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Also called an antibacterial. A type of antimicrobial drug used in the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections. Archaea One of the three recognized domains of organisms, the other two being Bacteria and Eukaryota. artificial selection Also called selective breeding. The process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively control the development of particular ...
Gene expression plays a crucial role in determining the phenotypes of organisms. The level of gene expression can affect the phenotype of an organism. For example, if a gene that codes for a particular enzyme is expressed at high levels, the organism may produce more of that enzyme and exhibit a particular trait as a result. On the other hand ...
Also called functionalism. The Darwinian view that many or most physiological and behavioral traits of organisms are adaptations that have evolved for specific functions or for specific reasons (as opposed to being byproducts of the evolution of other traits, consequences of biological constraints, or the result of random variation). adaptive radiation The simultaneous or near-simultaneous ...
The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. A genus contains one or more species. Minor intermediate ranks are not shown. A species (pl.: species) is a population of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. [1]
The philosopher Jack A. Wilson examines some boundary cases to demonstrate that the concept of organism is not sharply defined. [8] In his view, sponges , lichens , siphonophores , slime moulds , and eusocial colonies such as those of ants or naked molerats , all lie in the boundary zone between being definite colonies and definite organisms ...
The organisms (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, algae, etc.) of a specific region or period, or the total aggregation of organisms in the biosphere (Allaby 1998). Casual species This term is becoming less common in usage. A non native species that does not form self-replacing populations (Booth et al. 2003).
A species can be defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sex can produce fertile offspring; about 1.5 million species of animal have been described and it has been estimated that as many as 8 million animal species may exist. [21]
The minimal requirement is that all organisms in a phylum should be clearly more closely related to one another than to any other group. [9] Even this is problematic because the requirement depends on knowledge of organisms' relationships: as more data become available, particularly from molecular studies, we are better able to determine the ...