Characteristics of Living Things

• The biosphere consists of all living things and the places where they develop their lives.
• Both living beings and inert matter are made up of a series of elements that are present in different proportions.
• In living beings, the most abundant elements are CARBON, HYDROGEN, OXYGEN and NITROGEN.
• Living beings are formed in part by organic matter, which includes numerous complex substances that contain carbon.
• Inert matter is made up mainly of inorganic matter, which includes simple substances that generally lack carbon.

Characteristics of Living Beings:

• They perform vital functions, nutrition, relationship, and reproduction.
• They are formed by cells, which are the smallest living units that make up living beings.
• Cells can perform vital functions; there are unicellular and multicellular beings.
• Living beings are made up of organic matter and both by inorganic matter, organic matter is only in living beings and its remains, not in inert matter.

Main Types of Organic Matter That Make Up Living Beings:

• GLUCIDES OR CARBOHYDRATES: Provide energy (sugars) or form structures (cellulose).
• LIPIDS: Energy reserve (fats) or form structures (cholesterol).
• PROTEINS: Involved in important processes and create structures.
• NUCLEIC ACIDS: (DNA) Control the functioning of the cell.

Main Types of Inorganic Matter of Living Beings:

• WATER: Most abundant in living beings, forms fluids like blood.
• MINERAL SALTS: Found dissolved or forming structures (bones).

Cells:

• Prokaryotes or eukaryotes (and within these, animals and vegetables) can be distinguished.

Common Structures:

• PLASMA MEMBRANE: Envelope that regulates the passage of substances between the interior and exterior of the cell.
• CYTOPLASM: Viscous liquid formed by water and dissolved substances.
• Within the cytoplasm are the ORGANELLES that perform different functions.
• GENETIC MATERIAL: Made up of nucleic acid or DNA that saves instructions so that the cell functions well and transmits information to new cells that arise through reproduction.

Prokaryotic Cells:

• Simple cells, Found in some bacteria.
• Have a plasma membrane and cytoplasm (almost without organelles).
• The genetic material is dispersed through the cytoplasm (there is no nucleus).
• Has a cell wall, a rigid covering that covers the membrane and protects and shapes it.

Eukaryotic Cells:

• Larger and more complex cells, found in all multicellular and some unicellular beings.
• Its cytoplasm has many organelles, its genetic material is stored in a nucleus.

Animal Eukaryotes:

• Spherical or irregular shape
• Nucleus in the center
• Do not have a cell wall
• Do not have chloroplasts
• Have mitochondria, which are organelles that take care of cellular respiration.

Plant Eukaryotes:

• Prism shape
• Nucleus on one side, displaced by a large vacuole (very large organelle).
• Plant Eukaryotes have a cell wall which surrounds the cell and shapes it.
• Have chloroplasts (organelles responsible for photosynthesis) green color.
• Cells that perform the same function are grouped, forming tissues.