In multicellular organisms, body organisation is complex. The working together of various parts of an organism in a systematic manner to produce a response to a stimuli is known as coordination. The nervous & endocrine systems present in the animal body jointly coordinate and integrate all these activities. Both these systems are jointly known as the neuroendocrine system. In plants the coordination is brought about by chemicals known as plant hormones.

In normal conditions, cells perform metabolic processes actively. Dormancy is the period in an organism's life cycle, when growth and developmental activity is temporarily ceased. During this phase organisms are living but with very limited metabolic activities. Seeds go through a dormancy period before undergoing the process of germination.