Biological Diversity: Functional Groups

Biological Diversity: Functional GroupsThere are three types of biological organization, which are the type, structure and function of life. Functional groups are considered to be the principal sources of order in life, so the main task of biologists is to investigate the ways in which these three components of the organization interact and influence each other.The work of biologists in Functional Groups is an extension of the standard classification of cells in terms of functions. Cells, in this classification, are considered to be functional when they perform a single activity. Cells with a multi-dimensional organization, in the case of functional groups, are considered to be too complex to be classified as functional in the cell division test, as they can perform more than one function.In the first phase of the study of Functional Groups, it was realized that not all cells were equal in terms of biological importance, as their individual functions and distributions were not the sa me. Then, there were some of the cell types such as fungi, plants and algae, which played important roles in the process of life, yet they were too very different from each other. This is the point where the differentiation was made between cells, as an isolated unit of life.Organisms in the second phase was studied the phenomenon of Cell Differentiation in groups that were divided into two and more functional groups. Cells in such groups could be further divided into smaller functional groups.The third phase was to show how these groups, both at the levels of the cells themselves and at the level of the organisms, could be designed and organized so as to perform specific roles, like to look after certain aspects of nutrition and reproduction, or for the production of vitamins. So the individual cells of a group and the larger groups were defined.The importance of the Functional Groups, was realized with the advent of the concept of population genetics. Population genetics is the st udy of how populations of organisms interrelate, as this makes it possible to trace the evolution of a population and hence, provide a detailed history of its existence. The success of the Population Genetics was probably due to the fact that population biologists did not need to dissect the individual cells in groups but were able to see the interaction of different group members in the life cycle.The study of Functional Groups is still ongoing, and many philosophers believe that there are many other ways in which the different cells in groups of organisms can interact, and influence each other. They believe that the study of these interactions is part of the emerging science of epigenetics.