Untitled Quiz

Study Notes

Classifying living things involves 8 characteristics: made of cells, reproduce, need and use energy, grow and develop, respond to stimuli, move, exchange gases, and excrete waste.
Classifying is important for identifying species, farming practices, medical disease identification, treatment with medicinal plants, invasive species control, conservation biology, and global communication of species.
The morphological species concept focuses on an organism's physical characteristics (body size, shape, etc.) to determine if similar organisms are different species.
This approach is simple, but populations often contain non-identical individuals.
The biological species concept defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable, fertile offspring in nature.
This allows identification of species easily—the same if two can live to mate and produce.
It's not applicable to all species—asexual reproducers and extinct species.

Defines species based on interbreeding potential.
Organisms that can interbreed in the wild and produce fertile offspring are the same species.
Useful for identifying species that reproduce sexually in nature.

Focuses on evolutionary relationships.
Identifies a species as a distinct cluster of organisms with a unique evolutionary history.
Incorporates modern DNA analysis.
Useful for extinct species.

Species concepts categorize and determine which groups of organisms make up a species.
Binomial nomenclature assigns formal names to each species.
Classification organizes organisms into categories based on common characteristics and evolutionary relationships.
The system is hierarchical (nested).

Cell Wall Structure: Gram-positive bacteria have a thick cell wall; Gram-negative bacteria have a thin cell wall.
Shapes: Coccus (spherical), Bacillus (rod-shaped), Spirillum (spiral-shaped)
Gram Stain: Used to differentiate bacteria based on their cell wall structure. Gram-positive bacteria stain purple; Gram-negative stain pink.
Energy Production: Aerobic (need oxygen), anaerobic (don't need oxygen), and facultative (can survive with or without).

Bacteria cause various diseases like strep throat, skin infections, and flesh-eating diseases.
Examples: Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, E. coli, Lyme disease

Characteristics: Too small to be seen by light microscopy; not made of cells; dependent on host cells for survival and reproduction.
Structure: Contains genetic material (DNA or RNA) enclosed in a protein coat (capsid).
Reproduction: Replicate inside host cells, using host cell machinery.

Lytic cycle—destroys infected cell
Lysogenic cycle—viral DNA integrates into host cell's DNA, and replicated without destroying host cell

Viruses with DNA: Typically stable.
Viruses with RNA: Higher mutation rate.
Classifications based on: Morphology, the disease caused, and genetic material.

Eukaryotic organisms, mostly unicellular.
"Misfits"—neither plant, animal, or fungi.
Classified as animal-like, fungus-like, or plant-like, based on their mode of nutrition and other characteristics.
Important as food sources for other organisms, some are parasites.