Characteristic features of

Living beings
1. Definite shape and size: Every organism has definite form and size
with little variance.
2. Cell as basic unit of Life: All living organisms are made up of basic
structural and functional unit of life known as cell.
3. Growth and development: Irreversible increase in size and weight of
an organism is called growth.
4. Metabolism: Refers to sum total of all the reactions that takes place
inside living organisms. Metabolism =Catabolism +Anabolism
5. Nutrition: The way by which organisms procure food to be used for
energy and carbon source is called nutrition.
• Respiration: Stepwise oxidation of food to release energy. However some organisms respire
anaerobically.
• Exchange of materials: All living organism inhale oxygen and take nutrition whereas
they exhale CO2 and waste materials out of the body.
• Excretion: The process of removal of waste materials out of the body is called excretion.
• Movement: Most organism are able to move from one place to another.
• Reproduction: All organisms reproduce sexually or asexually or by vegetative means to
produce offsprings.
• Adaptation: Physiological and behavioural changes in the body of organisms to make it better
suited to the environment for its survival.
• Life span: All living organisms have a definite life span with a certain range after which they
die.
• Conciousness: Living organisms are aware of their surroundings and respond to certain stimuli.
• Prokaryotic cell: is that cell which lacks a well defined nucleus. And
membrane bound organelles.

• Examples: 1. Bacteria
2. Cyanobacteria
3.PPLO
(Pleuropneumonia like organism)
Structure of a prokaryotic cell
• Cell wall: Cell wall in bacteria is made up of peptidoglycan which is a
polymer of NAG ( N-acetylglucosamine) and NAM (N-acetylmuramic
acid).
• Glycocalyx: It is made up of polysaccharide and proteins and both.
Helps in attachment bacterial surfaces. In some bacteria it contributes
to pathogenicity (disease causing ability).
• Flagella/ Cilia: It is present in some bacteria. It is locomotory structure
that helps in the movement of bacteria. It is made up of protein
called flagellin. Flagellin is single stranded in bacteria.
• Plasma membrane: It is selectively permeable membrane present around
the cell.
• Mesosomes: This are invaginations or infoldings of plasma membranes.
It has different roles:
1. It has a role in DNA replications.
2. It has a role in formation of cell septum for cell division.
3. It also helps in respiration and secretion process and to increase
the surface area of plasma membrane.
• Nucleoid: The naked DNA of prokaryotes which is not enclosed inside
the nucleus is called nucleoid or Genophore.
• In addition to genomic DNA many bacteria have circular DNA outside
the genomic DNA called plasmids which confers traits like antibiotic
resistance to bacteria.
• Ribosomes: They are the protein factories of cell. In prokaryotes
ribosomes lie freely in the cytoplasm and are of 70s type which has
two subunits 50s and 30s.
• Thylakoid: They are present in some bacteria and blue green algae
which are autotrophic. They lie in the cytoplasm and
contains pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll.
• Protein granules/ Lipid or fat globules: They lie freely in
the cytoplasm.
• Gas vacuoles:They are not true vacuoles and present in some
bacteria to provide buoyancy. e.g. this vacuoles are present in
purple and green photosynthetic bacteria.