Unit 5

Front 1

methanogens

Back 1

Any of various archaea that are capable of producing methane from the decomposition of organic material.

Front 2

decomposers

Back 2

to break something down into smaller or simpler parts, or be broken down in this way

Front 3

symbiosis

Back 3

a close association of animals or plants of different species that is often, but not always, of mutual benefit

Front 4

symbionts

Back 4

an animal or plant living in close and often mutually beneficial association with another of a different species

Front 5

host

Back 5

a living animal or plant from which a parasite obtains nutrition.

Front 6

mutualism

Back 6

a relationship between two organisms of different species that benefits both and harms neither. For example, lichens are a fungus and an alga living in mutualism: The fungus provides a protective structure, and the alga produces a carbohydrate as food for the fungus.

Front 7

commensalism

Back 7

the relationship between organisms of two different species in which one derives food or other benefits from the association while the other remains unharmed and unaffected

Front 8

parasitism

Back 8

symbiosis in which one organism lives as a parasite in or on another organism

Front 9

parasite

Back 9

a plant or animal that lives on or in another, usually larger, host organism in a way that harms or is of no advantage to the host

Front 10

Koch's postulates

Back 10

The organism must be found in all animals suffering from the disease, but not in healthy animals.
The organism must be isolated from a diseased animal and grown in pure culture.
The cultured organism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy animal.
The organism must be reisolated from the experimentally infected animal.

Front 11

exotoxins

Back 11

a highly potent soluble toxin produced by a bacterium and released into its infected host, often affecting the central nervous system. Exotoxins are produced in diphtheria, botulism, and tetanus, and are among the most potent known toxins.

Front 12

plankton

Back 12

a mass of tiny animals and plants floating in the sea or in lakes, usually near the surface, and eaten by fish and other water animals

Front 13

dinoflagellates

Back 13

a tiny single-celled sea organism with two long slender appendages flagella, occurring in large numbers in plankton. Some types are luminescent and some are toxic, especially when they multiply prolifically to cause a brownish red discoloration

Front 14

ciliates

Back 14

a simple microscopic organism with projecting threads that thrash to help it to move along. Phylum Ciliophora.

Front 15

conjugation

Back 15

the simplest form of reproduction, in which two single-celled organisms such as bacteria or protozoans link together, exchange genetic information, and then separate

Front 16

pseudopodia

Back 16

A temporary footlike extension of a one-celled organism, such as an amoeba, used for moving about and for surrounding and taking in food

Front 17

white rust

Back 17

a disease of plants, characterized by pustules of white spores on affected parts that become yellow and malformed, caused by fungi of the genus Albugo

Front 18

holdfast

Back 18

An organ or structure of attachment, especially the basal, rootlike formation by which certain seaweeds or other algae are attached to a substrate.

Front 19

Fimbriae

Back 19

short hairlike filaments extending from the surface of prokaryotes

Front 20

endospores

Back 20

a spore formed within a cell of a rod-shaped organism.

Front 21

anisogamy

Back 21

the union of anisogametes

Front 22

gametophyte

Back 22

the sexual form of a plant in the alternation of generations.

Front 23

heteromorphic

Back 23

dissimilar in shape, structure, or magnitude

Front 24

isogamy

Back 24

the fusion of two gametes of similar form, as in certain algae.

Front 25

isomorphic

Back 25

different in ancestry, but having the same form or appearance.

Front 26

oogamy

Back 26

one of a pair of structurally dissimilar gametes, the female gamete being large and nonmotile and the male gamete being small and motile.

Front 27

sporophyte

Back 27

the form of a plant in the alternation of generations that produces asexual spores

Front 28

plasmodial slim molds

Back 28

Plasmodial slime moulds or true slime moulds are a large single-celled mass with thousands of nuclei called a plasmodium. They are formed when individual flagellated cells swarm together and fuse. The result is one large bag of cytoplasm with many diploid nuclei.

Front 29

cellular slime molds

Back 29

spend most of their lives as separate single-celled amoeboid protists, but upon the release of a chemical signal, the individual cells aggregate into a great swarm. Cellular slime molds are thus of great interest to cell and developmental biologists, because they provide a comparatively simple and easily manipulated system for understanding how cells interact to generate a multicellular organism