INTRO TO GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY

Physiology – Branch of biology that focuses on the functions and processes of living organisms and
their parts.

Levels of Organization: Cells – Tissues – Organs – Systems – Organism

Feedback Mechanisms

• Negative Feedback – Response reduces the effect of the initial stimulus (e.g., body temperature
regulation).
• Positive Feedback – Response enhances the effect of the initial stimulus (e.g., childbirth
contractions).

Major Physiological Systems:

• Nervous System
• Respiratory System
• Endocrine System
• Digestive System
• Circulatory System

Cell Membrane Dynamics

Transport Mechanisms

• Diffusion – Movement of molecules from high to low concentration.

• Osmosis – Diffusion of water across a semi-permeable membrane.
• Active Transport – Movement against concentration gradient using energy.

Signal Transduction – Process by which cells respond to external signals through receptors and
signaling pathways.

Examples of Physiological Processes

• Thermoregulation – The interaction between the circulatory system and skin to regulate body
temperature.
• Stress Response – How the nervous and endocrine systems work together to manage stress.

HOMEOSTASIS

Homeostasis

- The maintenance of a stable internal environment; ex. Temperature, pH balance.

- maintenance of equilibrium (balance) around a specific value of some aspect of the body or its
cells.

Hypothermia – Low body temperature; also occur in human and plants.

Homeostasis in Plants

- Ability to regulate and stabilize their internal environment to adapt to external changes.
- Meet changes internally to adapt in external changes

Homeostatic Regulation of Plants seek to:

- Maintain an adequate uptake of water and nutrients from soil into leaves.
- Control stomata opening so that water loss is minimized.

Osmoregulation in Plants

- Process of maintaining suitable concentration of solutes and amount of water in body fluid.
- Different Adaptations:
➢ Mesophytes – Habitat with adequate water; in the middle; ex. Roses, corn, fig trees
➢ Xerophytes – Dry habitat; ex. Cactus, agave, aloe vera
➢ Hydrophytes – Freshwater habitat; ex. Water lilies, elodea. Lotus

Excretion in Plants – Process of getting rid of unwanted substance form within the body.

Homeostasis in Animals

- Any self-regulatory process by which a biological or mechanical system maintains stability while
adjusting to changing environment.
- Not going through so much and below what is needed/value.
- Feedback Mechanisms:
➢ Positive Feedback – Reinforces; happen in response to a physiological stressor; ex. During
ovulation.
➢ Negative Feedback – Responses; continuously regulate critical body processes; ex.
Hypothalamic, pituitary, thyroid axis

Thermoregulation

• Ectotherms
- Body temperature is the same as their environment.
- Do not have internal control of their body temperature.
- Cold-blooded animals
• Endotherms
- Body temperature is the same despite all throughout the changes within environment.
- Maintains constant body temperature
- Warm-blooded animals

Thermoregulation in Humans

- Make use of circulatory system what we do to bring down the body temperature hot weather.
Circulatory System:

• Vasodilation – The opening up of arteries to the skin.

• Vasoconstriction – The narrowing of blood vessels to the skin; tighten up; involuntary
contraction; automatic to produce heat.
• Countercurrent Heat Exchange – Prevents the cold venous blood from cooling the heart and
other internal organs

Nervous System

Hypothalamus – Main control center; temperature control center.

Pyrogens – Compounds that allow the body’s temperature to increase to a new homeostatic
equilibrium point; pyro = fire.

Osmoregulation

- Process of maintaining salt and water balance (osmotic balance) across membranes within the
body.
- Electrolyte, compound that dissociates into ions when dissolved in water.
- Nonelectrolyte, does not dissociate into ions in water.
- Semipermeable membranes, membranes of the body.

Mammalian Systems

- Have evolved to regulate not only the overall osmotic pressure across membranes, but also
specific concentrations of important electrolytes in the three major fluid compartments:
➢ Blood plasma
➢ Interstitial fluid
➢ Intracellular fluid

Excretory System – Excrete wastes through skin, lungs, and urinary system.

Urinary System – Comprised of the paired kidneys, the ureter, urinary bladder and urethra.

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

Plant Physiology – Study of plant function and processes.

Internal Transport in Plants

Importance: Essential for distribution of nutrients, water, and sugars

Main Components:

• Xylem – Water and mineral transport

- Structure: Tracheids and vessel elements
- Function: Transport water and dissolved minerals from roots to leaves
- Mechanism: Transpiration and capillary action
• Phloem – Transport of sugars and organic compounds
- Structure: Sieve-tube elements and companion cells
- Function: Transport sugars (from photosynthesis) from leaves to other parts
- Mechanism: Pressure-flow hypothesis

Mechanisms of Transport:

• Cohesion-Tension Theory – Explains water movement in xylem.

• Pressure-Flow Hypothesis – Explains sugar movement in phloem.

Plant Growth and Development – Increase in size (growth) and complexity

(development) of a plant.

Key Stages:

• Germination
- Process of a seed developing into a new plant.
- Condition Required: Water, oxygen, temperature, and sometimes light
- Steps: Imbibition (water absorption), enzymatic activation, seedling emergence
• Vegetative Growth
- Growth of non-reproductive parts: leaves, stems, roots.
- Roles of Meristems:
➢ Apical Meristem – Growth in length
➢ Lateral Meristem – Growth in thickness
- Photosynthesis: Provides energy for growth
• Reproductive Growth
- Transition: From vegetative to reproductive growth
- Structures Formed: Flowers, Fruits, Seeds
- Environmental Cues: Light duration (photoperiodism), temperature changes

Plant Hormones

- Chemical messengers regulating growth and development.

- Diversity: Can be produced in different tissues, wide-ranging effects

Plant Hormones Examples: auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, abscisic acid, ethylene

• Auxins
- Role: Cell elongation, apical dominance, root initiation
- Functions:
➢ Promote stem elongation
➢ Inhibit lateral bud growth (apical dominance)
➢ Stimulate root growth
• Cytokinins
- Role: Cell division and differentiation, delay leaf aging
- Functions:
➢ Promote cell division in roots and shoots
➢ Delay leaf senescence (aging)
➢ Work with auxins to balance root and shoot growth
• Gibberelins
- Role: Breaking seed dormancy, enhancing growth
- Function: Stem elongation, seed germination, flowering
• Abscisic Acid
- Role: Stress response, seed dormancy
- Functions:
➢ Induces stomatal closure during water stress
➢ Maintains seed dormancy
• Ethylene
- Role: Fruit ripening, leaf abscission, response to stress
- Functions:
➢ Promotes fruit ripening
➢ Triggers leaf and flower senescence and abscission
➢ Involved in response to mechanical stress

NERVOUS SYSTEM

Nervous System

- An extremely intricate portion of a living thing

- Main purpose is to sends messages to and from various bodily sections and coordinate movements
and sensory data
- Death of a nerve do not regenerate
- Each branches have own abilities, and function, failing of one will affect the rest

FUNCTIONS

- Organisms control center

- Network of neurons, basic unit of nervous system, neurons
- Cells specialize to the nervous system
- Neurons communicate with one another across bodily components
- Neurons specialized in electrical signal
- Most striking form of neurons
- Gather and analyze within and outside the body
- Regulates everything
- Made up of neurons
- Glia, the cells that provide support functions for the neurons
- Nerves, bundles of nervous tissues, often containing hundreds of thousands
- Cells analogous to neurons, tissue analogous to the nerves
- Contains of axons from different neurons, rapped in connective tissue
- All animals have a true nervous system except sea sponges

ORGANIZATIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

- Spinal cord and brain (nasa gitna)

BRAIN

- Neurological system of all vertebrate animals as well as the majority of invertebrate species
- Made of nerve tissue found in the head (cephalization)
- Brain is a nerve, composed of nerves, millions of nerves
- Grey matter and white matter of the brain
- When u dissect a cadaver, brain is very soft, very chunky
- You see the nerves extending from cns to pns
- Nerves are flat, unlike blood vessels that are hollow
- White matter is the myalinated

VERTEBRATE ANIMALS

- Telencephalon — cerebral hemispheres

- Diencephalon — thalamus and hypothalamus
- Mesencephalon — midbrain
- Cerebellum
- Pons
- Medulla oblongata

INVERTEBRATE – The diversity in brain structures is matched by an equal diversity of invertebrate body
plants

SPINAL CORD

- long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissues

- Extends from medulla oblongata in brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column
(backbone) of animals
- Connects the brain to PNS

THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (PNS) – Nerves that are branching out from cns

TWO (2) nervous systems

• Autonomic NS
- Controls glands and involuntary bodily activities, FROM THE NAME ITSELF AUTOMATIC
- Made of following:
 ➢ Parasympathetic NS – Network of nerves that relaxes body after periods of stress danger,
opposite of sympathetic, play during rest and digest.
➢ Sympathetic NS – Network of nerves that helps your body activate your flight or fight response,
under stress - enteric NS- vital for controlling secretion and motility
• Somatic NS
- Regulates muscle contraction and transmits data to the CNS from skin, ears, and eyes
- Subdivision of the PNS that stretches throughout nearly every part of your body
- Responsible for the sensory
- Consists of 2 Nerves:
➢ Spinal Nerve – Mixed nerve that interact directly w spinal cord to modulate motor and sensory
information from the body’s periphery; all the nerves to the spinal cord
➢ Cranial Nerve – 12 nerves that sends signal directly to the brain; connected to the head face
neck torso; mnemonic of 12 cranial nerve: Oh, Oh, Oh, The, Touch, And, Feel, Ah, Girls, Vagus,
Ah/ Such, Heaven

How the Nervous System Works

Neurons and Action Potential

- POSITIVE
- Level of electrical volts to allow for message to be transmitted
- Messenger, from brain to different body, vice versa
- Chemical, and electrical signals
- In charge of information transmission

Resting Potential

- NEGATIVE
- If neurons not sending signals, it is resting potential, approx 70 million volts (mV)
- Indicates neurons interior is more negatively charged than its exteriors
- Synapse, message relays happen

Depolarization

- Occurs when neurons receive a stimulus, causing sodium (Na) channels to open and sodium ions
to rush into the cell, making inside more positive
- Sodium ions are positive = 70 mV + sodium ions = POSITIVE

Repolarization

- Opposite of depolarization, potassium out

- Makes your cell more negative to make it go back to its resting potential
- Opens potassium channels to leave potassium to leave the cell
Propagation

- Action potential proceeds toward the axon terminals along the axon.
- By insulating the axon and enabling the action potential to bounce between nodes of Ranvier that
are charged relative to the outside
- The fatty material is called MYELIN, which surround axons, accelerates this process

Synapses

- When the action potential the axon terminals, it triggers the release of neurotransmitters into the
synapse.

There are actually 12 pairs of cranial nerves in the human body, which are:

• Olfactory nerve (I) - smell

• Optic nerve (II) - vision
• Oculomotor nerve (III) - eye movement
• Trochlear nerve (IV) - eye movement
• Trigeminal nerve (V) - facial sensation and motor
• Abducens nerve (VI) - eye movement
• Facial nerve (VII) - facial expression and taste
• Vestibulocochlear nerve (VIII) - hearing and balance
• Glossopharyngeal nerve (IX) - swallowing and taste
• Vagus nerve (X) - various functions (throat, heart, digestion)
• Spinal accessory nerve (XI) - neck and shoulder movement
• Hypoglossal nerve (XII) - tongue movement

Each cranial nerve has specific functions, and damage to any of them can lead to various symptoms
and deficits.