This page is about biological terms that are not specific to either plants or animals –in other words, they
don't fit exclusively into either Botany or Zoology.
| The basic blocks used in the body for producing proteins: 20 naturally occurring substances
(fatty acids), including alanine, aspargine, glycine, leucine, lysine, methionine and tyrosine – whose molecules are linked
together to form proteins |
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Amino acids |
| The most abundant of all organisms reproduce asexually and are both useful and harmful to animals;
most of them are microscopic and unicellular. What are they? |
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Bacteria |
| The production and emission of light by a living organism (15–letter word!) |
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Bioluminescence |
| Mitosis is the technical name for |
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Cell division |
| The structure in a cell nucleus that carries the genes |
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Chromosome |
| A biological process that repeats about every 24 hours – e.g. the sleeping cycle
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Circadian rhythm |
| Organism produced from a single parent – a genetic "carbon copy" |
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Clone |
| A complex, giant molecule containing the information needed for a cell to make proteins;
each chromosome consists of a single strand |
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DNA |
| Guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine (often abbreviated to G, C, A and T) are the four bases of |
| Characteristic shape of DNA molecules |
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Double helix |
| The outermost layer of a cell |
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Ectoplasm |
| Organic catalyst, found in plant and animal cells |
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Enzyme |
| Outermost layer of an animal or plant (skin, in vertebrates) |
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Epidermis |
| Any metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes –
for example, the conversion of carbohydrates into ethanol and carbon dioxide, by yeasts |
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Fermentation |
| Single reproductive cell |
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Gamete |
| A unit of inherited material, affecting a particular characteristic;
can be either dominant or recessive |
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Gene |
| An organism (plant or animal) that has both male and female reproductive organs |
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Hermaphrodite |
| An animal or plant resulting from a cross between two genetically unlike individuals |
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Hybrid |
| Animals that suckle their young |
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Mammals |
| The process by which a cell divides to form two identical cells |
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Mitosis |
| Aerobe: an organism that can only exist in the presence of |
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Oxygen |
| An organism that relies on another for life, but is harmful to the other |
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Parasite |
| Asexual reproduction (development of young from unfertilised eggs) – colloquially "virgin
birth" |
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Parthenogenesis |
| In botany, the stalk that supports an inflorescence; in zoology, a stem, through which a mass of
tissue is attached to a body; from a diminutive form of the Latin word for a foot |
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Peduncle |
| The process by which all cells release energy |
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Respiration |
| The sugar on which DNA and RNA are based |
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Ribose |
| Paradoxical, orthodox: phases of |
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Sleep |
| A close interaction between two species – generally mutualistic (i.e. both species benefit)
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Symbiosis |
| A poison produced by a living organism |
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Toxin |
| Can be monozygotic (identical) or dizygotic (fraternal) |
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Twins |
| A minute non–cellular particle that can reproduce only in living cells |
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Virus |
| Name of a fertilised cell – after two gametes merge but before cell division starts |
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Zygote |
