BIOL 1010 Chapter Notes -Rna World, Stromatolite, Snowball Earth

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newtixc

26 Nov 2022

School

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Department

Biology

Course

BIOL 1010

Professor

Dr.Hunt

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Document Summary

1. 1 origins of life and the rna world. Current events: planetary formation (august 19th, 2020: astronomers captures 15 images of the inner rims of planet-forming disks (protoplanetary disks, astronomers found protoplanetary disks 5au away using light reflection and math. How life started on earth: the favorable conditions for life to emerge on earth and evolve into forms we see today in 6 stages, black stage, gray stage, blue stage. This is important for the test, memorize: red stage, white stage, grey stage. Gray stage: og meteorites on earth only had 250 minerals, granite became the foundation of tectonic plates and continents. Intense heat and pressure caused new minerals to form: yosemite rocks are granite, the appearance of earth went from black to gray, no plants or animals yet. Ingredients for the origin of life: basic elements and basic organic compounds, complex biomolecule(s) capable of replication, membrane enclosure, selection and evolutionary change. What is stem: science, technology, engineering and math.

Related Questions

I need help on this microbiology question:

Contrary to our favorite science fiction books and movies, the chances of us finding another planet with a civilization comparable to, or even more advanced than our own, seems highly unlikely. But, through your work as a microbiologist at NASA, you have been able to help change our views as to what forms of life we should be looking for on planets in our solar system and around neighboring stars. Instead of radio signals or errant transmissions, we have begun looking for planets that have environments similar to those capable of sustaining life as we know it here on Earth. To determine what we could find out there, you have begun studying different unique and atypical environments found here on Earth. Although the harsh conditions of hot springs or undersea sulfur vents seem incompatible with most forms of life, organisms known collectively as "extremophiles" have still managed to survive and adapt to these extreme conditions. You believe extremophiles may help you gain insight into the potential metabolic requirements, processes, and challenges of extraterrestrial life. Thus far in your search, you have identified some prokaryotic cells that have evolved to survive in the extreme conditions of sulfur vents on the sea floor. These vents are found at great depths, where the crushing pressure and lack of light and oxygen are prohibitive to many forms of life. Bacteria that are not considered extremophiles reside in most ecological niches on this planet. There are some common criteria for the environment that would sustain these bacteria. Availability of water, pH that lies between 5 and 9, temperatures that will remain steady and below boiling; these are some of the characteristics that bacteria will require in their environment if they are to succeed. But in the environment of the ocean floor vents, not only is the pH of the water very low, but also the water temperature is unusually high due to the geologic activity that fuels the vents. Organisms that are adapted to such harsh conditions have necessarily evolved enzymes able to function beyond average optima, as well as a chemosynthetic metabolism capable of using vent organic and inorganic compounds as energy sources.

Part A - Comparable Earth Environments to Be Found on Another Planet

You identify the prokaryotic cells you've found as a species of bacteria. These bacteria appear to be living off of nutrients and sulfur compounds released from the vents on the sea floor. Over time, the bacteria must have evolved extreme metabolic and enzymatic capabilities to allow them to tolerate and even benefit from the extreme depths, the lack of oxygen, the low pH of the surrounding waters, high temperatures due to volcanic releases, and the unique nutrient source of the vents.

Choose the characteristics and their impact on enzyme activity that are not correct from the following statements. (more than one may be chosen)

Archaea are able to tolerate highly acidic pH environments and have proteins that will not denature in the low-pH environments that the bacteria are found in.

Archaea are able to colonize water that is at or above the boiling temperature due to high levels of disulfide bridges that maintain the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme.

Archaea are only able to survive exceedingly well at high temperatures due to the amount of activation energy required by their enzymes.

Archaea are able to grow in extremely shady or low-light conditions that allow for optimal enzyme activity.

champagneworm170

Some of you will have seen Starship Troopers, a moviebased upon a novel by Robert Heinlein. The film deviates from thebook in some ways, for example the book describes a visit to aplanet to resupply the dropships used in combat operations by theM.I. (mobile infantry). Heinlein describes this visit in the book;a portion of the novel is reproduced on the followingpage.

The followig passage contains two concepts we havediscussed in class in relation to the effects of mutation onpopulations, one positive and one negative. Describe the twomutation related concepts Heinlein discusses. You must describethese concepts as a biologist - you must use the technical terms wehave used in class properly and explain the positive and negativeeffect of mutation on the evolution and health of apopulation.

(a) What is the positive effect of mutation as describedby Heinlein?

(I.E., what does Heinlein describe as a benefit ofhaving more mutations)

(b) What is the negative effect of mutation as describedby Heinlein?

(I.E., what does Heinlein describe as a problem ofhaving more mutations)

I never have learned the co-ordinates of Sanctuary,nor the name or catalogue number of the star it orbits - becausewhat you donât know, you canât spill; the location isultra-top-secret, known only to shipâs captains, piloting officers,and such ... and I understand, with each of them under orders andhypnotic compulsion to suicide if necessary to avoid capture. So Idonât want to know. With the possibility that Luna Base might betaken and Terra herself occupied, the Federation kept as much ofits beef as possible as Sanctuary, so that a disaster back homewould not necessarily mean capitulation.

But I can tell you what sort of a planet itis. Like Earth, but retarded.

Literally retarded, like a kid who takes tenyears to learn to wave bye-bye and never does manage to masterpatty cake. It is a planet as near Earth as two planets can be,same age according to the planetologists and its star is the sameage as the Sun and the same type, so say the astrophysicists. Ithas plenty of flora and fauna, the same atmosphere as Earth, nearenough, and much the same weather; it even has a good-sized moonand Earthâs exceptional tides.

With all these advantages it barely got awayfrom the starting gate. You see, itâs short on mutations; it doesnot enjoy Earths high level of natural radiation.

Its typical and most highly developed plantlife is a very primitive giant fern; its top animal life is aproto-insect which hasnât even developed colonies. I am notspeaking of transplanted Terran flora and fauna - our stuff movesin and brushes the native stuff aside.

With its evolutionary progress held down toalmost to zero by lack of radiation and a consequent mostunhealthily low mutation rate, native life forms of Sanctuary justhavenât had a decent chance to evolve and arenât fit to compete.Their gene patterns remain fixed for a relatively long time; theyarenât adaptable - like being forced to play the same bridge handover and over again, for eons, with no hope of getting a betterone.

As long as they just competed with eachother, this didnât matter too much - morons among morons, so tospeak. But when types that had evolved on a planet enjoying highradiation and fierce competition were introduced, the native stuffwas outclassed.

Now all the above is perfectly obvious fromhigh school biology ... but the high forehead from the researchstation there who was telling me about this brought up a point Iwould have never thought of.

What about the human beings who havecolonized Sanctuary?

Not transients like me, but the colonists wholive there, many of whom were born there, and whose descendantswill live there, even unto the umpteenth generation - what aboutthose descendants? It doesnât do a person any harm not to beradiated; in fact itâs a bit safer - leukemia and some types ofcancer are almost unknown there. Besides that, the economicsituation is at present all in their favor; when they plant a fieldof (Terran) wheat;, they donât even have to clear out the weeds.Terran wheat displaces anything native.

But the descendants of those colonists wonâtevolve. Not much, anyhow. This chap told me that they could improvea little through mutation from other causes, from new blood addedby immigration, and from natural selection among the gene patternsthey already own - but that is all very minor compared with theevolutionary rate on Terra and on any usual planet. So whathappens? Do they stay frozen at their present levels while the restof the human race moves on past them, until they are livingfossils, as out of place as a pithecanthropus in a spaceship?

Or will they worry about the fate of theirdescendants and dose themselves regularly with X-rays or maybe setof lots of dirty-type nuclear explosions each year to build up afallout reservoir in their atmosphere? (Accepting, of course, theimmediate dangers of radiation to themselves in order to provide aproper genetic heritage of mutation for the benefit of theirdescendants.)

This bloke predicted that they would not doanything. He claims that the human is too individualistic, tooself-centered, to worry that much about future generations. He saysthat the genetic impoverishment of distant generations through thelack of radiation is something most people are simply incapable ofworrying about. And of course it is a far-distant threat; evolutionworks so slowly, even on Terra, that the development of a newspecies is a matter of many, many thousands of years.

I donât know. Shucks, I donât know what Imyself will do more than half the time; how can I predict what acolony of strangers will do? But Iâm sure of this: Sanctuary isgoing to be fully settled, either by us or by the bugs. Or bysomebody. It is a potential utopia, and, with desirable real estateso scarce in this end of the Galaxy, it will not be left in thepossession of primitive life forms that failed to make thegrade.

2260 A&P 1 Lecture - Unit 1

Beware! ANYTHING within the assigned readings or discussed in lecture is fair game whether it is part of this list or not!!

What is the study of Anatomy? Provide an example of an anatomical study.

What is the study of Physiology? Provide an example of a physiological study.

List the characteristics of living things and briefly discuss them.

List the levels of organization from smallest to largest. Provide a specific example for each level.

Compare/Contrast sections and planes.

What are the distinguishing characteristics of the anatomical position?

Practice placing a section through a location in the body and then determine what structures would be made visible by that section in that location. For example if a coronal (frontal) section were made in the thoracic region (would be able to see both lungs, the heart, depending on the exact location of the cut, maybe the esophagus and /or the trachea)

Practice the directional terms using them to describe the locational relationship between two body regions (use the technical terms for those body regions, (i.e. if the original post used __ is superior to blank, the opposite would be ___ is inferior to __).

Distinguish between the nine abdominal regions and four quadrants and indicate what major organ(s) would be found deep to that region or quadrant.

Why is it important to study the language of anatomy and physiology if one is going into the medical field?

Define homeostasis. What thing (or things) in our body maintains homeostasis? And what regulates those "things"?

What is the likely result if homeostasis is not maintained?

13. What are the components of feedback mechanisms? What is the function of each component?

14. Discuss negative feedback mechanisms. Give a specific example of one.

Discuss positive feedback mechanisms. Give a specific example of one.

Discuss the levels of organization, list the various levels and provide a specific example of each level.

What is matter?

What are elements? What are the four most common elements of the human body?

Distinguish between atoms, and molecules. Provide an example of each.

What information is provided by the molecular formula? For example what can be said of the formula C₆H₁₂O_6, the molecular formula for glucose?

Briefly distinguish between organic and inorganic molecules. Recall that MY preferred defining quality differs from what the text says!

Consider/review the important inorganic molecules discussed in chp 2 and describe their importance in the human body.

Distinguish between acids and bases. Which of these will have relatively more free H+ ions?

What is the pH range of an acid? Of a base? What would be the pH value of a solution where the number of H+ ions = OH- ions?

What are the states of acidosis and alkalosis with reference to blood pH values?

Consider/review the important organic molecules discussed in chp 2 and describe their general importance in the human body.

Distinguish between solvent and solute.

Discuss the term osmolarity.

Consider/review the four types of lipids and discuss their individual function in the human body. Lipids are not composed of monomers but they do have âbuilding blocksâ, what are these building blocks?

What are the "building blocks" or monomers (looking for a group or class name) of a carbohydrate polymer? Name the five (5) types of carbohydrate monomers.

When two of these carbohydrate monomers are bonded together what "class" of carbohydrate is formed? What are the types of this "class"? What is the source (food) for each of these?

When three or more of these monomers are bonded together they form which "class" of carbohydrate? Which one of these stores excess carbs in animals (mainly in the liver)? Which one stores excess carbs in plants? And which one is indigestible by the human gut, but is important because it provides "bulk" in the form of fiber and helps keep fecal matter moving in the intestines?

What is the monomer of nucleic acids?

Briefly describe deoxyribonucleic acid including its general function.

Briefly describe ribonucleic acid including its general function.

What are the monomers of proteins? What kind of bond holds the monomers together?

Distinguish between oligopeptides and polypeptides.

Choose TWO general functions of proteins based on the globular vs fibrous classification of proteins, the class of protein that performs that function and a specific example for each.

What events or environments denature a protein? What has happened if a protein is denatured? What happens to its function if it is denatured?

What class of organic molecules are enzymes and what do they do in the body? How do they do their function? In other words, what is their mechanism of action/what do they change to do their job?

What are enzyme co-factors and what is their role in enzyme action?

How are enzymes regulated?

BIOL 1010 Chapter Notes -Rna World, Stromatolite, Snowball Earth

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