1/24
Flashcards on Characteristics of Living Organisms
Name | Mastery | Learn | Test | Matching | Spaced |
---|
No study sessions yet.
MRS C GREN
Acronym for the characteristics of living organisms: Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Control, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition.
Nutrition
The process by which organisms obtain food to provide energy for life processes.
Autotrophic
Organisms, like plants, that create their own food for energy through photosynthesis.
Heterotrophic
Organisms, like animals, that consume other living organisms to obtain energy.
Respiration
A chemical reaction in all living organisms where energy is released from glucose. Can be aerobic or anaerobic.
Excretion
The removal of toxic materials and waste substances from organisms produced by metabolic reactions.
Sensitivity
An organism's ability to detect and respond to stimuli in its surroundings.
Geotropism
A plant's response to gravity, causing roots to grow down into the soil.
Phototropism
A plant's response to light, causing shoots to grow towards sunlight.
Movement
An action by an organism causing a change of position or place; locomotion is movement from place to place.
Homeostasis
The control of an organism's internal environment to maintain stable conditions.
Thermoregulation
The control of body temperature in organisms.
Reproduction
The process that leads to the production of more of the same kind of organism. Can be sexual or asexual.
Sexual Reproduction
Reproduction involving the fusion of male and female gametes, resulting in offspring with DNA from both parents.
Asexual Reproduction
Reproduction involving only one parent, producing an exact clone of the parent.
Growth
Defined as a permanent increase in size. Which can occur throughout an organisms life.
Eukaryotic Organisms
Organisms whose cells contain a nucleus with a distinct membrane; includes animals, plants, fungi, and protoctists.
Prokaryotic Organisms
Single-celled organisms that do not contain a nucleus; the nuclear material is found in the cytoplasm.
Animals
Multicellular eukaryotes without cell walls or chloroplasts that feed on organic substances and usually have nervous coordination.
Plants
Multicellular eukaryotes with cellulose cell walls and chloroplasts that feed by photosynthesis and store carbohydrates as starch or sucrose.
Fungi
Usually multicellular eukaryotes with chitinous cell walls that feed by secreting extracellular digestive enzymes and absorbing digested molecules.
Protoctists
A diverse kingdom of mainly microscopic, single-celled eukaryotic organisms that don't fit into other eukaryotic kingdoms.
Prokaryotes
Single-celled organisms with no nucleus, where the nuclear material is found in the cytoplasm.
Pathogen
Any microorganism that causes disease in another organism, including bacteria, fungi, protoctists, and viruses.
Viruses
Small, parasitic particles with no cellular structure that can only reproduce inside living cells.