Biological system: what it is, characteristics and components

From a biological point of view, life refers to what distinguishes animals, plants, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria from the rest of natural realities.

Life implies the capacities of living beings to organize themselves at the tissue level, grow, metabolize substances, respond to external stimuli to a greater or lesser extent, reproduce (sexually or asexually) and die.

Experiments like Miller's and his primordial soup have brought us closer to the conception of life, since in him they were able to synthesize various organic molecules from inorganic materials, which correspond to the bases of the cells that give rise to all living beings in the world planet. Even so, the emergence of "being" from "non-being" continues to be unknown, since producing living beings from material that has never been alive continues to be a biological impossibility.

These data put into perspective the intricate complexity of all living things, from bacteria most basic unicellular to the human being and all the organs with specialized cells that make up.

To understand the particularities of each biological taxon and its functioning, we have to go to the definition of the biological system and the interactions between those who make us up. Today we tell you everything about this exciting and little-known term.

• Related article: "The 25 main organs of the human body"

What is a biological system?

Although it sounds redundant, The only possible definition that adequately describes the term that concerns us today is "a complex network of biologically relevant entities".

On the other hand, the Royal Academy of Engineering describes a biological system as a set of relevant organs and structures that work in set to fulfill some physiological function in a living being, such as the cardiovascular, circulatory, arterial, adrenal, and other systems many. This last meaning may be valid, but several very interesting concepts are left by the wayside.

A biological system, on the other hand, should not be confused in any way as a living system/organism per se. The set of systems allows life, but a system by itself is not alive.

The basic biological system: the cell

When addressing this term, many informative sources resort directly to the concepts that best fit a system: the digestive, for example, which is made up of a series of organs and ducts that allow us to ingest, metabolize and excrete the remains food. Even so, we cannot forget that absolutely all living beings on this planet are made up of a biological system on a microscopic scale: the cell.

Thus, a narrow definition of the cell is the morphological and functional unit of all living beings. It is a complex thermodynamic biological system, since it has all the characteristics to maintain itself over time (if we are not talking about specializations). For a cell to be considered as such, it must meet the following requirements:

• Individuality: all cells are surrounded by a membrane or membranes that distinguish them from the environment, but that have pores that allow exchange.
• Aqueous medium: the cytosol, the intracellular fluid in which the essential organelles for cell metabolism float.
• DNA genetic material: the key to heredity and the formation of proteins, that is, of life itself at a physiological and structural level.
• Proteins, enzymes and other biomolecules that allow an active metabolism.
• Capacity for nutrition, growth, differentiation, signaling and evolution.

As you can observe, a cell is a biological system if we look at the first definition given: a complex network of biologically relevant entities. In this case, we conceive as an "entity" each of the organelles, the genetic information, the cytosol and the membranes that delimit their spaces, which are interconnected to give rise to a "greater entity", in this case, the basic structure for life.

Moving Up the Evolutionary Ladder: Other Biological Systems

Although the cell is the most basic biological system that we can describe, one of the miracles of life is the association of a group of cells according to specialized functions. This is how eukaryotic living beings arose, those that have more than a single cell in our body, unlike bacteria, archaea and protozoa, for example.

At this point we are talking about organ and tissue systems, understanding "organ" as an association of various tissues of origin. cells that form a structural unit in charge of fulfilling a certain function within an organism pluricellular. So these structures are one step above tissue, but one step below the typical biological system.

What can we say here that each of the readers does not know? The respiratory system, the digestive system, the cardiovascular system, the urinary system, the endocrine system, all of them comprise a network of ducts and organs specialized in a series of specific functions and, therefore, are conceived as biological systems to use.

• You may be interested in: "The 8 differences between veins, arteries and capillaries"

The Last Step: The Biological Web at the Ecosystem Level

As you can imagine, a biological network is a system based on interconnected subunits within a wholeFor example, trophic webs in an ecosystem. Each of the living beings (entities) that make up a trophic web are made up of multiple biological systems but, in turn, they are only one small point in the largest biological system of all: the one that allows the flow of energy and the permanence of the ecosystems that make up our planet.

Not everything is about predations, since there are also biological networks based on intra and interspecific without the need for the death of living beings, for example, the indirect fight for a resource or for the search for a partner An ecosystem is like a tower made of metal: if one of the fundamental pillars is removed, everything that is on top collapses.

It is also necessary to note that, although we have given you the most typical example of all, a biological network does not apply only to ecosystems and interactions between living things. For example, it is also a biological network according to the definition given a metabolic network, although on a much smaller scale than the one previously named. In this case, each of The interconnected "dots" are the chemical compounds, which are "united" by chemical reactions that give rise to one substance or another through the use of enzymes.

They are also biological networks, for example, neural networks, gene regulatory networks and networks formed by the interaction between proteins. After all, we are talking about biologically interconnected entities at all times on a larger or smaller scale, right?

The use of biological systems

Not everything stays on paper, since the description of a biological system or a network provides us with a quantity of essential information to resolve doubts, climatic issues and even pathologies. We are facing an exciting field at an interdisciplinary level, because the cellular metabolism of a living being (cellular system) and its capacity for growth and development (organ system) will largely condition the amount of biomass that it contributes to an ecosystem (biological web/trophic web), for example. That is: everything is interconnected.

Thus, certain experiments are based on computer programs, mathematical modeling and simulation, which from the databases generated by certain technologies can establish predictive computational models of systems biological. Describing a network of interconnected entities allows us to predict how they will behave in a given scenario. And, without a doubt, that is vital to understand the past, present and future of human society at the climatic and pathological level, among many other things.

The integration and correlation of the data provided by each of the systems is no longer circumscribed solely to subjectivity and human understanding, because this computer modeling is the key to many more processes than we could at first imagine.

Summary

Without wanting to, we have traveled through life itself, from the first spark of being, the cell, to the network of biological systems. interconnected that allows us to be in three-dimensional space surrounded by life, that is, the ecosystems that make up our own planet.

Biological systems are energy, complexity, interaction, but above all adjectives, they are a unique thing: the explanation of life itself. From the smallest cell to the magnitude of a planet itself, everything is interconnected.

Bibliographic references:

• Biological system, biologyonline.com. Collected on December 20 in https://www.biologyonline.com/dictionary/biological-system
• Biological system, longdom.org. Collected on December 20 in https://www.longdom.org/scholarly/biological-systems-journals-articles-ppts-list-587.html
• Camazine, S., Deneubourg, J. L., Franks, N. R., Sneyd, J., Bonabeau, E., & Theraula, G. (2003). Self-organization in biological systems. Princeton university press.
• Edelman, G. M., & Gally, J. TO. (2001). Degeneracy and complexity in biological systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(24), 13763-13768.
• Haefner, J. W. (2005). Modeling Biological Systems:: Principles and Applications. Springer Science & Business Media.
• Systems Biology by Prof. Dr.D. José Luis Iborra Pastor, honorary academic, Academy of Sciences of the Region of Murcia. Collected on December 20 in https://www.um.es/acc/la-biologia-de-sistemas/