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Chapter 1: Problem 1

The nutritional requirements of Escherichia coli cells are far simpler than those of humans, yet the macromolecules found in bacteria are about as complex as those of animals. Because bacteria can make all their essential biomolecules while subsisting on a simpler diet, do you think bacteria may have more biosynthetic capacity and hence more metabolic complexity than animals? Organize your thoughts on this question, pro and con, into a rational argument.

Short Answer

Expert verified
While bacteria can produce all their essential biomolecules from simpler substances, implying greater metabolic and biosynthetic complexity, animals also have complex metabolic processes enabling them to handle varied diets and environments, suggesting their own kind of complexity. The question then is less about absolute complexity and more about the kind of complexity displayed by each organism.

Step by step solution

01

Understand Metabolic Complexity

Metabolic complexity refers to the number and diversity of metabolic reactions happening in an organism. This includes both breakdown (catabolic) and building (anabolic) reactions. An organism that can create more of its essential biomolecules would have more pathways and hence arguably more metabolic complexity.
02

Understand Biosynthetic Capacity

Biosynthetic capacity refers to an organism's ability to synthesize essential biomolecules. If bacteria can make all of their essential biomolecules while subsisting on a simpler diet, they would have a high biosynthetic capacity.
03

Formulate arguments in favor of greater bacterial complexity

Since bacteria can produce all essential biomolecules from simple inputs, they must have many metabolic pathways to accomplish this. This could imply greater metabolic complexity. Also, they demonstrate high biosynthetic capacity in producing all required biomolecules.
04

Formulate arguments against greater bacterial complexity

On the other hand, animals, despite requiring more complex inputs to survive, also have complex metabolic processes enabling them deal with varied diets, deal with different environments, and maintain larger and more varied physical structures, suggesting their own kind of complexity.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Assume that liver cells are cuboidal in shape, \(20 \mu \mathrm{m}\) on a side. a. How many liver cells laid end to end would fit across the diameter of a pinhead? (Assume a pinhead diameter of \(0.5 \mathrm{mm} .\) ) b. What is the volume of a liver cell? (Assume it is a cube.) c. What is the surface area of a liver cell? What is the surface to-volume ratio of a liver cell? How does this compare to the surface-to-volume ratio of an \(E\) coli cell (compare this answer with that of problem \(3 c\) )? What problems must cells with low surface to-volume ratios confront that do not occur in cells with high surface-to-volume ratios? A. A human liver cell contains two sets of 23 chromosomes, each set being roughly equivalent in information content. The total mass of DNA contained in these 46 enormous DNA molecules is \(4 \times 10^{12}\) daltons. Because each nucleotide pair contributes 660 daltons to the mass of DNA and 0.34 nm to the length of DNA, what is the total number of nucleotide pairs and the complete length of the DNA in a liver cell? How does this length compare with the overall dimensions of a liver cell? The maximal information in each set of liver cell chromosomes should be related to the number of nucleotide pairs in the chromosome set's DNA. This number can be obtained by dividing the total number of nucleotide pairs just calculated by 2 . What is this value? If this information is expressed in proteins that average 400 amino acids in length and three nucleotide pairs encode one amino acid in a protein, how many different kinds of proteins might a liver cell be able to produce? (In reality, liver cell DNA encodes approximately 20,000 different proteins. Thus, a large discrepancy exists between the theoretical information content of DNA in liver cells and the amount of information actually expressed.)

The genome of the Mycoplasma genitalium consists of 523 genes, encoding 484 proteins, in just 580,074 base pairs (Table 1.6). What fraction of the \(M .\) genitalium genes encode proteins? What do you think the other genes encode? If the fraction of base pairs devoted to protein-coding genes is the same as the fraction of the total genes that they represent, what is the average number of base pairs per protein-coding gene? If it takes 3 base pairs to specify an amino acid in a protein, how many amino acids are found in the average \(M .\) genitalium protein? If each amino acid contributes on average 120 Daltons to the mass of a protein, what is the mass of an average M. genitalium protein?

Why does the central role of weak forces in biomolecular interactions restrict living systems to a narrow range of environmental conditions?

Biological molecules often interact via weak forces (H bonds, van der Waals interactions, etc.). What would be the effect of an increase in kinetic energy on such interactions?

Assume that mitochondria are cylinders \(1.5 \mu \mathrm{m}\) in length and \(0.6 \mu \mathrm{m}\) in diameter. a. What is the volume of a single mitochondrion? b. Oxaloacetate is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, an important metabolic pathway localized in the mitochondria of eukaryotic cells. The concentration of oxaloacetate in mitochondria is about \(0.03 \mu M\). How many molecules of oxaloacetate are in a single mitochondrion?
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