The Core Properties of Life and Biological Organization

Flashcards covering the fundamental characteristics of life, non-living infectious agents (viruses and prions), and the hierarchy of biological organization.

What are the seven core properties of life shared by all living things?

Organization, Metabolism, Homeostasis, Response, Growth & Development, Reproduction, and Evolution.

What is the basic structure of a virus?

A nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) enclosed inside a protein coat (capsid).

Why are viruses considered obligate intracellular parasites rather than living organisms?

They can only replicate and evolve inside a host cell by using the host cell's ribosomes and ATP.

What are prions?

Infectious proteins that contain no nucleic acid at all.

How do prions propagate within an organism?

They propagate by forcing normal proteins ($\text{PrP}^C$) to misfold into infectious proteins ($\text{PrP}^{Sc}$), causing disease.

What three structural and metabolic features do neither viruses nor prions possess?

Neither has a cell, a membrane, or a metabolism of its own.

What is the sequence of the hierarchy of biological organization from the global scale to the microscopic scale?

Biosphere, Ecosystem, Community, Population, Organism, Organ System, Organ, Tissue, Cell, Molecule, and Atom.

What specific example is given in the notes for an organ system?

Circulatory system.

What specific example is given in the notes for an organ?

The heart.

What specific example is given in the notes for a tissue?

Cardiac muscle.

What specific example is given in the notes for a cell?

Heart muscle cell.

What specific example is given in the notes for a molecule?

DNA.