discipline of biology concerned with the taxonomy, genetics, physiology, and ecological dynamics of fungi.

Hyphae

Microscopic, branched, tubular filamentous units that collectively interweave to construct the vegetative body (mycelium) of a fungus.

Ascus

A microscopic, sac-like sexual reproductive structure characteristic of Ascomycetes inside which typically eight haploid ascospores are formed.

Basidium

A microscopic club-shaped sexual sporangium produced on the gill surfaces of Basidiomycetes that bears four external basidiospores on sterigmata.

Lichen

A stable symbiotic association composed of a fungus and an autotrophic partner (cyanobacterium or green alga) organized into a three-layered thallus.

Mycorrhiza

A mutualistic symbiotic union between soil fungi and the roots of vascular plants that enhances uptake of phosphorus, zinc, copper, and water in return for organic carbon.