Full Concept List
Adaptation
Language: English
Adaptation: the process of a trait increasing in frequency in a population over generations due to natural selection. The term can refer to this process of frequency change and can also refer to the particular trait that has increased in frequency. These traits are also called adaptive traits or referred to as traits that are favored by natural selection.
Allosteric Site
Language: English
Allosteric site: a location on the enzyme, other than the active site, that allows molecules to either activate or inhibit (or turn off) enzyme activity.
Anaerobic Respiration
Language: English
Anaerobic respiration: a type of respiration that uses electron acceptors other than molecular oxygen.
Competition
Language: English
Competition: when two organisms require the same resource, which has limited availability in the ecosystem. For example, plants compete for limited amounts of nitrogen in the soil.
Conditional Interaction
Language: English
Conditional Interaction: an interaction between two organisms is conditional if the impact of the interaction differs in different environments. For example, two organisms may compete for a particular resource in a habitat where this resource is limited in availability, but not compete in another habitat where that resource is abundant. In this way, whether the organisms that are interacting are benefitted or harmed is conditional upon the environment in which the interaction occurs.
Conjugation
Language: English
Conjugation: noun. A form of lateral gene transfer in which small pieces of genetic material (plasmids) are transferred from one cell to another via a tube called a sex pilus.
Dominant
Language: English
Dominant: adjective. The plant life cycle stage (sporophyte or gametophyte) that is larger and longer-lived in a particular species.
Expected Frequency
Language: English
Expected Frequency: this is the proportion/fraction/percent of individuals in a population that we predict will have a particular trait we are interested in. In BIS2B we usually use this in the context of population genetics, specifically Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. For example, what proportion of individuals in the population do we predict will have the genotype AA, Aa, or aa.
Food Web
Language: English
Food Web: food webs describe the interactions of multiple species in a community with respect to energy flow. In simpler language: we are interested in who eats whom and how the food (energy) consumed moves from one trophic level to another. For example, herbivores eat plants. Herbivores are in turn eaten by predators.
Functional Diversity
Language: English
Functional Diversity: this phrase refers to the diversity of strategies or approaches that organisms use to function. For example, organisms must obtain energy for respiration; they can do so via autotrophy (including photosynthesis and chemosynthesis) or heterotrophy (through consuming other organisms).
Gametophyte
Language: English
Gametophyte: noun. The gamete-producing multicellular haploid stage of the plant life cycle.
Homology
Language: English
Homology: noun. A shared trait that is the result of inheritance from the common ancestor of the taxa.
Homoplasy
Language: English
Homoplasy: noun. A shared trait that is the result of convergent evolution after the common ancestor of the taxa.
Hydrogen Bond
Language: English
Hydrogen Bond: an interaction between a lone pair of electrons on an electronegative atom (specifically oxygen and nitrogen in this class), and the positive dipole of a hydrogen atom that is covalently bound to another electronegative atom.
Life History
Language: English
Life History: this phrase refers to how species allocate resources (energy, nutrients, etc) to the various processes of life: growth, reproduction, survival, etc. We can consider both an organism’s life history traits and its life history strategy. At each stage of the life cycle, trade-offs drive the evolution of particular traits and the strategies that build from those traits. For example, given the limited resources available to an organism, it can either produce a large number of relatively small offspring, or a small number of relatively large offspring. In this example, the life history traits are the size and number of the offspring an organism produces. The life history strategy is broader, in this case possibly including how much the organism cares or provides for its offspring: an organism that produces very few offspring might provide more parental care for the offspring to ensure their survival to adulthood.
Macromolecule
Language: English
Macromolecule: is the result of the polymerization of multiple monomers into a large polymer.
Monophyletic
Language: English
Monophyletic: adjective. Describes a group of taxa that includes all descendants from the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the members of the group.
Observed Frequency
Language: English
Observed Frequency: this is the proportion/fraction/percent of individuals in a population that possess a particular trait[LMGB1] we are interested in. In BIS2B we usually use this in the context of population genetics, specifically Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. For example, what proportion of individuals in the population possess the genotype AA, Aa, or aa.
Open Reading Frame
Language: English
Open reading frame: or ORF, is the reading frame in which genetic material can be translated to produce the gene product. Any given segment of DNA has 6 reading frames, the ORF is the frame that results in the desired gene product.
Ovary
Language: English
Ovary: noun. The structure on at the base of the a flower’s carpel that contains the megagametophytes and ripens into the fruit.
Oxidation
Language: English
Oxidation: the process of a compound losing an electron, becoming more oxidized. The process of oxidation does not require oxygen.
Paraphyletic
Language: English
Paraphyletic: adjective. Describes a group of closely-related taxa that excludes one or more descendants of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the group.
Passive Transport
Language: English
Passive Transport: the movement of compounds or atoms across a cell membrane without the need of additional energy input. This process is driven by the tendency of the system to grow in entropy, and for the compound to reach equilibrium. Examples include diffusion, passive diffusion and facilitated diffusion.
Polymerize
Language: English
Polymerize: is a process of combining monomers to form a polymer. For example, the polymerization of a protein would be the addition of multiple amino acids (monomers) into a chain (polymer).
Polyphyletic
Language: English
Polyphyletic: adjective. Describes a group of taxa that result from combining two or more distantly-related groups of organisms, resulting in the exclusion of many of the descendants of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the group.