5 Plant and animal tissues
5.1 Overview
Introduction DUMMY
‘If you want to understand function, study structure.’- Francis Crick in his book ”What Mad
Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery” (1988).The relationship between structure and function is important to understanding this chapter
and is important to the study of Life Sciences in general. This chapter requires you to build
on the concepts you understood in the section on cell structure.Key concepts- Tissues are a group of similar cells adapted for a particular function. These cells are
adapted for such function through a process of cell differentiation. - The structure of cells allow them to collectively perform specific functions. Examples
of these include xylem, phloem, parenchyma, collenchyma, sclerenchyma, epidermis
and meristematic tissue. - There are essentially four types of animal tissues studied here: epithelial, connective,
muscle and nerve tissue whose structure is neatly adapted to function. - Various plant tissues provide important ingredients for traditional medicine.
- Biotechnology is a modern science that manipulates properties of tissues and cells to
produce vaccines and antibiotics - One such manipulation in biotechnology is the use of genetic material to create a
whole new organism, with the identical genetic make-up as its parent, using a process
known as cloning. - The ethics and legislation around these new developments must be carefully under-
stood
Previous chapters have discussed the molecular and cellular levels of organisation of living
organisms. In this chapter we will examine how similar cells associate together to form
tissues.atom→molecule→cell→tissue→organ→system→organism→ecosystem5.2 Tissues
Tissue is a level of organisation that falls between cells and a complete organism. Therefore
a tissue is a group of similar cells that perform a specific function. Organs are then formed
by the functional grouping together of multiple tissues.116 5.1. Overview