Evolution and Biodiversity

The Central Dogma: Flow of Genetic Material

• Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution
• The biodiversity of life represents the many different ways in which the common elements of the organization of life have been combined to create new and winning ways to survive and reproduce

Hierarchy of Classification System

• Species (e.g., sapiens)
• Genera (e.g., Homo)
• Families (e.g., Hominidae)
• Orders (e.g., Primates)
• Classes (e.g., mammalia)
• Phyla or Divisions (e.g., chordata)
• Kingdoms (e.g., Animalia)

Tree of Life

• The Three Domains of Life

Molecular Taxonomy and Systematics

• Molecular systematics is based on the analysis of DNA or protein sequences
• Similarity between protein sequences of different organisms indicates homology and probable similar functions (e.g., evolution of hemoglobin)

Bioinformatics

• The power of comparative analysis and identification of homologous proteins has been greatly expanded in the last 5 years due to in silico analysis of amino acid sequences
• 3 large databases of nucleotic sequences in the world: EMBL, DDBJ, and GenBank, and UniProt as SEQ databases

Life, Chemistry, and Water

• Matter is made up of combinations of elements

Origin of Life and Cell Theory

• The origin of life and cell theory: the discovery and advances of microscopy, the prebiotic world (RNA world), and the theory of evolution by natural selection
• The chemistry of the cell: main chemical elements, water and its properties, main functional chemical groups with biological meaning, biomolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids), and viruses, viroids, and prions

Cells and Organelles

• Prokaryotic cells (Bacteria and Archaea): plasma membrane, cell wall, nucleoid
• Eukaryotic cells: concept of compartmentalization, plasma membrane, nucleus, nucleolus, nucleoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, mitochondria (endosymbiotic theory), Golgi complex, lysosomes, peroxisomes, cytoskeleton (microfilaments, microtubules, intermediate filaments)

Hints of Bioenergetics and Enzymes

• Chromatin and chromosomes
• Cell membrane: structure, function, and chemistry
• Transport across membranes: simple diffusion, osmosis, facilitated diffusion, primary and secondary active transport