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Characteristics of Life

Chemical Context of life

What even IS life?

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The Characteristics of Life - Overview

Cellular Structure and Function (Cell Theory)
The Chemicals of Life/Genes
Metabolism (Energy Use)
Response to Surroundings
Growth and Development
Evolution/Adaptations
Reproduction
Homeostasis

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The Characteristics of Life - Cell Structure & Function

Cell Theory
All living organisms are made up of one or more cells
Cells are highly organized and are the smallest unit capable of all life functions

Single celled organisms (ex: bacteria, paramecium)
Multicellular organisms (many cells)

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The Characteristics of Life - Chemicals & Codes

Carbohydrates

cell’s main energy source

Proteins and Lipids

building materials of a cell

Nucleic acids

genetic material: chemical instructions that direct the cell’s activities.

DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid
RNA - ribonucleic acid

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The Characteristics of Life - Metabolism (Energy Use)

Energy to aid in growth and repair

Metabolism - chemical reactions which occur in a living organism to carry out life processes

Photosynthesis - plants’ energy
Heterotrophy - energy that comes from consuming other life

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The Characteristics of Life - Response to Surroundings

Stimulus - a thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organ or tissue.

Stimulus can include changes in temperature, light, and sound.

Response - an action or change in an organism to react to a stimulus

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The Characteristics of Life - Growth and Development

Life cycles
Development - the process of change that occurs during an organism’s life to produce a more complex organism.

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The Characteristics of Life - Evolution/Adaptations

Living Things Adapt

Adaptations are modifications that make an organism suited to its way of life.
Natural selection is process by which species become modified over time.
Evolution is descent with modification.

Gradual change over a long period of time creating the diversity of life on earth

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The Characteristics of Life - Evolution/Adaptations

Living Things Adapt

Adaptations are modifications that make an organism suited to its way of life.
Natural selection is process by which species become modified over time.
Evolution is descent with modification.

This organism is called a pitcher plant. What do you think the function of the tubular leaves are?

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The Characteristics of Life - Reproduction

Sexual - reproductive process that involves two parents to combine the genetic material to produce a new organism
Asexual - reproductive process that involves only one parent and produces an offspring that is identical to the parent. (bacteria)

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The Characteristics of Life - Homeostasis

The maintenance of stable internal conditions in spite of changes in the external environment
Homeostasis is maintained by these types of feedback loops.

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The Characteristics of Life - Homeostasis

Ghrelin is a hormone that makes you feel hungry. If you have ghrelin in your bloodstream, you will likely seek out food.
Leptin suppresses the appetite. Once you have eaten a meal, leptin is released and gives your brain the signal that you are not hungry.

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CHAPTER 2 THE CHEMICAL CONTEXT OF LIFE

Section A: Chemical Elements and Compounds

1. Matter consists of chemical elements in pure form and in combinations called compounds

2. Life requires about 25 chemical elements

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Introduction

Nature is not neatly packaged into the individual life sciences.
While biologists specialize in the study of life, organisms and the world they live in are natural systems to which the basic concepts of chemistry and physics apply.
Biology is a multidisciplinary science, drawing on the insights from other sciences.

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Life can be organized into a hierarchy of structural levels.

At each successive level additional emergent properties appear.

Fig. 2.1

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1. Matter consists of chemical elements in pure form and in combinations called compounds

Organisms are composed of matter.

Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.

An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into other substances by chemical reactions.

There are 92 naturally-occurring elements.
Each element has a unique symbol, usually from the first one or two letters of the name, often from Latin or German.

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A compound is a substance consisting of two or more elements in a fixed ratio.

Table salt (sodium chloride or NaCl) is a compound with equal numbers of chlorine and sodium atoms.
While pure sodium is a metal and chlorine is a gas, their combination forms an edible compound, an emergent property.

Fig. 2.2

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2. Life requires about 25 chemical�elements

About 25 of the 92 natural elements are known to be essential for life.

Four elements - carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H), and nitrogen (N) - make up 96% of living matter.
Most of the remaining 4% of an organism’s weight consists of phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), and potassium (K).

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Trace elements are required by an organism but only in minute quantities.

Some trace elements, like iron (Fe), are required by all organisms.

Other trace elements are required only by some species.

For example, a daily intake of 0.15 milligrams of iodine is required for normal activity of the human thyroid gland.

Fig. 2.4

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CHAPTER 2 THE CHEMICAL CONTEXT OF LIFE

Section B: Atoms and Molecules

1. Atomic structure determines the behavior of an element

2. Atoms combine by chemical bonding to form molecules

3. Weak chemical bonds play important roles in the chemistry of life

4. A molecule’s biological function is related to its shape

5. Chemical reactions make and break chemical bonds

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1. Atomic structure determines the behavior of an element

Each element consists of unique atoms.
An atom is the smallest unit of matter that still retains the properties of an element.

Atoms are composed of even smaller parts, called subatomic particles.
Two of these, neutrons and protons, are packed together to form a dense core, the atomic nucleus, at the center of an atom.
Electrons form a cloud around the nucleus.

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Each electron has one unit of negative charge.
Each proton has one unit of positive charge.
Neutrons are electrically neutral.
The attractions between the positive charges in the nucleus and the negative charges of the electrons keep the electrons in the vicinity of the nucleus.

Fig. 2.5

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All atoms of a particular element have the same number of protons in their nuclei.

Each element has a unique number of protons, its unique atomic number.
The atomic number is written as a subscript before the symbol for the element (for example, ₂He).

Unless otherwise indicated, atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons - no net charge.

Therefore, the atomic number tells us the number of protons and the number of electrons that are found in a neutral atom of a specific element.

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The mass number is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.

Therefore, we can determine the number of neutrons in an atom by subtracting the number of protons (the atomic number) from the mass number.
The mass number is written as a superscript before an element’s symbol (for example, ⁴He).

The atomic weight of an atom, a measure of its mass, can be approximated by the mass number.

For example, ⁴He has a mass number of 4 and an estimated atomic weight of 4 daltons.
More precisely, its atomic weight is 4.003 daltons.

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While all atoms of a given element have the same number of protons, they may differ in the number of neutrons.
Two atoms of the same element that differ in the number of neutrons are called isotopes.
In nature, an element occurs as a mixture of isotopes.

For example, 99% of carbon atoms have 6 neutrons (¹²C).
Most of the remaining 1% of carbon atoms have 7 neutrons (¹³C) while the rarest isotope, with 8 neutrons is ¹⁴C.

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Most isotopes are stable; they do not tend to loose particles.

Both ¹²C and ¹³C are stable isotopes.

The nuclei of some isotopes are unstable and decay spontaneously, emitting particles and energy.

¹⁴C is a one of these unstable or radioactive isotopes.
When ¹⁴C decays, a neutron is converted to a proton and an electron.
This converts ¹⁴C to ¹⁴N, changing the identity of that atom.

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Radioactive isotopes have many applications in biological research.

Radioactive decay rates can be used to date fossils.
Radioactive isotopes can be used to trace atoms in metabolism.

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While useful in research and medicine, the energy emitted in radioactive decay is hazardous to life.

This energy can destroy cellular molecules.
The severity of damage depends on the type and amount of energy that an organism absorbs.

Fig. 2.8

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To gain an accurate perspective of the relative proportions of an atom, if the nucleus was the size of a golf ball, the electrons would be moving about 1 kilometer from the nucleus.

Atoms are mostly empty space.

When two elements interact during a chemical reaction, it is their electrons that are actually involved.

The nuclei do not come close enough to interact.

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The electrons of an atom may vary in the amount of energy that they possess.
Energy is the ability to do work.
Potential energy is the energy that matter stores because of its position or location.

Water stored behind a dam has potential energy that can be used to do work turning electric generators.
Because potential energy has been expended, the water stores less energy at the bottom of the dam than it did in the reservoir.

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Electrons have potential energy because of their position relative to the nucleus.

The negatively charged electrons are attracted to the positively charged nucleus.
The farther electrons are from the nucleus, the more potential energy they have.

However, electrons cannot occupy just any location away from the nucleus.
Changes in potential energy can only occur in steps of a fixed amount, moving the electron to a fixed location.

An electron cannot exist between these fixed locations.

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The different states of potential energy that the electrons of an atom can have are called energy levels or electron shells.

The first shell, closest to the nucleus, has the lowest potential energy.
Electrons in outer shells have more potential energy.
Electrons can only change their position if they absorb or release a quantity of energy that matches the difference in potential energy between the two levels.

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Fig. 2.9

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The chemical behavior of an atom is determined by its electron configuration - the distribution of electrons in its electron shells.

The first 18 elements, including those most important in biological processes, can be arranged in 8 columns and 3 rows.

Elements in the same row use the same shells.
Moving from left to right, each element has a sequential addition of electrons (and protons).

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Fig. 2.10

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The first electron shell can hold only 2 electrons.

The two electrons of Helium fill the first shell.

Atoms with more than two electrons must place the extra electrons in higher shells.

For example, Lithium with three electrons has two in the first shell and one in the second shell.

The second shell can hold up to 8 electrons.

Neon, with 10 total electrons, has two in the first shell and eight in the second, filling both shells.

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The chemical behavior of an atom depends mostly on the number of electrons in its outermost shell, the valence shell.

Electrons in the valence shell are known as valence electrons.

Atoms with the same number of valence electrons have similar chemical behavior.
An atom with a completed valence shell is unreactive.
All other atoms are chemically reactive because they have incomplete valence shells.

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The paths of electrons are often visualized as concentric paths, like planets orbiting the sun.
In reality, an electron occupies a more complex three-dimensional space, an orbital.

The first shell has room for a single spherical orbital for its pair of electrons.
The second shell can pack pairs of electrons into a spherical orbital and three p orbitals (dumbbell-shaped).

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Fig. 2.11

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The reactivity of atoms arises from the presence of unpaired electrons in one or more orbitals of their valence shells.

Electrons preferentially occupy separate orbitals within the valence shell until forced to share orbitals.

The four valence electrons of carbon each occupy separate orbitals, but the five valence electrons of nitrogen are distributed into three unshared orbitals and one shared orbital.

When atoms interact to complete their valence shells, it is the unpaired electrons that are involved.

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2. Atoms combine by chemical bonding to form molecules

Atoms with incomplete valence shells interact by either sharing or transferring valence electrons.
These interactions typically result in the atoms remaining close together, held by an attractions called chemical bonds.

The strongest chemical bonds are covalent bonds and ionic bonds.

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A covalent bond is the sharing of a pair of valence electrons by two atoms.

If two atoms come close enough that their unshared orbitals overlap, each atom can count both electrons toward its goal of filling the valence shell.
For example, if two hydrogen atoms come close enough that their 1s orbitals overlap, then they can share the single electrons that each contributes.

Fig. 2.12a

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Two or more atoms held together by covalent bonds constitute a molecule.
We can abbreviate the structure of this molecule by substituting a line for each pair of shared electrons, drawing the structural formula.

H-H is the structural formula for the covalent bond between two hydrogen atoms.

The molecular formula indicates the number and types of atoms present in a single molecule.

H₂ is the molecular formula for hydrogen gas.

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Oxygen needs to add 2 electrons to the 6 already present to complete its valence shell.

Two oxygen atoms can form a molecule by sharing two pairs of valence electrons.
These atoms have formed a double covalent bond.

Fig. 2.12b

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Every atom has a characteristic total number of covalent bonds that it can form - an atom’s valence.

The valence of hydrogen is 1.
Oxygen is 2.
Nitrogen is 3.
Carbon is 4.
Phosphorus should have a valence of 3, based on its three unpaired electrons, but in biological molecules it generally has a valence of 5, forming three single covalent bonds and one double bond.

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Covalent bonds can form between atoms of the same element or atoms of different elements.

While both types are molecules, the latter are also compounds.
Water, H₂O, is a compound in which two hydrogen atoms form single covalent bonds with an oxygen atom.

This satisfies the valences of both elements.

Fig. 2.12c

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Methane, CH₄, satisfies the valences of both C and H.

Fig. 2.12d

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The attraction of an atom for the electrons of a covalent bond is called its electronegativity.

Strongly electronegative atoms attempt to pull the shared electrons toward themselves.

If electrons in a covalent bond are shared equally, then this is a nonpolar covalent bond.

A covalent bond between two atoms of the same element is always nonpolar.
A covalent bond between atoms that have similar electronegativities is also nonpolar.

Because carbon and hydrogen do not differ greatly in electronegativities, the bonds of CH₄ are nonpolar.

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If the electrons in a covalent bond are not shared equally by the two atoms, then this is a polar covalent bond.

The bonds between oxygen and hydrogen in water are polar covalent because oxygen has a much higher electronegativity than does hydrogen.

Compounds with a polar covalent bond have regions that have a partial negative charge near the strongly electronegative atom and a partial positive charge near the weakly electronegative atom.

Fig. 2.13

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An ionic bond can form if two atoms are so unequal in their attraction for valence electrons that one atom strips an electron completely from the other.

For example, sodium with one valence electron in its third shell transfers this electron to chlorine with 7 valence electrons in its third shell.
Now, sodium has a full valence shell (the second) and chlorine has a full valence shell (the third).

Fig. 2.14

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After the transfer, both atoms are no longer neutral, but have charges and are called ions.
Sodium has one more proton than electrons and has a net positive charge.

Atoms with positive charges are cations.

Chlorine has one more electron than protons and has a net negative charge.

Atoms with negative charges are anions.

Fig. 2.14

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Because of differences in charge, cations and anions are attracted to each other to form an ionic bond.

Atoms in an ionic bonds need not have acquired their charge by electrons transferred with each other.

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Compounds formed by ionic bonds are ionic compounds or salts, like NaCl or table salt.
The formula for an ionic compound indicates the ratio of elements in a crystal of that salt.

Atoms in a crystal do not form molecules with a definitive size and number of atoms as in covalent bonds.

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Ionic compounds can have ratios of elements different from 1:1.

For example, the ionic compound magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) has 2 chloride atoms per magnesium atom.

Magnesium needs to loose 2 electrons to drop to a full outer shell, each chlorine needs to gain 1.

Entire molecules that have full electrical charges are also called ions.

In the salt ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl), the anion is Cl^- and the cation is NH₄ ⁺.

The strength of ionic bonds depends on environmental conditions.

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3. Weak chemical bonds play important roles in the chemistry of life

Within a cell, weak, brief bonds between molecules are important to a variety of processes.

For example, signal molecules from one neuron use weak bonds to bind briefly to receptor molecules on the surface of a receiving neuron.
This triggers a momentary response by the recipient.

Weak interactions include ionic bonds (weak in water), hydrogen bonds, and van der Waals interactions.

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Hydrogen bonds form when a hydrogen atom that is already covalently bonded to a strongly electronegative atom is attracted to another strongly electronegative atom.

These strongly electronegative atoms are typically nitrogen or oxygen.
Typically, these bonds result because the polar covalent bond with hydrogen leaves the hydrogen atom with a partial positive charge and the other atom with a partial negative charge.
The partially positive charged hydrogen atom is attracted to negatively charged (partial or full) molecules, atoms, or even regions of the same large molecule.

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For example, ammonia molecules and water molecules link together with weak hydrogen bonds.

In the ammonia molecule, the hydrogen atoms have partial positive charges and the more electronegative nitrogen atom has a partial positive charge.
In the water molecule, �the hydrogen atoms �also have partial �positive charges and �the oxygen atom has a�partial negative charge.
Areas with opposite �charges are attracted.

Fig. 2.16

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Even molecules with nonpolar covalent bonds can have partially negative and positive regions.

Because electrons are constantly in motion, there can be periods when they accumulate by chance in one area of a molecule.
This creates ever-changing regions of negative and positive charge within a molecule.

Molecules or atoms in close proximity can be attracted by these fleeting charge differences, creating van der Waals interactions.
While individual bonds (ionic, hydrogen, van der Waals) are weak, collectively they have strength.

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4. A molecule’s biological function is related to its shape

The three-dimensional shape of a molecule is an important determinant of its function in a cell.
The shape of a molecule is determined by the arrangement of electron orbitals that are shared by the atoms involved in the bond.

When covalent bonds form, the orbitals in the valence shell rearrange.
A molecule with two atoms is always linear.
However, a molecule with more than two atoms has a more complex shape.

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5. Chemical reactions make and break chemical bonds

In chemical reactions chemical bonds are broken and reformed, leading to new arrangements of atoms.
The starting molecules in the process are called reactants and the end molecules are called products.
In a chemical reaction, all of the atoms in the reactants must be accounted for in the products.

The reactions must be “balanced.”

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For example, we can recombine the covalent bonds of H₂ and O₂ to form the new bonds of H₂O.
In this reaction, two molecules of H₂ combine with one molecule of O₂ to form two molecules of H₂O.
The ratios of molecules are indicated by coefficients.

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Photosynthesis is an important chemical reaction.
Green plants combine carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air and water (H₂O) from the soil to create sugar molecules and molecular oxygen (O₂), a byproduct.
This chemical reaction is powered by sunlight.
Humans and other animals depend on photosynthesis for food and oxygen.
The overall process of photosynthesis is

6CO₂ + 6H₂O -> C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂

This process occurs in a sequence of individual chemical reactions.

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Some chemical reactions go to completion; that is, all the reactants are converted to products.
Most chemical reactions are reversible, the products in the forward reaction becoming the reactants for the reverse reaction.
For example in this reaction: 3H₂ + N₂ <=> 2NH₃ hydrogen and nitrogen molecules combine to form ammonia, but ammonia can decompose to hydrogen and nitrogen molecules.

Initially, when reactant concentrations are high, they frequently collide to create products.
As products accumulate, they collide to reform reactants.

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Eventually, the rate of formation of products is the same as the rate of breakdown of products (formation of reactants) and the system is at chemical equilibrium.

At equilibrium, products and reactants are continually being formed, but there is no net change in the concentrations of reactants and products.
At equilibrium, the concentrations of reactants and products are typically not equal, but their concentrations have stabilized.