UNIT – 2 The World of Living

Chapter – Life Processes

The characteristics of living things:

 Movement
 Growth
 Need food, air and water
 Can respond to changes around them
 Can respire (release energy from food)
 Can excrete (get rid of waste material from their body)
 Can reproduce

What are Life Processes:

The basic functions performed by living organisms to maintain their life on earth are called life
processes.

Example – Nutrition and Respiration, Transport and Excretion, Control and Coordination
(Respond to Stimuli), Growth, Movement and Reproduction.

Nutrition: The process of taking in food (consuming food) and utilizing it is called nutrition.

Nutrient: A nutrient can be defined as a substance which an organism obtains from its
surroundings as a source of energy. Example – Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals
and water.

Modes of Nutrition: There are mainly two modes of nutrition.

1. Autotrophic
2. Heterotrophic
1) Autotrophic Mode of Nutrition:
 Auto means self, trophic means nutrition
 The mode of nutrition in which an organism makes its own food from simple
inorganic materials like carbon dioxide and water. Example – Green plants
 Those organisms which make their own food are called autotrophs.
2) Heterotrophic Mode of Nutrition:
 Hetero means others, trophic means nutrition
 The mode of nutrition in which an organism cannot make their own food from
simple inorganic materials like carbon dioxide and water and depends on other
organisms for its food. Example - all animals, most bacteria and fungi, non-green
plants etc.
 Those organisms which cannot make their own food and depend on others are
called heterotrophs.
Types of Heterotrophic Nutrition:
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes

I. Saprotrophic Nutrition (Saprophytic Nutrition):

 The nutrition in which an organism obtains its food from dead and
decaying matter.
 The organisms which obtain their food from dead and decaying
matter are called saprophytes.
Example - Fungi (like bread moulds, mushrooms) and many
bacteria
II. Parasitic Nutrition:
 The nutrition in which an organism derives its food from the body
of another living organism (called its host) without killing it.
 The organism which obtains its food is called a parasite.
 The organism from whose body food is obtained is called the host.
Examples of parasitic nutrition- Plasmodium, Cuscuta(amarbel),
roundworms, lice, leeches, ticks and tapeworms etc.
III. Holozoic Nutrition:
The nutrition in which an organism takes the complex food materials into
the body by the process of ingestion, the ingested food is digested and
then absorbed into the body cells of the organism.
Example – man, cat, dog, amoeba etc.
i. Herbivores: Those animals which eat only plants. Example – Goat,
cow, Buffalo, sheep etc.
ii. Carnivores: Those animals which eat only other animals as food.
Example- Lion, Tiger, Wolf etc.
iii. Omnivores: Those animals which eat both plants and animals.
Example- Human beings

Nutrition in Plants:

The process by which green plants make their own food from carbon dioxide and water by using
sunlight in the presence of chlorophyll, is called photosynthesis.

chlorophyll

6CO2 + 6H2O + Light Energy ---------------------------C6H12O6 +6O2

 The food prepared by the green leaves of a plant is in the form of a simple sugar called
glucose.
 The extra glucose is changed into another food called starch. This starch is stored in the
leaves of the plant.
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes

The photosynthesis take place in the following three steps:

 Absorption of sunlight energy by chlorophyll.

 Conversion of light energy into chemical energy and splitting of water into hydrogen and
oxygen by light energy.
 Reduction of carbon dioxide by hydrogen to form carbohydrate like glucose by utilizing
the chemical energy

Conditions necessary for Photosynthesis:

 Sunlight, Chlorophyll, Carbon dioxide and Water

 Green leaves make starch as food. Starch gives a blue black colour with iodine solution.

Variegated Leaves: The leaves which are partly green and partly white are called variegated
leaves. Example: Croton and Coleus

Raw Meterials for Photosynthesis:

1. Carbon dioxide:
 The green plants take carbon dioxide from air for photosynthesis.
 The carbon dioxide gas enters the leaves of the plant through the stomata present on
their surface.
 Each stomatal pore (or stoma) is surrounded by a pair of guard cells. The opening and
closing of stomatal pore are controlled by guard cells.
 When water flows into the guard cells, they swell, become curved and cause the pore to
open.
 On the other hand, when the guard cells lose water, they shrink, become straight and
close the stomatal pore.
 Stomata are also present in the green stems (or shoots) of the plant.
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes

NOTE:

 In most broad leaves’ plants, the stomata occur only in the lower surface of the leaf but
in narrow leaved plants, the stomata are equally distributed on both the sides of the
leaf.
 Aquatic plants use the carbon dioxide gas dissolved in water for carrying out the
photosynthesis.
2. Water:
 The water required by the plants is absorbed by the roots of the plants from the
soil through the process of osmosis.
 The water absorbed by the roots of the plants is transported upward through by
the xylem vessels to the leaves.

Plants also need other raw materials such as nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and magnesium etc
from the soil.

Site of Photosynthesis: Chloroplasts:

 Chloroplasts are the organelles in the cells of green plants which contain chlorophyll and
where photosynthesis takes place.
 Chloroplasts present in the photosynthetic cells (or mesophyll cells) of green plants.
 Chloroplasts can be seen as numerous disc-like organelles in the photosynthetic cells (or
mesophyll cells) of the palisade tissue just below the upper epidermis.
 The middle layers in the leaf (palisade and spongy layer) contain photosynthetic cells
called mesophyll cells.
 These cells contain more chlorophyll than other plant cells. Carbon dioxide needed for
photosynthesis enters from the air into the leaf through the stomata in the surface and
then diffuses in to the mesophyll cells and reaches chloroplasts.
 Water is carried to the leaf by xylem vessels and passes into the mesophyll cells by
diffusion and reaches the chloroplasts.
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes

 There is a thin, waxy protective layer called cuticle above and below a leaf which helps
to reduce the loss of water from the leaf.

Nutrition in Animals:

There are five steps in the process of nutrition in animals-

1. Ingestion: The process of taking food into the body is called ingestion.
2. Digestion: The process in which the food containing large, insoluble molecules is broken
down into small, water-soluble molecules is called digestion.
3. Absorption: The process in which the digested food passes through the intestinal wall
into blood stream is called absorption.
4. Assimilation: The process in which the absorbed food is taken in by body cells and used
for energy, growth and repair is called assimilation.
5. Egestion: The process in which the undigested food is removed from ghe body is called
egestion.

Nutrition in Amoeba:

 Amoeba is a unicellular animal.

 Amoeba eats tiny plants and animals as food which float in water in which it lives.
 The mode of nutrition in Amoeba is holozoic.
 The process of obtaining food by amoeba is called phagocytosis (cell feeding).
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes

1) Ingestion:
 Amoeba has no mouth or a fixed place for digestion of food.
 Amoeba ingests food by using its pseudopodia.
 When a food particle comes near Amoeba, then Amoeba ingests this food
particle by forming temporary finger like projections called pseudopodia around
it.
 The food is engulfed and food vacuole is formed inside the amoeba, which is
considered as a “temporary stomach” of amoeba.
2) Digestion:
 Food is digested in food vacuole by digestive enzymes.
 The enzymes from surrounding cytoplasm enter into the food vacuole and break
down the food into small and soluble molecules.
3) Absorption:
 The digested food present in the food vacuole of amoeba is absorbed
directly into the cytoplasm of amoeba cell by diffusion.
 After absorbtion of food, the food vacuole disappears.
4) Assimilation:
 A part of food absorbed in amoeba cell is used to obtain energy through
respiration
5) Egestion:
 Amoeba has no fixed place (like anus) for removing the undigested part of food.
 When a considerable amount of undigested food collects inside Amoeba, then its
cell membrane suddenly ruptures at any place and undigested food is thrown out
of the body of amoeba.

Paramecium:

 Tiny Unicellular animal which lives in water.

 Paramecium uses its hair like structure called cilia to sweep the food particles from
water and put them into its mouth. This is the first step called ingestion.
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes

 Ingestion is followed by other steps such as digestion, absorption, assimilation and

egestion (as explained in the case of Amoeba).

Nutrition in Human Beings:

 The human digestive system consists of the alimentary canal and its associated glands.
 The human alimentary canal which runs from mouth to anus is about 9 meters long
tube.
 The various organs are: Mouth, Oesophagus (Food Pipe), Stomach, Small intestine and
large intestine. The glands associated are: Salivary glands, Liver and Pancreas.
UNIT – 2 The World of Living
Chapter – Life Processes