Contributor McGraw-Hill Glencoe

Update
01-01-2016
Content Type
Multimedia
Grade Level
Ninth grade, Tenth grade, Eleventh grade, Twelfth grade, Undergraduate
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Animation
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Hormones influence the growth and develop of organisms such as whether individuals become male or female. Hormones are compounds used for long distance signaling in both plants and animals. In animals, specialized cells produce hormones and release them into the circulatory system. Hormones travel to target cells in other parts of the body and cause a variety of changes such as gene expression. Steroid hormones are soluble in lipids and can easily pass through cellular and nuclear membranes. In contrast, many other hormones are water soluble. Steroid hormones typically act by affecting gene expression while water-soluble hormones usually act by causing changes in biological processes in the cytoplasm of cells.