Download Biology 3 Study Guide

BIOLOGY 3 STUDY GUIDE
This study guide is intended to assist you in preparing for your lecture exam. It does not cover all possible
exam material. See your class notes and lecture text (readings are outlined in your syllabus), and assigned
readings. On the final you are not responsible for assigned readings from exams 1 and 2.
CELL REPRODUCTION: MITOSIS & MEIOSIS – What is the term for bacterial cell division? What
happens when a bacterial cell divides? What molecules make up a Eukaryote chromosome? What is a
centromere, sister chromatid, and telomere? How can two meters of DNA fit into a single cell? How
many DNA molecules are in a chromosome just before mitosis? How many DNA molecules are in a
chromosome just after mitosis? What type of cell division do organisms use to grow and heal? What
happens during interphase? What are the major steps of mitosis and what happens in each? Where on
the chromosome do spindle fibers attach? What is the end result of mitosis? What is the end result of
cytokinesis? What type of cell division is required for sexual reproduction? How is meiosis different
from mitosis? What are the major steps in meiosis and what happens in each? What is a diploid cell
and how is it different from a haploid cell? What does crossing over do? What organisms must use
meiosis? What is the alternative to sexual reproduction? What is the advantage of sexual reproduction
over asexual reproduction?
GENETICS - What is the difference between particulate and blending models of inheritance? How are the
predictions of particulate and blending models different? What is the difference between an
organism's genotype and phenotype? What determines an organism’s phenotype? Understand how
simple Mendelian traits are passed from parents to offspring. Define “dominant”, “recessive”,
“heterozygous”, “homozygous”, and “hemizygous”. What are autosomes? What is a sex
chromosome? What genes are on the X-chromosome? What genes are on the Y-chromosome? Which
has more genes; the X-chromosome or the Y-chromosome? What is meant by "sex linkage"? How are
sex-linked traits passed from parents to offspring? Can women express a sex-linked trait? You should
be able to do both classical (or Mendelian) genetics problems and sex-linked genetics problems. Be
sure you can tell the difference between classical genetics problems and sex-linked problems. What
happens when a fertilized egg winds up with the wrong number of autosomes? What happens when a
fertilized egg winds up with the wrong number of sex chromosomes? Do different species have the
same number of chromosomes? Is it true that more complex organisms have more chromosomes?
MOLECULAR GENETICS – How do we know that DNA and not protein is the hereditary material? What is
the structure of DNA? How is DNA copied? When in the cell cycle is DNA copied? How is
information stored in DNA? How many different nucleotides (or “letters”) make up the genetic
alphabet? How many nucleotides are in each codon (or “word”) in a gene? What does a codon stand
for? What are the steps in building proteins using the information stored in DNA? Where in the cell
does each step occur? What does messenger RNA (mRNA) do? What does transfer RNA (tRNA) do?
What are mutations? How does a mutation in DNA influence the protein that a gene codes for? What
is recombinant DNA? How is recombinant DNA made? Why would you want to move DNA from
one organism to another? What are some of the benefits of recombinant DNA technology? What are
some of the dangers of recombinant DNA technology to the environment?
NATURAL SELECTION – What is the biological meaning of “evolution”? Can an individual evolve? How
is natural selection different from evolution? What are the four basic tenets of natural selection? What
is directional selection and what impact does it have on a population? What is stabilizing selection
and what impact does it have on a population? What is diversifying selection and what impact does it
have on a population? What are the key attributes of natural selection, artificial selection, kin
selection, and sexual selection? How are natural selection, artificial selection, kin selection, and
sexual selection different? How are they similar? What are some ways that evolution can occur
without any selection? What is the ultimate source of all genetic variation? What effects might a
mutation have on an individual?
DIVERSITY OF LIFE - What characteristics separate life from the non-living world? What is the basic unit
of life? What are the major types of cells on Earth? How are they different? How are they similar?
What is the taxonomic hierarchy and how does it work? Which levels of the taxonomic hierarchy
comprise an organism’s scientific name? How is a scientific name written? What is a species? What
types of living things are in each of the 3 domains and six kingdoms discussed? What characteristics
determine an organism’s domain/kingdom? What are lichens? How does each component of a lichen
benefit from the association? What important chemical do both lichens and bacteria make available to
other living things? What are mycorrhizae? How does each component of mycorrhizae benefit from
the association? Know the major categories of plants and animals and their characteristics. How many
species of living things are there? Which groups have the most species?
GLOBAL CLIMATE - What determines global climate patterns? Why is heat input different near the equator
than at the poles? What effect does this have on wet and dry zones on earth? How does the Earth's
rotation influence wind patterns? What determines the earth's seasons? How do seasons differ in the
northern and southern hemispheres? What is a rain shadow? How does a nearby ocean influence local
climate? How does elevation influence climate?
BIOME SURVEY – What is a biome? What are two major climate factors that determine the biome at a
given location? What are the characteristics of each biome? What lives there? What is the climate
like in each biome? What are the major challenges for living things in each biome? Which biome
holds the most species? Why are grasslands especially important to humans? What factors determine
whether trees grow in a particular location? What factors determine the type of aquatic “biome”
found in a particular place? What are the major challenges for aquatic organisms? Which aquatic
biomes hold the most species? What happens when a lake “turns over”? What is meant by the term
“species diversity”? What biomes would you expect to see as you climb higher into mountains? What
effect does increasing habitat isolation have on species diversity? How is species diversity influenced
by habitat size? How does species diversity change with increasing elevation?