Unifying

Themes in the
Study of Life
Chapter 1
Lesson 2
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• The students shall be able to describe the unifying themes in

the study of life by showing the connections among living
things and how they interact with each other and their
environment.
• The community of scientists who had been studying living
organisms for years discovered there are themes that
constantly present themselves whenever they investigate
the profound issues that concern living things.
• These themes are correlated with the characteristics of living
organisms that we studied in the previous section.
• The unifying themes in the study of life are the following:
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

1. Cellular Theory
• All living things are made from cells. They are the
fundamental building blocks of life, and all ells come from
pre-existing cells.
• Cells reproduced either through sexual or asexual
reproduction.
• “Life came from life” means living organisms came from
living organisms, except for the first life forms which arose
from biological molecules.
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

2. Molecular Basis of Inheritance

• Living things carry DNA which carries the code that instructs
how cells will organize themselves. The general physical and
behavioral traits of an organism are defined by these
instructions.
• Organisms also pass their DNA to their offspring which makes
daughter organisms look and behave in ways that are
similar with how parent organisms do.
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

3. Structure and Function

• The function of a molecule is defined by its structure,
and conversely, the structure of molecule is defined
by its function.
• If a molecule is organized in a particular way, it will
display a specific consequent function. If we want
molecules to perform a particular function, then
these molecules must be engineered to achieve a
specific structure.
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

4. Evolutionary Change
• Physical, chemical, and behavioral traits of the
organism change over time are response to the
pressure of natural selection.
• Evolutionary change explains the diversity of life
forms. Because organisms are spread out in many
niches and habitats, the environment where they
live selects the traits organisms must keep and pass
on to succeeding generations.
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

5. Evolutionary Conservations
• Traits that significantly contribute to the survival
and reproduction of the organism stay with the
organism and are passed on to the next
generation, and consequently, that trait
property is conserved.
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

6. Cells are Information Processing Systems

• Cells receive and implement the code
contained in the DNA.
• They also take in stimuli from the environment
and respond to them in ways that support their
survival and reproduction.
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

7. Emergent Properties
• Each level of biological structure reveals properties not seen
in less complex structure. Organisms are organized from
simple cellular structure to most complex structure. With
each addition of complexity in the cellular structure, new
properties and characteristics appear.
• Organisms that occupy a particular level of cellular
complexity appear and behave in ways which are not
observed from organisms with less complex cellular
organizations.
 END OF
PRESENTATION