Chapter 1 Vocabulary: Themes in the Study of Life
Emergent properties…798
Reductionism is the reduction of complex systems to simpler components that more manageable to
study.
The goal of systems biology is to construct models for the dynamic behavior of whole biological
organisms.
A eukaryotic cell is subdivided by internal membranes into various membrane-enclosed organelles.
In a prokaryotic cell, the DNA is not separated from the rest of cell by enclosure in a membrane-
bounded nucleus.
DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) is the substance of genes.
Genes are the units of inheritance that transmit information from parents to offspring.
The entire “library” of genetic instructions that an organism inherits is called its genome.
Bioinformatics is the use of computational tools to store, organize, and analyze the huge volume of data
that result from high-throughput methods.
Negative feedback is the most common form of regulation, in which accumulation of an end product of
a process slows that processes.
Positive feedback is when an end product speeds up its production.
The organisms making up *domain Bacteria and *domain Archaea are also prokaryotic.
Bacteria are the most diverse and widespread prokaryotes and are now divided among the multiple
kingdoms.
Many of the prokaryotes known as archaea live in Earth’s extreme environments, such as salty lakes and
boiling hot springs.
All the eukaryotes (organisms with eukaryotic cells) are now grouped into the various kingdoms of
*domain Eukarya.
