Summary Important Themes in Biology

1: The study of life reveals unifying themes

 Properties of life include organization, information processing, energy
utilization, and interactions with the environment.
 Five unifying themes in biology are organization, information, energy and
matter, interactions, and evolution.
 Living things exhibit a high degree of organization, process and store
information, require energy and matter, and interact with the environment
and other organisms.




Theme: New Properties Emerge at Successive Levels of Biological
Organization

 Reductionism breaks down complex systems into simpler components for
study.
 Emergent properties arise as complexity increases due to the arrangement
and interactions of parts.

,  Systems biology complements reductionism by analyzing interactions among
components.
 Structure and function are correlated at each level of the biological
hierarchy.
 Cells are the basic units of structure and function in living organisms.
 All organisms are made of cells, which can be prokaryotic or eukaryotic.
 Prokaryotic cells are smaller and less complex than eukaryotic cells.




Theme: Life’s Processes Involve the Expression and Transmission of
Genetic Information

 DNA is the genetic material that contains information for cell development
and function.
 Genes are sections of DNA that encode information for building molecules
within cells.