BIOL108 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Conifer Cone, Systems Biology, Bioinformatics

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Biology (Biological Sciences)
• Course: BIOL108
• Professor: Cynthia Friedman

Document Summary

Some lodgepole pines produce seed cones that are adapted to fire and are sealed with a hard resin. These will only open when exposed to hot temperatures, and their subsequent release allows for rapid growth. This is an evolutionary adaptation to forest fires. Properties of life: reproduction, energy processing, order, response to the environment, regulation, and evolutionary adaptation. Life is categorized into 5 themes: organization, information, energy and matter, interactions, and evolution. Organization: new properties emerge at successive levels of biological organization. Reductionism is the approach that reduces complex systems to simpler components that are more manageable to study. Emergent properties are due to the arrangement and interactions of parts as complexity increases. For such complex processes to occur, specific conditions are needed. For example, a test tube containing chlorophyll and grana wont carry out photosynthesis. You need a specialized cell to carry out photosynthesis.