THE BASICS OF THE BASICS OF LIFELIFE

The vital functions of living beings

● Nutrition function. Living beings obtain the matter and energy necessary to sustain.

● Interaction function. Living beings relate whith their surrounding environment through this function.

● Reproduction function. Individual living beings are produced. This ensures the perpetuation of the species.

Chemical composition of living beings

● All living beings are made of cells.

● Cells are composed of biomolecules.

● Biomolecules are composed of chemical elements called biolements.

● The major bioelements are carbon (C), hy-drogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S).

Inorganic biomolecules

● They are in organic living matter and also in inert matter. They are:

● Water● Mineral salts

Organic biomolecules

● They are called so because they are unique in living beings. They are:

● Carbohydrates● Lipids● Proteins● Nucleic acids

● The cell is the structural unit of living beings.

● The cell is the functional unit of living beings.

● Every cell comes from another cell.

Cell theory

The cell structure

● Plasma membrane: Is the thin layer which separates the inside of the cell from its surrounding environment

● Citoplasm: It is a gelatinous and semi-transparent fluid which fills most cells.

● Genetic material: It is a substance which controls and regulates the functioning of the cell

Prokaryotic cells

Cells that have the genetic materials lost in the cytoplasm

Eucaryotic cells

Cells whose genetic material is enclosed in the nucleus. .

They are eucaryotic animal and plant cells.

Animal cells

● They are typical of protozoa, fungi and ani-mals.

● They do not have chloroplasts, or cell wall and the vacuoles are more abundant and smaller than plant cells.

Plant cells

● They are present in algae and plants.

● They have cell wall, chloroplasts and vacuoles are not numerous and large.

Cellular nutrition

● Autotrophic nutrition

● Heterotrophic nutrition

It consists of all the processes in which cell obtain ma-tter and energy to perfom vital functions.There are two types of nutrition:

Autotrophic nutrition

● It is characteristic of cells which use an energy source to make their own organic matter from inorganic matter.

● Autrotophic nutrition take place in plant and algae cells

Heterotrophic nutrition

● It is characteristic of cells which feed on orga-nic matter produced by other living beins.

● Heterotrophic nutrition take place in the cells of animals , fungi, protozoa and many bacteria.