NAME ______*
INTRO TO CELL BIO VOCAB
(Chapters 1 & 2)
* WORDS are in your textbook glossary. You can look up unstarred words using other sources and we will discuss these in class and write definitions together. Try to put definitions in your own words and add to glossary definitions to make meanings more understandable.
ORGANISM: Another name for a “living thing”
*AUTOTROPH: Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food; also called a producer
*HETEROTROPH: Organism that obtains energy from the food it consumes; also called a consumer
*SEXUAL REPRODUCTION: Process in which offspring are produced by combining genetic material from 2 parents
*ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION: Process in which offspring are produced from the genetic material of a single parent
*DIFFERENTIATION: The process in which cells change as they grow and developto become specialized with different functions
STEM CELL: Embryonic cell that has the potential to differentiate into a variety cell types
*METABOLISM:All the chemical reactions through which an organism builds up or breaks down materials as it carries out its life processes
*STIMULUS: A signal to which an organism responds
*HOMEOSTASIS: Process by which organisms maintain a relatively stable internal environment
*EVOLUTION: Change in an organism over time; Process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms
HYDROGEN BOND– Attraction between oppositely charged regions of nearby molecules involving the hydrogen atoms of one molecule and the partially negatively charged atoms in another molecule
HYDROLYSIS: Chemical reaction in which a molecule is broken apart by the addition of the H and OH from a water molecule
DEHYDRATION SYNTHESIS: Chemical reaction in which smaller molecules are joined together by removing an H and an OH to make a water molecule
*ENZYME: Protein that acts as a biological catalyst in living things to help chemical reactions happen faster
*SUBSTRATE: reactant in an enzyme-catalyzed reaction
ACTIVE SITE: Place on an enzyme where the substrate attaches
POLAR MOLECULE: Molecule with an uneven pattern of electric charges; More + on one side/ more – on the other
HYDROPHILIC: describes a polar molecule that mixes easily with water;
means “water loving”
HYDROPHOBIC: describes a non-polar molecule that tries to stay away from water;
means “water fearing”
*CARBOHYDRATE: Compound made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms usually in a ratio of
1 C: 2 H: 1 O which is a major source of energy for the human body
*POLYSACCHARIDE: Molecule such as glycogen, starch, or cellulose, made by joining many monosaccharide (sugar) molecules together
*LIPID: Macromolecule made mainly of carbon and hydrogen atoms; includes fats, oils, and waxes and steroids, which is generally hydrophobic
*NUCLEIC ACID: Macromolecule made of nucleotide subunits containing carbon, hydrogen,oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus which stores and transports information in cells and helps in protein synthesis
*NUCLEOTIDE: Monomer made up of a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen based that is used to build nucleic acids
*RIBONUCLEIC ACID (RNA): Single stranded nucleic acid that contains the sugar ribose and the nitrogen bases adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil
*DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (DNA): Double stranded nucleic acid that contains the sugar deoxyribose and the nitrogen bases adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine
*PROTEIN: Macromolecule that contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, made by joining amino acid subunits which is needed by the body for growth and repair and to act as enzymes
*AMINO ACID: Subunit used to make proteinsmade up of a carbon atom attached to a hydrogen, a carboxyl group (-COOH), an amino group (-NH2) , and a variable R group