cell theory - all organisms consist of cells (basic units of life)  

• Robert Hooke - discovered cells
• Schleiden/Schwann - concluded that all organisms have cells
• all cells form from other cells
• foundation for understanding growth/reproduction of all organisms

molecular basis of inheritance - each cell contains detailed plan in its DNA  

• nucleotides - DNA building blocks, 4 total types; 2 strands in each DNA molecule
• A can only pair w/ T, C can only pair with G (knowing 1 strand guarantees that you know the other strand in DNA)
• gene - specific sequences of thousands of nucleotides; could code a protein or RNA
• proteins/RNA determine what the cell is like
• genome - entire set of DNA instructions

evolutionary change/diversity - 3 main groups (Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya)  

• Archaea group is prokaryote like Bacteria, but more closely related to Eukarya
• Kingdom Protista - contains all unicellular eukaryotes except yeast, multicellular algae
• Kingdom Plantae - organisms w/ cellulose cell walls and perform photosynthesis
• Kingdom Fungi - organisms w/ chitin cell walls and perform absorbtion
• Kingdom Animalia - organisms that ingest other organisms, lack cell walls

evolutionary conservation/similarity - belief that all organisms descended from a single one  

• characteristics of that single organism still exist in cells today
• all eukaryotes have nucleus w/ chromosomes
• flagellae in animal kingdom all have 9+2 arrangement of microtubules
• homeodomain protein - found in animal, fungi, plant kingdoms; developed early on and hasn't been replaced by better versions