Biology Visual

Vocabulary

By Hayley Tsang (Words are out of order)

 Variation in
environment

Individuals within
the same specie
exhibiting di erent
ff
traits to acclimate
to di erent
ff
environments
Photosynthe
tic autotroph
An Autotroph is an organism
with the ability to chemically
transform inorganic
substance to nutritional
material. The process of
photosynthesis is a common
way autotroph use to obtain
food. Transforming sunlight,
carbon dioxide, and water
into glucose and oxygen.
An autotroph is commonly plants
and some microorganisms
 Heterotroph

An organism that
obtain energy
through
consuming other
living organism as
it lack the ability
to generate food
from non organic
material.
 Spores

Reproductive haploid unicell

produced by some plants and
simple organisms without
sexual fusion of two cells
 fi
Petals

fl
Modi ed bright coloured leafs that surrounds
reproductive part of a ower. Used for attract
insects for pollination through
colour,scent,warmth and protect the
reproductive organs.
 Furcula

A V shape
collarbone found in
birds and some
dinosaurs, to
strengthen the
shoulder region to
withstand the rigor
of ight.
fl
 Adaptive Radiation

An event when a lineage rapidly

diverges into multitude of new
forms,particularly when a change in
the environment occurs with new
resources and opens new
environmental niches
 Vertebrate

A category of animal that processes

backbone and skeleton
 Monotreme

Monotreme are the most primitive mammals

that lay eggs, and is one of the three subdivision
of mammals.There are only 5 mammals belong
in this category.
 Ectothermic

More commonly known as cold-blooded animal, which

regulation of body temperature depends on external
sources instead of inside, which could be small or none,
allowing them to conserve energy
 Marsupial

Type of mammal that is not completely

developed when born and is carried around
a pouch, fed and protected until it is fully
developed.One of three subdivision of class
mammals
Placental mammals

One of three
subdivision of
mammals, as the name
indicates having a
placenta during
gestation period and
ff
provide nourishment to
o spring and provide
milk through glands
after birth
 Hominin

A group consisting of modern humans

and extinct ones and all immediate
ancestors. Characterised by bipedality,
large brain, tool use and small teeth
 OMIM

Or full name, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man is a

database of human genes, genetic disorder,phenotypic traits.
It particularly focus on gene-phenotype relationships.
 Human genome project
fi
An international project with the purpose of
mapping the whole human genome
sequence. Launched in 1990 and ended in
success in 2003. It is one of the greatest
scienti c feats in human history.
 Incomplete dominance

occurs when neither trait is truly dominant over the

other. This means that both traits can be expressed in
the same regions, resulting a blending of two
phenotypes.
 Codominance

When two alleles appear together,

expressed separately/cooperating instead
of blending together
 ABO blood type

ABO blood types are antibodies that surrounds the membrane of the red
blood cell, as a way of white blood cell to identify foreign pathogens. There
are four blood types, A,B,AB, and O, which has no antibodies. Blood A has
anti-B antibody, B has anti A antibody, O has both and Blood AB has
none.The sign of - and + beside next to blood group indicates the presence of
RhD, protein on surface of red blood cell.ABO blood types determines who
you can donate and receive blood from.
 CRISPR-Cas9

A technology of gene editing found in

bacteria, used to locate and cut dna
by attaching the dna sequence to Ca9
complex
 Gene editing

Is a group of technology that allows

scientist to add, delete, alter genetic
material at a particular location.
 Biodiversity

Is a term to describe all of the diversity living organisms

from a particular species/habitat/earth and all of their
interactions.It is a measure of variety of species
presented in a region ,Richness of biodiversity is depend
on climate and area of region
 Survival of the ttest

fi
ff
fi
fi
The phase is originated from Darwin theory, describing
mechanisms of evolution.The term t means success of
producing o spring and their high chances of surviving
due to their new genetic variety that is suitable for
adapting to their environment. The ttest will evolve into a
new species while the un t ones would extinct in natural
fi
selection.
 Tree of life

The tree of life or universal tree of life is a metaphor,

model and research tool used to explore the evolution of
life and describe the relationships between organisms,
both living and extinct.All living organisms have the same
origins, or roots of the tree, the more genetically related an
organism is would have more common ancestors and
closer position in the tree to each other
 Amniote
fl
any group of vertebrates that undergo embryonic or fetal
development within an amnion,a thin membrane with
uid that contains nutrients and provide protection. The
evolution of amniotic membranes meant that the embryos
of amniotes were now provided with their own aquatic
environment, which led to less dependence on water for
development, It include the birds, reptiles, and mammals.
 Drake equation
Is an equation estimating the odds/listing requirement of making
contact of extraterrestrial civilisation,the numbers for the variables
are currently unknown:

To summarise it, it means the fraction of exoplanets times fraction

of number of life, times fraction of number of civiliazation, times
number of civilisation that can detect our radio signal and times
the longevity of us staying in contact.
 Mutation
Is an error occurring in replication of dna sequence,
particularly in the process of producing gametes,and
cause addition, deletion or alternation in the dna
sequence. Mutation is a key contributor to evolution.
There are four major types of mutations:
 ff
Evolution

ff
Is a theory proposed by Darwin,about the variety of
living organisms have the same origin, and the
di erences are due to mutations in genetics,eventually
becoming a di erent species.As organisms evolve across
time, they became more complex, from single cell
organisms to animals. Organism evolve to become
survive the changing environment, or natural selection.
The main ingredients are reproduction and variation.
 Karyotype

fi
An organism’s organised pro le of their
chromosome, including their size, numbers,
shape.
Nucleotide

Basic building blocks

of dna and
rna.Nucleotides are
composed of three

fi
subunit molecules: a
nucleobase, a ve-
carbon sugar (ribose
or deoxyribose), and
a phosphate group
consisting of one to
three
phosphates.Sugar
and phosphate
forming the sides of
dna and nucleobase
forming the rungs of
DNA.
 Convergent evolution

Two species sharing a unique characteristic

to adapt to their similar environment or
circumstances despite that does not share
the common ancestor that inherited that
unique characteristics to them.
 Clade

A clade is a grouping that includes a common

ancestor and all the descendants (living and
extinct) of that ancestor. It would only take one
snip from a pair of scissor for the group to fall of.
 Phylogenetic tree

Same as tree of life, but smaller piece of it. phylogenetic

tree is a diagram that represents evolutionary
relationships among organisms.
DNA molecule

DNA is a
molecule
shaped like
twisted ladder
located in the
cell nucleus. It is
the basic
building block
of life and
provides
instructions for
the building of
protein.
 DNA bases

The part of dna that contains instructions, formed by

four letters. The four nucleobases in DNA are guanine,
adenine, cytosine and thymine; in RNA, uracil is used
in place of thymine.A-T and C-G are base pairs of dna,
connected by hydrogen bonds.
Gene

Is a chunk/
segment of

fi
dna code for
a speci c
protein or

fi
rna. (Have a
ff
speci c name
for di erent
genes)
 Genome
All of genetic information or an organism.

(This is a genome map, tells us the location of each gene on the

chromosome)
 Chromosome

Strands of densely packaged dna wrapped around a sphere

shape protein called histones. Used for organisation of dna
and replication of cell during anaphase to ensure the equal
distribution of dna by latching on chromosome’s centromere.
During cell replication, chromosome have two identical sister
chromatids.Homologous chromosome refers to chromosome
pairs of same size and shape, corresponding locus.
 Nucleus

Nucleus is in the center of a cell. It contains and protect

genetic information. Nucleus is also the control center
of a cell(growth, metabolism,function)since it contains
genetic information
 Host/parasite

fi
fi
fi
fi
A host is a larger organism which harbours parasite,
smaller organism to latch on to derive nutrients. Their
relationship could be either parasitic, where the parasite
gains bene t from the cost harming the host, mutualistic
which both gain bene ts, commensalism which one
species gain bene ts while those of the other species
neither bene t nor are harmed, and parasitoid which
parasite kills the host.
Cophyly

When host and

parasite spectate
together to adapt to
each other. As host
evolve new defences
against parasite,
parasite may adapt to
overcome these
defences, leading to a
constant cycle of
adaption and counter
adaption.
 Disease

ff
fi
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that
negatively a ects the structure or function of all
or part of an organism.A disease may be caused
by external factors such as pathogens or by
internal dysfunctions. There are four main types
of disease: infectious diseases, de ciency
diseases, hereditary diseases and physiological
diseases.
 Allele

Is one of two variations of dna at the given

genomic position , one from father and
one from mother.
 Trait

Certain biological characteristics

determined by genetics, for example eye
colour or gender.
 Dominant

An allele is dominant if it masks the presence of

other alleles. This means that if an organism
has one allele of this type, it will show the
characteristics of this trait.It is represented by a
capital letter. The amount of protein produced/
how active a gene is usually determines its
dominance
 Recessive

The recessive allele is masked when

there’s presence of dominant allele. It is
represented by the lower case letter.
 Phenotype

Is an observable physical
character trait,determined by
which genes are expressed.
 Meiosis
fi
Is similar to mitosis, a cell replication but only limited to sex
cells. In the rst stage, homologous pairs of chromosomes
exchange genetic material and spilt up in half with the PMAT
process. In the second stage sister chromatids are separated
during the process of cell division. The process if to create more
diversity among species.A sex cell only contains 50% of the
parent’ genetic material due to the formation of life involves two
sex cells.
 Gamete

Or sex cell. Unlike other cells they only have

50% of the genetic material because they gone
through the process of meiosis. A male has
sperm cell while female have egg cell.
 Genotype

Is a term to refer to an
individual’s two alleles a
person has inherited. For
example, TT,tt,Tt
 Homozygous

Refers to having two identical

alleles in the same gene
locus, for example, TT and tt
 Heterozygous

Refers to having two

di erent alleles at a given
genetic location, for example
Tt.
ff
 Punette square

A square that determines the probability of

genotype the child will have by listing both
parent’s genotype .