Biocheminsider Biodiversity is a measure of the complexity of interactions in a given habitat or ecosystem. The greater the number of species and number of interactions/complexity, the greater the biodiversity and ability of an ecosystem or habitat to survive and adapt to environmental pressures. Ecological productivity is a measure of the rate of generation of biomass … Read more
Vertebrates are animals that have a backbone inside their body. The major groups include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Invertebrates don’t have a backbone. They either have a soft body, like worms and jellyfish, or a hard outer casing covering their body, like spiders and crabs. ELEMENTS OF COMPARISON VERTEBRATES INVERTEBRATES Description Vertebrates … Read more
What is Parenchyma? Parenchyma is a plant, tissue typically composed of living cells that are thin-walled, unspecialized in structure, and therefore adaptable, with differentiation, to various functions. The cells are found in many places throughout plant bodies and, given that they are alive, are actively involved in photosynthesis, secretion food storage, and other activities of plant life. Parenchyma cells can serve many functions. … Read more
What Is a Zygote? Zygote is a single cell that results from the fertilization of an egg by a sperm. It is also known as a fertilized egg or an embryo. The zygote divides to form a ball of cells called a blastocyst, which in turn divides to form the baby and other structures in … Read more
Neurons are specialized cells that transmit chemical and electrical signals in the brain; they are the basic building blocks of the central nervous system. The primary components of the neuron are the soma (cell body), the axon (a long slender projection that conducts electrical impulses away from the cell body), dendrites (tree-like structures that receive … Read more
Shigella Shigella is a genus of bacteria that is Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, non-spore-forming, nonmotile, rod-shaped and genetically closely related to E. coli. The genus is named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who first discovered it in 1897. The causative agent of human shigellosis, Shigella causes disease in primates, but not in other mammals. It is only naturally found in humans and gorillas. During infection, it typically causes dysentery. Shigellosis is a bacterial infection that affects … Read more
What is Reducing Sugar? A reducing agent is a compound (like sugar) or an element (like calcium) that loses an electron to another chemical type in a redox chemical reaction. Reducing sugars, like glucose and lactose, have free ketone or aldehyde functional groups, which enable the formation of a hemiacetal, a carbon connected to two … Read more
Local And Global Sequence Alignment A sequence alignment is a way of arranging the sequences of DNA, RNA, or protein to identify regions of similarity that may be a consequence of functional, structural, or evolutionary relationships between the sequences. Aligned sequences of nucleotide or amino acid residues are typically represented as rows within a matrix. Gaps are inserted between the residues so that identical or similar characters are aligned in … Read more
A flame is a combination of burning gases giving out heat and light. The Bunsen burner produces two different types of flame: Luminous flame Non-luminous flame The Bunsen burner consists of a metal tube on a base with a gas inlet at the lower end of the tube, which may have an adjusting valve; openings … Read more