CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING THINGS

Living things, or organisms, have certain characteristics in common which enable us to

distinguish between living and non-living things:

 They move
 They grow
 They reproduce
 They are sensitive, i.e., they can sense and respond to changes in their surroundings
 Processes of Nutrition
 They feed
 They respire (breathe) i.e., they release energy from their food, often by combining it with
oxygen
 They excrete

AND they are all made of cells.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING THINGS

1. Only living organisms can move, ie, have the power of locomotion, or can move
under their own power. Animals move when they are in search of food. Many simple
plants live and can move in water. Many plants have reproductive cells that can swim.
Many plants can move their leaves or other parts of their bodies.

2. All living organisms grow, that is, until they reach a certain size of a certain age.

3. All living organisms are capable of reproduction, which produces new organisms.

4. All living organisms respond to external stimuli. For instance, when animals are too
hot or too cold, they will change their position and try to find either a cooler or a
warmer place or position. Plants may react to changes in light intensity by opening or
closing their flowers or their leaves.

(*)These four activities or processes, movement, growth, reproduction and sensitivity use
up a good deal of energy. It is this need for energy which explains why living organisms are
also characterised by the three processes of nutrition, respiration and excretion.

5. Plant nutrition begins when carbon dioxide, water, and various inorganic substances
are taken in or ingested. From these ingested materials, the plant makes, or
synthesises, substances like sugars, starches and proteins. Sunlight is the source of
energy for this synthesis. Animal nutrition is different, because animals cannot
synthesise complex organic substances. Instead, animals must take in these substances
as food. Although nutrition is very different in animals and plants, the results of the
process are similar: the organism acquires energy-rich substances such as sugars.

6. During respiration these substances are burnt, so that energy is released and becomes
available for all the chemical activities that need energy.

7. The waste materials that are formed as a result of the organism's chemical activities
are removed from the body in the process of excretion. Energy is also required for this
process.
CELLS - GENERAL

Every cell, plant or animal, has a cell membrane around it. Inside the cell is a jelly-like
substance called cytoplasm, in which are many small structures called organelles. The most
obvious of these organelles is usually called the nucleus. The whole content of the cell is
called protoplasm.

All plant cells are surrounded by a cell wall made of cellulose. Animal cells NEVER have
cells walls made of cellulose. Cellulose belongs to a group of substances called
polysaccharides. This substance forms fibres which give protection and support to the cell.

The cell wall is a non-living layer of cellulose fibres. It is freely (fully) permeable to
aqueous solutions and maintains the shape of the plant cell.

All cells have a membrane surrounding the cell, called the cell or the plasma membrane. In a
plant cell, it is very difficult to see because it is right against the cell wall. It is composed of a
very thin layer of protein and fat.

The cell membrane (plasmalemma) is selectively permeable and involved in osmosis and
active uptake of ions and molecules.

Cytoplasm is a clear jelly. It is nearly all water; about 70% is water in many cells. It contains
many substances dissolved in it, especially proteins.

A vacuole is a space in a cell, surrounded by a membrane and containing a solution. Plant

cells have very large vacuoles, and contain a solution of sugars and other substances called
cell sap. Animal cells have much smaller vacuoles, which may contain food or water.

Endoplastic reticulum is a membrane network in the cytoplasm, which make fats and
proteins out of smaller molecules in the cell. This substance is found in all cells.

The nuclear membrane is a double unit membrane continuous with the endoplastic
reticulum.

Pores in the nuclear membrane allow exchanges of materials between nucleus and
cytoplasm.

Choroplasts are NEVER found in animal cells, but most of the cells in the green parts of
plants have them. They contain the green pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll absorbs
sunlight, and the energy of sunlight is then used for making food for the plant by
photosynthesis. Chloroplasts often contain starch grains, made by photosynthesis.

Animal cells NEVER contain starch grains. Every cell has mitochondria, which release
energy from food. The energy is released by combining food with oxygen, in a process called
respiration. The more active a cell, the more mitochondria it has.

Ribosomes are very tiny round objects, often attached to the endoplasmic reticulum. It is here
that proteins are made, by joining together smaller molecules called amino acids.
The nucleus is where the information is stored in the chromosomes.

Chromosomes are very long and very thin. However, when the cell is dividing they become
short and thick and can be seen with a good light microscope.

Cell membrane: a thin skin around the cell, which lets some things pass through, but does not
let other things pass through.

Cytoplasm: a jelly containing hundreds of chemicals, which fills the cell. Nucleus: it controls
what a cell does, and how it develops.

Vacuole: a space within the cell containing air, liquids or food particles. Animal cells usually
have several small vacuoles. The liquid is called cell sap.

Choroplasts: tiny discs full of a green substance called chlorophyll. They trap the light energy
that plants need for making food by photosynthesis.

Red blood cells are disc-shaped. Their function is to carry oxygen around the body.

White blood cells can change shape. They attack germs.

COMPARISIONS BETWEEN PLANT AND ANIMAL CELLS

Similarities

Both have a cell membrane surrounding the cell.

Both have cytoplasm
Both contain a nucleus
Both contain mitochondria
Both contain endoplasmic reticulum
Both contain ribosomes

How plant cells are different from animal cells

Plant cells Animal cells

have cellulose walls do not have cellolose walls

have chloroplasts
always have a vacuole, sometimes
very large
often have starch granules
often regular in shape
do not have chloroplasts
only have small vacuoles
never have starch granules; sometimes have glycogen
granules
often irregular in shape

SUMMARY INFORMATION
Animal and plant cells obtain their food in different ways. Plants make their own food, so
their cells contain chloroplasts. Starch granules store some of the food that they make.
Animal often have to move to find their food, which is easier if their cells do not have a rigid
wall.

CELL DIVISION

The nucleus is the site of RNA synthesis.

The nucleolus is the site of one type of RNA.

A fertilised cell divides to make two daughter cells. which are identical. These divide to
make four identical cells, which divide again and again to make a ball of cells. Some cells in
the ball grow and change shape to do a particular job. These specialized cells group together
to form tissues.

Red and white blood cells form tissue which can carry oxygen and kill germs. This is called
blood.

Substances pass in and out of cells as tiny particles known as molecules. Molecules are the
smallest particles of a substance.

The movement of molecules is called diffusion.

Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion which occurs when a molecule has tiny holes which
allow water molecules to pass through, but which prevent larger molecules, like sugar, from
passing through.
Water moves from cell to cell in plants by osmosis. The cell membrane of a plant cell is
semi-permeable.

The cell membrane is also known as the plasma membrane or plasmalemma. It covers the
entire cell and serves to hold it together. It also actively regulates what enters and what leaves
the cell. It is only about 10 nanometers thick.

In animal cells (as well as in plant, protist and fungus cells) the nucleus is separated from the
rest of the cell by the nuclear envelope. Such cells are called eukaryotic cells (from the
Greek eu (true) karyon (kernel). This is to show the difference between prokaryotic cells,
which do not have a true membrane-enclosed nucleus and are more primitively organised.
Prokaryotic cells are only found among the bacteria and their close relatives.

The nuclear envelope is made up of two layers of membrane. These are very similar to the
cell membrane but have many pores.
Within the nucleus is a prominent structure called the nucleolus (sometimes there are two or
more nucleoli) and a network of thin threads called chromatin. The chromatin contains the
hereditary material of the cell. The fluid that fills the rest of the space in the nucleus is called
the nuclear sap.

The term "cytoplasm" is still used to designate all of the cell contents outside the nucleus but
inside the cell membrane, although it is now known that cytoplasm is not the homogeneous
substance it was once thought to be. One of the prominent organelles in the cytoplasm is the
mitochondrion. 90% of the energy that eukaryotic cells get from oxidizing food molecules is
developed there.
The Golgi complex is a stack of membranous sacs in which various molecules are
manufactured.

Centrioles are cylindrical bundles of microtubules that give rise to longer spindle
microtubules that separate the two duplicate sets of chromatin at the time of cell division.

TASK 1

1. What is the basic difference between plant and animal nutrition?

The basic difference between plant and animal nutrition ............................................

2. Why is movement more important in animals than plants?

The importance of movement in animals and plants .................................................

3. In what ways are the seven characteristics of living things connected with energy?

..............................................................................................................

TASK 2

1. Name three different kinds of cell in the human body.

i)................................. ii)................................. iii).................................

2. What is cytoplasm?

..............................................................................................................

3. What does a cell nucleus do ( both plant and animal cells)?

..............................................................................................................

4. i) What are chloroplasts?

..............................................................................................................

4. ii) What do they contain?

..............................................................................................................

4. iii) What do they do?

..............................................................................................................

5. i) How are plant cells different from animal cells?

..............................................................................................................
5. ii) List four differences.

..............................................................................................................

5. iii) List four things found in both plant and animal cells.

..............................................................................................................

TASK 3

1. Osmosis the movement of ..............from a .................solution to a .................

solution through a ................membrane.

2. What is a semi-permeable membrane? ..........................................................