All terms in this list:

Metabolite: a chemical intermediate in the enzyme-catalyzed reactions of metabolism.

Nucleus: in eukaryotes, a membrane-bounded organelle that contains chromosomes.

Genome: all the genetic information encoded in a cell or virus

Eukaryote: a unicellular or multicellular organism with cells having a membrane bound nucleus, multiple chromosomes, and internal organelles.

Prokaryote: a term used historically to refer to any species in the kingdoms Bacteria and Archaea. The differences between bacteria (formerly referred to as eubacteria) and archaea are sufficiently great that the inclusive term is of marginal usefulness. A tendency t

Bacteria: one of the five kingdoms of living organisms; bacteria have a plasma membrane but no internal organelles or nucleus.

Archaea: one of the five kingdoms of living organisms; includes many species that thrive in extreme environments of high ionic strength, high temperature, or low pH.

Cytoskeleton: the filamentous network that provides structure and organization to the cytoplasm; includes actin filaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments.

Stereoisomers: compounds that have the same composition and the same order of atomic connections but different molecular arrangements.

Configuration: the spatial arrangement of an organic molecule that is conferred by the presence of either 1) double bonds, about which there is no freedom of rotation, or 2) chiral centers, around which substituent groups are arranged in a specific sequence. Configurati

Chiral Center: an atom with substituents arranged so that the molecule is not superimposable on its mirror image.

Conformation: a spatial arrangement of substituent groups that are free to assume different positions in space, without breaking any bonds, because of the freedom of bond rotation.

Entropy, S: the extent of randomness or disorder in a system.

Enthalpy, H: the heat content of a system.

Free-energy, G: the component of the total energy of a system that can do work at constant temperature and pressure.

Endergonic reaction: a chemical reaction that consumes energy ( that is, for which delta G is positive).

Exergonic reaction: a chemical reaction that proceeds with the release of free energy (that is, for which delta G is negative).

Equilibrium: the state of a system in which no further net change is occurring; the free energy is at a minimum.

Standard free-energy change: the free-energy change for a reaction occurring under a set of standard conditions: temperature, 298 K; pressure, 1 atm or 101.3 kPa; and all solutes at 1 M concentration. Delta G knot prime denotes the standard free-energy change at pH 7.0 in 55.5 M wate

Activation energy: the amount of energy (in Joules) required convert all the molecules in 1 mole of a reacting substance from the ground state to the transition state.

Catabolism: the phase of intermediary metabolism concerned with the energy-yielding degradation of nutrient molecules.

Ababolism: the phase of intermediary metabolism concerned with the energy-requiring biosynthesis of cell components from smaller precursors.

Metabolism: the entire set of enzyme catalyzed transformations of organic molecules in living cells; the sum of anabolism and catabolism.

Systems biology: the study of complex biochemical systems, integrating the functions of several to all of the macromolecules in a cell (RNA, DNA, proteins).

Mutation: an inheritable change in the nucleotide sequence of a chromosome.