Bio 120 Final Exam Review

Animal Review Mollusks to Mammals are on the Exam:
 1. What characteristics do all Mollusks share?
2. Clams have sturdy shells, but the octopus does not have a shell at all, and the squid has a very reduced shell. Why is the loss or reduction of the shell adaptive for the octopus and squid?
3. What do spiders, butterflies, crabs, and centipedes all have in common, and to what phylum do they belong?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of an exoskeleton?
5. True or false: Echinoderms and Chordates undergo early development in a similar way.
6. How are hagfish different from sharks?
7. How are sharks different from bony fish like trout or salmon?
8. Why are amphibians still tied to water?
9. How are reptiles better suited to land than amphibians?
10. What group of mammals lays eggs?
11. How are birds adapted for flight?

 Population Ecology and Interactions
1. Define resource partitioning and give an example of it.
2. How is logistic growth different from exponential growth? 3. How is a parasite different from a predator?
4. How are density dependent limiting factors different from density independent limiting factors? Give examples of each.
5. Coevolution happens between parasites and their hosts. Why is this not surprising?
6. Define and give examples of the following: Mutualism, Commensalism, social parasite.
7. What are common strategies predators use to capture prey, and common defenses found in prey?
8. Draw a food web that could occur in your backyard or here at Cerritos. Include all the trophic levels we discussed in class.
9. Why are there fewer members of the upper trophic levels as compared with primary consumers or the producers?
10. What is carrying capacity?


Genetics 1. Which of Mendel's laws addresses homologous chromosomes separating from each other during meiosis?
2. What word (or phrase) describes each of the following genotypes? TT Tt tt
3. What is the difference between genotype and phenotype?
4. Two normal parents have a child with a recessive disorder. What are the genotypes of each parent?
5. Dad has AB blood, and mom has O blood. What are the possible blood types of their children?
6. In pea plants purple flower color (P) is dominant to white (p). If a plant heterozygous for purple flowers is crossed with a plant with white flowers, what proportion of the offspring will have white flowers?
7. Colorblindness is an X linked recessive trait. Susan carries the gene for colorblindness, and her husband is not colorblind. What is the chance they will have a colorblind son? What is the chance they will have a daughter who is colorblind?
8. In one species of flowering plants there is some diversity in flower color. Some plants have blue flowers, some have red, and others have purple flowers. What type of inheritance do you suspect controls this trait, and why?
9. Huntington's Disease is caused by a dominant allele (H). Mark's mother is heterozygous for the allele, but his father has no evidence of the disease in his family. What is the chance that Mark has the allele for Huntington's Disease?
10. The disease sickle cell anemia is caused by a recessive allele. Two parents who are heterozygous for the allele have a child. What is the chance this child has the disease?
11. What does Mendel's law of independent assortment describe?
12. In a species of plant, there are individuals with red flowers and individuals with blue flowers. When plants with blue flowers are crossed with other blue flowering plants, only plants with blue flowers are produced. When Blue is crossed with red, sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, and other times both blue and red flowering plants are produced. When red plants are crossed with red, sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, and other times both blue and red flowering plants are produced. What color is dominant?

Review for Exam 3 Bio 120

Here are the photosynthesis questions for review:

1. Which colors of light are most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll?

2. Where does the oxygen released during photosynthesis come from?

3. Why is water needed in photosynthesis?


4. What are the products of the light dependent reactions?

5. What is made in the light independent reactions?

6. What is the role of RUBP in photosynthesis?


7. What kind of plants use PEP and what advantage does it give them?

8. How are CAM plants different from others in the way they do photosynthesis?

9. What kind of organisms can do photosynthesis?

10. Where inside the chloroplast do the light dependent reactions happen?


Here's some questions to make those brain cells churn out the ATP!

1. What are the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and which is more efficient?

2. What are NAD+ and FAD used for?

3. What are the three steps in aerobic respiration, and where does each occur?

4. During which step of cellular respiration is the most ATP made?

5. During aerobic respiration, how many ATPs are made from one molecule of glucose in most cells?

6. What is the role of oxygen in aerobic respiration?

7. Describe how the ATP is made during chemiosmosis

8. What is produced by your muscle cells if there is not enough oxygen available at the end of glycolysis for aerobic respiration to continue?

9. Yeasts do a kind of anaerobic respiration called ____________, and produce ___________ and _________ along with 2 ATP

10. What are the important end products of the Citric Acid Cycle, and what happens to each of these products?


Evolution Review
1. Evolution is a change in _____________ over time in a ____________.

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. How can speciation happen?

12. What mechanisms drive evolution?

13. Evolution happens to ______________, while natural selection acts on ____________.


Animals
 1. What are two unique tissues found in animals?
 2. Cnidarians all have _______symmetry and have an _______ digestive system.
3. Coral animals enter into a partnership with algae. Why is this important to the coral?
4. Flat worms have _____ symmetry and have an _______ digestive system
5. Tapeworms, and flukes are _____ worms that have a _______ lifestyle
 6. Which of the following can you get from eating rare pork.
 A. Hookworm
B. Ascaris worm
C. Trichina worm
D. Whipworm
 7. Which of the following can you get from walking barefoot on contaminated soil?
A. Hookworm
B. Ascaris worm
 C. Trichina worm
D. Whipworm
 8. What kind of animal are you?
A. acoelomate
B. pseudocoelomate
 C. coelomate
 9. During early development of an animal the first opening that forms becomes its mouth. This animal is A. a protostome
B. a deuterostome
C. an endotherm
D. a bird
 10. Jellyfish have a body form called a _______ .

Restoration at Bolsa Chica with Cerritos College Students

Thanks to the students from my class, the Wilderness Club, and the Environmental Club from Cerritos College for coming out to Bolsa Chica on Saturday for the Bolsa Chica Land Trust's workday.
Here's a photo of some of the students showing off their hard working hands.

Here's the photosynthetic sea slug

I mentioned this animal in class on when we were discussing photosynthesis.

This beautiful green leafy organism is actually a sea slug. The sea slug Elysia chlorotica consumes chloroplasts when it eats the algae Vaucheria litorea. The slug feeds on the algae, but the chloroplasts are retained in the cells of the gut. The gut in this sea slug is highly branched and the chloroplasts give it the green color. The chloroplasts in the tissue of the animal's gut continue to function in the animals without an algal cell being present. The slug lives about 10 months and can survive off the food made by the chloroplasts.

The green color also provides great camouflage. While the animal has to eat an algae to get the chloroplasts, it is intriguing that the chloroplasts can continue to function without any algal cells present as genes in the nucleus of the algae are needed for photosynthesis to occur. So where are the genes to support photosynthesis? In the nucleus of the sea slug cells! The slug gets the genes from the algae, it does not have them until the animal feeds on the algae.

Interested in looking into this gene transfer further? Click here to read a paper by Mary E. Rumpho et al. on horizontal gene transfer between the algae and the slug.

Coastal Commission approves 111 more houses for Bolsa Chica

I am disappointed to have to report that the Coastal Commission approved the plan by Shea Homes for 111 more houses in the Upper Bolsa Chica Wetlands along Graham.  Commissioner Sanchez and Wickett voted no. 

Commissioner Sanchez spoke eloquently about the lack of analysis of cumulative impacts, as well as the fact that the flood control feature included in the plans violates the LCP and Coastal Act.

 I found it ironic that the spokesman for Shea played up the fact that the wetlands on the property have increased from 1 acre when the Huntington Beach City Council approved the project (4-3) in 2002, to the 13 acres today. Folks, Shea did not do this out of the goodness of its heart, Shea did this because of the members of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. The Land Trust and the analysis by the Bixbys in particular, provided evidence of additional wetlands on the site. The actions of the BCLT reduced this project size by one third, and that is something I am very proud of.

Peacock Spider

Take a break from your studying and check out this video of a spider that is being called the "Peacock Spider". It was discovered in Western Australia. The camera work is great. Click here to see the spider.
You will see a little after one minute into the video why the spider is called the peacock spider.

Plants and Fungi Review

1. Which of the following is found in gymnosperms, and which is found in angiosperms?

A. seeds
B. pollen
C. Vessel cells in xylem
D. tracheid cells in xylem

2. What is the function of the anther in the flower?



3. Which of the following is where one would find ovules?

A. in an anther
B. in the ovary
C. in the stigma
D. in the style

4. Ovules are

A. eggs
B. spores that will become pollen
C. spores that will become eggs
D. immature seeds
E. pollen grains

5. In double fertilization the first sperm fertilizes the egg and the second

A. dies
B. is only used if the first sperm cell dies
C. fertilizes another egg
D. fertilizes a haploid endosperm mother cell to make diploid endosperm
E. fertilizes a diploid ( n+n) endosperm mother cell to make triploid endosperm

6. What is the function of fruit?

7. Microspores become
A. the embryo sac
B. the mature male gametophyte
C. pollen grains
D. eggs E. only B and C above

8. What is the oldest plant on Earth, and what is the most massive
9. How are confiers adapted to life in cold dry climates?


Fungi Questions
1. How are fungi classified?
2. What role do fungi play typically in their habitat?
3. How are fungi different from plants?
4. How do fungi feed?
5. How do fungi spread out in their habitat?
6. The body of a fungus is a thread like structure called a ____
7. A lichen is made of a ____ and a ____. What is the ecological role of lichens?

Low Cost Genetic Sequencing

NPR has been running a series on their news program Morning Edition about genetic sequencing and how it can be medically useful, as well as present problems for us. You can read a transcript, or listen to the show here

DNA, Genetic Engineering, and Mitosis and Meiosis  Review Questions

1. Describe the structure of the DNA molecule

2. If the sequence of bases on one stand of the molecule is AAC TGC CCG, what is the sequence on the complementary strand?

3. During DNA replication, what enzyme breaks the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs, and what enzyme matches up nucleotides to the existing ones on the parent strand of DNA?

4. Why is this type of replication called Semi Conservative?

5. How is RNA different from DNA?

6. The production of messenger RNA from DNA is called ________, and this happens in the __________ of the cell.

7. mRNA gets a cap and a tail prior to being read by the ribosome. What is the function of the cap and tail?

8. If the DNA strand being copied had this sequence: ACT GGC ATA CTA what would the sequence of the mRNA be?

9. The function of transfer RNA is ?

10. What is the name of the enzyme that produces RNA from DNA?

11. If the sequence of DNA is the same in your body cells, why are all cells not the same?

12. The DNA in you, an earthworm, and a fungus is the same. So why are you a human and not an earthworm?

13. What is an anti-codon and where is it found?

14. The protein synthesis process that occurs at the ribosome is called _____________

15. What is a stop codon, and what happens when one is read in the ribosome?

Genetic Engineering  

1. What are restriction enzymes?

2. What kind of cells have restriction enzymes, and what is the purpose of these enzymes in the cell?

3. What is a plasmid?

4. How are plasmids used in genetic engineering?

5. Why does human DNA work in a bacterial cell?

6. What is gene therapy?

7. How are small fragments of DNA separated during the DNA fingerprinting process?

8. What benefits are there to inserting a human gene into a bacterium? What possible problems could arise from genetically engineered organisms being released into the wild?

Mitosis and Meiosis Review

1. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does mitosis, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

2. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does meiosis to make sperm cells, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

3. Mitosis creates cells which are ________, while meiosis makes cells which are _____.

4. What are homologous chromosomes?

5. What are sister chromatids?

6. What is crossing over, and during which process, (mitosis or meiosis) does it occur?

7. Why is crossing over important?

8. During __________ of mitosis sister chromatids separate.

9. During _________ of meiosis homologous pairs of chromosomes separate, but during ____________ of meiosis sister chromatids separate.

10. In meiosis, typically four sperm cells are made, but meiosis only makes one large egg cell. Why?

Microbe Review Questions

1. How is Euglena different from Paramecium and Amoeba in the way it moves and feeds?

2. How are viruses different from bacteria and Protists?

3. How are Protists different from bacteria?

4. Why are algae not considered plants?

5. The most common way bacteria reproduce is through ________ .

6. How are Archea different from Bacteria?

Bio 120 review for exam 1

Microbe questions will be posted later, but here are some to get you started


Here are some review questions for you. Some may be similar to the daily review questions, but all will help you while you prepare for the exam.

Chapters 1 and 2
1.How is a hypothesis different from a theory?
2.What are five characteristics of living things?
3. What is a hydrogen bond, and why are these bonds important to life?
4. Oxygen has 8 electrons, with 6 in the outermost energy level. Will this atom react?
5. How are ions formed?
6. A solution with a pH of 5 is how many times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 7?
7. What determines if an atom with react with another?
8. How are polar and non polar covalent bonds different?
9. How is the polar nature of water related to:
a. its high boiling point
b. surface tension
c. the solid form being less dense than the liquid form


Organic Molecules
1. What are the building blocks of carbohydrates?
2. What is the difference between a saturated and unsaturated fatty acid?
3. Why is the shape of an enzyme important to the function of the enzyme?
4. At what level of complexity do proteins usually become functional?
5. What makes up a nucleotide?
6. What bond forms between amino acids as they react to form proteins?
7. How is the function of carbohydrates different in plants and animals?
8. Which of the macromolecules we discussed stores energy in the most efficient way?
9. What is the most common steroid in the body?

Chapter 3
1. How are the mitochondria and chloroplasts similar?
2. Why do we think mitochondria and chloroplasts were once independent organisms?
3. Describe the plasma membrane. Include how a lipid membrane functions in a watery environment.
4. What role do the proteins in the plasma membrane play?
5. How are prokaryotic cells different from eukaryotics cells?
6.What can cyanobacteria do that the bacteria living in your mouth do not do?
7.How are archeae different from the bacteria living on your skin?
8.Describe briefly what organelles would be involved in making a protein and exporting it from the cell.
9.Give an example of two cell organelles working together to accomplish a task.
10.What organelle is found on the ER?
11.What is the function of lysosomes?
12.Where is the nucleolus, and what is its function?
13.What are the functions of the Golgi bodies?

Osmosis and Diffusion

1. A plant cell in a hypertonic solution will under go _____________
2. An animal cell in a hypotonic solution may undergo _____________
3. A cell must maintain an imbalance of sodium ions on either side of the membrane for it to function. What process would it most likely use of the ones we discussed in class?
4. How is active transport different from diffusion and osmosis?
5. How is dialysis different from osmosis?
6. What affect would a hypertonic solution have on a cell?
7. In a hypotonic solution water would move ________ a cell.
8. If a .9% salt solution is isotonic to a red blood cell, a 2% salt solution would be _____.

Andean Condor

I photographed this Andean Condor flying above the Andes in Peru last week. Andean Condors have an 11 foot wingspan. Unlike the smaller California Condor, they will sometimes kill prey.
The Incan people saw the condor as a connection between the Earth and the sky. This is the condor temple at Machu Picchu. The natural rock resembles out stretched wings.
Carving on floor of the condor temple at Machu Picchu representing the ruff around the bird's neck

Biology 120 review for the lecture final

Population Ecology and Interactions
1. Define resource partitioning and give an example of it.
2. How is a parasite different from a parasitoid?
3. How is a parasite different from a predator?
4. How are density dependent limiting factors different from density independent limiting factors? Give examples of each.
5. Coevolution happens between parasites and their hosts. Why is this not surprising?
6. Define and give examples of the following: Mutualism, Commensalism, social parasite.
7. What are common strategies predators use to capture prey, and common defenses found in prey?
8. Draw a food web that could occur in your backyard or here at Cerritos. Include all the trophic levels we discussed in class.
9. Why are there fewer members of the upper trophic levels as compared with primary consumers or the producers?
10. What is carrying capacity?


Biome Review
1. What are two important factors in determining what type of Biome one will find in a given area?
2. What causes the seasons here in North America?
3. What are three strategies plants have developed to survive in the cold dry,and sometimes dark conditions of the Tundra?
4. What kind of adaptations have animals developed to survive in: A. The tundra B. The deserts

5. What is a rain shadow, and how does it account for different plant communities occurring at the same latitude, but on opposites sides of a mountain range?=
6. In what biomes does fire play an important role, and what is this role?
7. How are coniferous forests different from deciduous forests?

1. Which of Mendel's laws addresses homologous chromosomes separating from each other during meiosis?
2. What word (or phrase) describes each of the following genotypes? TT Tt tt
3. What is the difference between genotype and phenotype?
4. Two normal parents have a child with a recessive disorder. What are the genotypes of each parent?
5. Dad has AB blood, and mom has O blood. What are the possible blood types of their children?
6. In pea plants purple flower color (P) is dominant to white (p). If a plant heterozygous for purple flowers is crossed with a plant with white flowers, what proportion of the offspring will have white flowers?
7. Colorblindness is an X linked recessive trait. Susan carries the gene for colorblindness, and her husband is not colorblind. What is the chance they will have a colorblind son? What is the chance they will have a daughter who is colorblind?
8. In one species of flowering plants there is some diversity in flower color. Some plants have blue flowers, some have red, and others have purple flowers. What type of inheritance do you suspect controls this trait, and why?
9. Huntington's Disease is caused by a dominant allele (H). Mark's mother is heterozygous for the allele, but his father has no evidence of the disease in his family. What is the chance that Mark has the allele for Huntington's Disease?
10. The disease sickle cell anemia is caused by a recessive allele. Two parents who are heterozygous for the allele have a child. What is the chance this child has the disease?
11. What does Mendel's law of independent assortment describe?
12. In a species of plant, there are individuals with red flowers and individuals with blue flowers. When plants with blue flowers are crossed with other blue flowering plants, only plants with blue flowers are produced. When Blue is crossed with red, sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, and other times both blue and red flowering plants are produced. When red plants are crossed with red, sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, and other times both blue and red flowering plants are produced. What color is dominant?

Summer School Review Exam 2

Here are some questions about plants for your review:
Review Questions about Plants:

1. Compare and contrast the movement of water and food in plants. Include in your answer what kinds of tissues and processes are involved in both.

2. Xylem is functional when dead at maturity while phloem is functional only when alive. Why?

3. In phloem, what is the role of the companion cell?

4. Which of the following is found in gymnosperms, and which is found in angiosperms?
A. seeds
B. pollen
C. Vessel cells in xylem
D. tracheid cells in xylem

5. What is cohesion of water, and how is this different from adhesion?

6. What part of the root absorbs water?

7. What is the function of the anther in the flower?

8. Which of the following is where one would find ovules?
A. in an anther
B. in the ovary
C. in the stigma
D. in the style

9. Ovules are
A. eggs
B. spores that will become pollen
C. spores that will become eggs
D. immature seeds
E. pollen grains

10. In double fertilization the first sperm fertilizes the egg and the second
A. dies
B. is only used if the first sperm cell dies
C. fertilizes another egg
D. fertilizes a haploid endosperm mother cell to make diploid endosperm
E. fertilizes a diploid ( n+n) endosperm mother cell to make triploid endosperm

11. What is the function of fruit?

12. Microspores become
A. the embryo sac
B. the mature male gametophyte
C. pollen grains
D. all of the above
E. only B and C above

13. What is the female gametophyte in flowering plants?

Here are the photosynthesis questions for review:

1. Which colors of light are most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll?

2. Where does the oxygen released during photosynthesis come from?

3. Why is water needed in photosynthesis?


4. What are the products of the light dependent reactions?

5. What is made in the light independent reactions?

6. What is the role of RUBP in photosynthesis?


7. What kind of plants use PEP and what advantage does it give them?

8. How are CAM plants different from others in the way they do photosynthesis?

9. What kind of organisms can do photosynthesis?

10. Where inside the chloroplast do the light dependent reactions happen?


Here's some questions to make those brain cells churn out the ATP!

1. What are the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and which is more efficient?

2. What are NAD+ and FAD used for?

3. What are the three steps in aerobic respiration, and where does each occur?

4. During which step of cellular respiration is the most ATP made?

5. During aerobic respiration, how many ATPs are made from one molecule of glucose in most cells?

6. What is the role of oxygen in aerobic respiration?

7. Describe how the ATP is made during chemiosmosis

8. What is produced by your muscle cells if there is not enough oxygen available at the end of glycolysis for aerobic respiration to continue?

9. Yeasts do a kind of anaerobic respiration called ____________, and produce ___________ and _________ along with 2 ATP

10. What are the important end products of the Citric Acid Cycle, and what happens to each of these products?


Evolution Review
1. Evolution is a change in _____________ over time in a ____________.

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. How can speciation happen?

12. What mechanisms drive evolution?

13. Evolution happens to ______________, while natural selection acts on ____________.

Summer Bio 120 Review Questions for Exam 1

Here are some review questions for you. Some may be similar to the daily review questions, but all will help you while you prepare for the exam.

Chapters 1 and 2
1.How is a hypothesis different from a theory?
2.What are five characteristics of living things?
3. What is a hydrogen bond, and why are these bonds important to life?
4. Oxygen has 8 electrons, with 6 in the outermost energy level. Will this atom react?
5. How are ions formed?
6. A solution with a pH of 5 is how many times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 7?
7. What determines if an atom with react with another?
8. How are polar and non polar covalent bonds different?
9. How is the polar nature of water related to:
a. its high boiling point
b. surface tension
c. the solid form being less dense than the liquid form


Chapter 3
1. What are the building blocks of carbohydrates?
2. What is the difference between a saturated and unsaturated fatty acid?
3. Why is the shape of an enzyme important to the function of the enzyme?
4. At what level of complexity do proteins usually become functional?
5. What makes up a nucleotide?
6. What bond forms between amino acids as they react to form proteins?
7. How is the function of carbohydrates different in plants and animals?
8. Which of the macromolecules we discussed stores energy in the most efficient way?
9. What is the most common steroid in the body?

Chapter 4
1. How are the mitochondria and chloroplasts similar?
2. Why do we think mitochondria and chloroplasts were once independent organisms?
3. Describe the plasma membrane. Include how a lipid membrane functions in a watery environment.
4. What role do the proteins in the plasma membrane play?
5. How are prokaryotic cells different from eukaryotics cells?
6.What can cyanobacteria do that the bacteria living in your mouth do not do?
7.How are archeae different from the bacteria living on your skin?
8.Describe briefly what organelles would be involved in making a protein and exporting it from the cell.
9.Give an example of two cell organelles working together to accomplish a task.
10.What organelle is found on the ER?
11.What is the function of lysosomes?
12.Where is the nucleolus, and what is its function?
13.What are the functions of the Golgi bodies?

Chapter 5

1. A plant cell in a hypertonic solution will under go _____________
2. An animal cell in a hypotonic solution may undergo _____________
3. A cell must maintain an imbalance of sodium ions on either side of the membrane for it to function. What process would it most likely use of the ones we discussed in class?
4. How is active transport different from diffusion and osmosis?
5. How is dialysis different from osmosis?
6. What affect would a hypertonic solution have on a cell?
7. In a hypotonic solution water would move ________ a cell.
8. If a .9% salt solution is isotonic to a red blood cell, a 2% salt solution would be _____.


DNA Review Questions

1. Describe the structure of the DNA molecule

2. If the sequence of bases on one stand of the molecule is AAC TGC CCG, what is the sequence on the complementary strand?

3. During DNA replication, what enzyme breaks the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs, and what enzyme matches up nucleotides to the existing ones on the parent strand of DNA?

4. Why is this type of replication called Semi Conservative?

5. How is RNA different from DNA?

6. The production of messenger RNA from DNA is called ________, and this happens in the __________ of the cell.

7. The parts of the mRNA molecules which are edited out before RNA reaches the cytoplasm are called __________

8. mRNA gets a cap and a tail prior to being read by the ribosome. What is the function of the cap and tail?

9. If the DNA strand being copied had this sequence: ACT GGC ATA CTA what would the sequence of the mRNA be?

10. The function of transfer RNA is ?

11. What is the name of the enzyme that produces RNA from DNA?

12. If the sequence of DNA is the same in your body cells, why are all cells not the same?

13. The DNA in you, an earthworm, and a fungus is the same. So why are you a human and not an earthworm?

14. What is an anti-codon and where is it found?

15. The protein synthesis process that occurs at the ribosome is called _____________

16. What is a stop codon, and what happens when one is read in the ribosome?


Mitosis and Meiosis Review

1. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does mitosis, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

2. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does meiosis to make sperm cells, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

3. Mitosis creates cells which are ________, while meiosis makes cells which are _____.

4. What are homologous chromosomes?

5. What are sister chromatids?

6. What is crossing over, and during which process, (mitosis or meiosis) does it occur?

7. Why is crossing over important?

8. During __________ of mitosis sister chromatids separate.

9. During _________ of meiosis homologous pairs of chromosomes separate, but during ____________ of meiosis sister chromatids separate.

10. In meiosis, typically four sperm cells are made, but meiosis only makes one large egg cell. Why?

Genetic Engineering (Chapter 16)

1. What are restriction enzymes?
2. What kind of cells have restriction enzymes, and what is the purpose of these enzymes in the cell?
3. What is a plasmid?
4. How are plasmids used in genetic engineering?
5. Why does human DNA work in a bacterial cell?
6. What is gene therapy?
7. How are small fragments of DNA separated during the DNA fingerprinting process?
8. What benefits are there to inserting a human gene into a bacterium? What possible problems could arise from genetically engineered organisms being released into the wild?

Bio 120 review for the final

Biome Review

1. What are two important factors in determining what type of Biome one will find in a given area?

2. What causes the seasons here in North America?

3. What are three strategies plants have developed to survive in the cold dry,and sometimes dark conditions of the Tundra?

4. What kind of adaptations have animals developed to survive in:

A. The tundra

B. The deserts

5. What is a rain shadow, and how does it account for different plant communities occurring at the same latitude, but on opposites sides of a mountain range?

6. In what biomes does fire play an important role, and what is this role?

7. How are coniferous forests different from deciduous forests?

Climate Change

1. What types of gases trap heat in the atmosphere?

2. What are the sources of these gases?

3. What are some consequences of global warming?

4. What can be done to slow the rate of the current warming trend?

Genetics review

1. Which of Mendel's laws addresses homologous chromosomes separating from each other during meiosis?

2. What word (or phrase) describes each of the following genotypes? TT Tt tt

3. What is the difference between genotype and phenotype?

4. Two normal parents have a child with a recessive disorder. What are the genotypes of each parent?

5. Dad has AB blood, and mom has BO blood. What are the possible blood types of their children?

6. In pea plants purple flower color (P) is dominant to white (p). If a plant heterozygous for purple flowers is crossed with a plant with white flowers, what proportion of the offspring will have white flowers?

7. Colorblindness is an X linked recessive trait. Susan carries the gene for colorblindness, and her husband is not colorblind. What is the chance their son is colorblind? What is the chance their daughter is colorblind?

8. In one species of flowering plants there is some diversity in flower color. Some plants have blue flowers, some have red, and others have purple flowers. What type of inheritance do you suspect controls this trait, and why?

9. Huntington's Disease is caused by a dominant allele (H). Mark's mother is heterozygous for the allele, but his father has no evidence of the disease in his family. What is the chance that Mark has the allele for Huntington's Disease?

10. The disease sickle cell anemia is caused by a recessive allele. Two parents who are heterozygous for the allele have a child. What is the chance this child has the disease?

11. What does Mendel's law of independent assortment describe?

12. What is the most common genetic disease caused by a single gene mutation?

13. In peas, the tall allele is dominant to short, and purple flowers are dominant to white. If a short plant heterozygous for purple flowers is crossed with a tall plant that is heterozygous for height, but homozygous recessive for flower color, what proportion of the offspring from this cross will be tall plants with purple flowers?

14. How is co-dominance different from incomplete dominance?

15. A biologist cross breeds a newly discovered species of flowering plant and notices the following:

Red flowering plant X red flowering plant: sometimes all offspring are red, and in other crosses with different red flower plants sometimes the offspring are red and others are blue flowering.

Blue flowering plant X blue flowering plant: offspring are always blue flowering

Blue flowering X red flowering: sometimes all offspring are red, and in other crosses with different plants both blue flowering plants and red flowering plants are produced.

Assuming flower color is controlled by one pair of alleles, which allele is dominant and which is recessive, or is this a case of incomplete dominance?

Artificial photosynthesis breakthrough: Making hydrogen from water as fast as plants do!

Corn Lily Leaf, Sequoia National Park

Researchers in Sweden have developed a method to break water into hydrogen and oxygen as fast as plants can do this during photosynthesis. This is a major break through that has implications for using the sun to make hydrogen from water for fuel. For more information on this exciting research, check out the link below.
Artificial photosynthesis breakthrough: Fast molecular catalyzer

Bio 120 Review for the Exam

Here are the photosynthesis questions for review:

1. Which colors of light are most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll?

2. Where does the oxygen released during photosynthesis come from?

3. Why is water needed in photosynthesis?


4. What are the products of the light dependent reactions?

5. What is made in the light independent reactions?

6. What is the role of RUBP in photosynthesis?


7. What kind of plants use PEP and what advantage does it give them?

8. How are CAM plants different from others in the way they do photosynthesis?

9. What kind of organisms can do photosynthesis?

10. Where inside the chloroplast do the light dependent reactions happen?


Here's some questions to make those brain cells churn out the ATP!

1. What are the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and which is more efficient?

2. What are NAD+ and FAD used for?

3. What are the three steps in aerobic respiration, and where does each occur?

4. During which step of cellular respiration is the most ATP made?

5. During aerobic respiration, how many ATPs are made from one molecule of glucose in most cells?

6. What is the role of oxygen in aerobic respiration?

7. Describe how the ATP is made during chemiosmosis

8. What is produced by your muscle cells if there is not enough oxygen available at the end of glycolysis for aerobic respiration to continue?

9. Yeasts do a kind of anaerobic respiration called ____________, and produce ___________ and _________ along with 2 ATP

10. What are the important end products of the Citric Acid Cycle, and what happens to each of these products?


Evolution Review
1. Evolution is a change in _____________ over time in a ____________.

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. How can speciation happen?

12. What mechanisms drive evolution?

13. Evolution happens to ______________, while natural selection acts on ____________.



Population Ecology and Interactions
1. Define resource partitioning and give an example of it.

2. How is a parasite different from a parasitoid?

3. How is a parasite different from a predator?

4. How are density dependent limiting factors different from density independent limiting factors? Give examples of each.

5. Coevolution happens also between parasites and their hosts. Why is this not surprising?

6. Define and give examples of the following: Mutualism, Commensalism, social parasite.

7. What are common strategies predators use to capture prey, and common defenses found in prey?

8. Draw a food web that could occur in your backyard or here at Cerritos. Include all the trophic levels we discussed in class.

9. Why are there fewer members of the upper trophic levels as compared with primary consumers or the producers?

10. What is carrying capacity?

Bio 120 and Botany 120 students at Bolsa Chica

Thanks to all my students who came out today to help weed and plant native plants on the Bolsa Chica Mesa. One of our lead volunteers sent me this email about you:
"Hi, Connie--I worked with a group of your students today, and I wanted you to know they were terrific! Excellent workers, pleasant companions--there were a few high-school kids in our group, and some cross-conversations that were helpful, instructive, and altogether pleasant. Good bunch, and they deserve extra credit. I hope they return."

I know I have great students, and it is sure nice to hear it from other people too. I am very proud of the hard work you all did today.

Botany Review Questions for Exam 3

Evolution:
1. How do biologists define evolution?
2. What is a population?
3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?
4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?
5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?
6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?
7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?
8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?
9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.
10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?
11. What is adaptive radiation, and give an example of adaptive radiation in plants.
12. How has evidence from molecular biology supported the theory of evolution?
13. What is sympatric speciation, and how is it different from allopatric speciation?

14. How can adaptive radiation happen?

Bacteria
1. What is the name of the bacteria that do photosynthesis,and what can they do in addition to photosynthesis?
2. In what major way are bacterial cells different from plant cells?
3. Describe how bacterial cells can reproduce.
4. What is in the cell walls of bacteria?
5. What is a capsule used for?
6. What are the three basic shapes of bacteria?
7. What roles do bacteria play in the ecosystem where they are found?
8. How are Archea different from bacteria?
9. Some bacteria live in the roots of plants. What are they doing there?
10. What is a plasmid?

Fungi Questions
1. How are fungi classified?
2. What role do fungi play typically in their habitat?
3. How are fungi different from plants?
4. How do fungi feed?
5. What does heterokaryotic mean?
6. How do fungi spread out in their habitat?
7. The body of a fungus is a thread like structure called a ____
8. A mass of the answer in question 7 is call a ____
9. A lichen is made of a ____ and a ____. What is the ecological role of lichens?

Plant Physiology
1. Compare and contrast the movement of water and food in plants. Include in your answer what kinds of tissues and processes are involved in both.

2. Xylem is functional when dead at maturity while phloem is functional only when alive. Why?

3. In phloem, what is the role of the companion cell?

4. What is the difference between xylem in flowering plants and the xylem found in gymnosperms?

5. What is cohesion of water, and how is this different from adhesion?

6. What part of the root absorbs water?

7. What environmental cues can cause stomata to open and close?

8. What ions are involved in the opening and closing of the stomata?

Exam 3 Plant Review Questions

Here are some questions about plants for your review:
Review Questions about Plants:

1. Compare and contrast the movement of water and food in plants. Include in your answer what kinds of tissues and processes are involved in both.

2. Xylem is functional when dead at maturity while phloem is functional only when alive. Why?

3. In phloem, what is the role of the companion cell?

4. Which of the following is found in gymnosperms, and which is found in angiosperms?
A. seeds
B. pollen
C. Vessel cells in xylem
D. tracheid cells in xylem

5. What is cohesion of water, and how is this different from adhesion?

6. What part of the root absorbs water?

7. What is the function of the anther in the flower?

8. Which of the following is where one would find ovules?
A. in an anther
B. in the ovary
C. in the stigma
D. in the style

9. Ovules are
A. eggs
B. spores that will become pollen
C. spores that will become eggs
D. immature seeds
E. pollen grains

10. In double fertilization the first sperm fertilizes the egg and the second
A. dies
B. is only used if the first sperm cell dies
C. fertilizes another egg
D. fertilizes a haploid endosperm mother cell to make diploid endosperm
E. fertilizes a diploid ( n+n) endosperm mother cell to make triploid endosperm

11. What is the function of fruit?

12. Microspores become
A. the embryo sac
B. the mature male gametophyte
C. pollen grains
D. all of the above
E. only B and C above

Exam 2 Review: DNA and Mitosis Bio 120

Here are some review questions to get you started.
DNA Review Questions

1. Describe the structure of the DNA molecule

2. If the sequence of bases on one stand of the molecule is AAC TGC CCG, what is the sequence on the complementary strand?

3. During DNA replication, what enzyme breaks the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs, and what enzyme matches up nucleotides to the existing ones on the parent strand of DNA?

4. Why is this type of replication called Semi Conservative?

5. How is RNA different from DNA?

6. The production of messenger RNA from DNA is called ________, and this happens in the __________ of the cell.

7. The parts of the mRNA molecules which are edited out before RNA reaches the cytoplasm are called __________

8. mRNA gets a cap and a tail prior to being read by the ribosome. What is the function of the cap and tail?

9. If the DNA strand being copied had this sequence: ACT GGC ATA CTA what would the sequence of the mRNA be?

10. The function of transfer RNA is ?

11. What is the name of the enzyme that produces RNA from DNA?

12. If the sequence of DNA is the same in your body cells, why are all cells not the same?

13. The DNA in you, an earthworm, and a fungus is the same. So why are you a human and not an earthworm?

14. What is an anti-codon and where is it found?

15. The protein synthesis process that occurs at the ribosome is called _____________

16. What is a stop codon, and what happens when one is read in the ribosome?

Genetic Engineering

1. What are restriction enzymes?
2. What kind of cells have restriction enzymes, and what is the purpose of these enzymes in the cell?
3. What is a plasmid?
4. How are plasmids used in genetic engineering?
5. Why does human DNA work in a bacterial cell?
6. What is gene therapy?
7. How are small fragments of DNA separated during the DNA fingerprinting process?
8. What benefits are there to inserting a human gene into a bacterium? What possible problems could arise from genetically engineered organisms being released into the wild?

Mitosis and Meiosis Review

1. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does mitosis, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

2. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does meiosis to make sperm cells, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

3. Mitosis creates cells which are ________, while meiosis makes cells which are _____.

4. What are homologous chromosomes?

5. What are sister chromatids?

6. What is crossing over, and during which process, (mitosis or meiosis) does it occur?

7. Why is crossing over important?

8. During __________ of mitosis sister chromatids separate.

9. During _________ of meiosis homologous pairs of chromosomes separate, but during ____________ of meiosis sister chromatids separate.

10. In meiosis, typically four sperm cells are made, but meiosis only makes one large egg cell. Why?

Botany review for second exam

DNA
1. Describe the structure of the DNA molecule
2. If the sequence of bases on one stand of the molecule is AAC TGC CCG, what is the sequence on the complementary strand?
3. During DNA replication, what enzyme breaks the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs, and what enzyme matches up nucleotides to the existing ones on the parent strand of DNA?
4. Why is this type of replication called Semi Conservative?
5. How is RNA different from DNA?
6. The production of messenger RNA from DNA is called ________, and this happens in the __________ of the cell.
7. If the DNA strand being copied had this sequence: ACT GGC ATA CTA what would the sequence of the mRNA be?
8. The function of transfer RNA is ?
9. What is the name of the enzyme that produces RNA from DNA?
10. What is an anti-codon and where is it found?
11. The protein synthesis process that occurs at the ribosome is called _____________
12. What is a stop codon?

Mitosis and Meiosis
1. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does mitosis, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?
2. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does meiosis to make microspore cells, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?
3. Mitosis creates cells which are ________, while meiosis makes cells which are _____.
4. What are homologous chromosomes?
5. What are sister chromatids?
6. What is crossing over, and during which process, (mitosis or meiosis) does it occur?

Plant Anatomy:
1. Pick one of the ground tissues we discussed such as parenchyma or sclerenchyma, and explain how its structure and function are related.
2. What are the two types of vascular tissue in plants, and what is the function of each?
3. How is the anatomy of a monocot root, or stem or leaf different from that of a dicot?
4. What is the role of the epidermis? In woody plants the epidermis is replaced by the _______ ?
5.What are the regions called in plants where mitosis occurs to make the plant taller?
6. What is the name of the openings in the epidermis and what is the function of these openings? 7. In a dicot leaf, why is the lower layer of mesophyll more open than the upper layer?
8. What part of the root actually absorbs the water?
9. What is the difference between spring and summer wood?
10. How are compound and simple leaves different?
11. What is the function of the following stem modifications: tuber, bulb, corm, rhizome, stolon, tendril
12. What are five modifications of stems or leaves that might be found in a plant adapted to hot dry conditions?
13. Why are some plant's leaves modified to trap insects?
14. What is the role of the endodermis in the root?
15. What is the function of the pericycle?

Wow! Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost

Check out this link to an article about how botanists were able to create a plant from tissue found in a 30,000 year old squirrel burrow.

Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost - life - 20 February 2012 - New Scientist

Bio 120 questions for review exam 1

Here are some review questions for you. Some may be similar to the daily review questions, but all will help you while you prepare for the exam.

Chapters 1 and 2
1.How is a hypothesis different from a theory?
2.What are five characteristics of living things?
3. What is a hydrogen bond, and why are these bonds important to life?
4. Oxygen has 8 electrons, with 6 in the outermost energy level. Will this atom react?
5. How are ions formed?
6. A solution with a pH of 5 is how many times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 7?
7. What determines if an atom with react with another?
8. How are polar and non polar covalent bonds different?
9. How is the polar nature of water related to:
a. its high boiling point
b. surface tension
c. the solid form being less dense than the liquid form


Chapter 3
1. What are the building blocks of carbohydrates?
2. What is the difference between a saturated and unsaturated fatty acid?
3. Why is the shape of an enzyme important to the function of the enzyme?
4. At what level of complexity do proteins usually become functional?
5. What makes up a nucleotide?
6. What bond forms between amino acids as they react to form proteins?
7. How is the function of carbohydrates different in plants and animals?
8. Which of the macromolecules we discussed stores energy in the most efficient way?
9. What is the most common steroid in the body?

Chapter 4
1. How are the mitochondria and chloroplasts similar?
2. Why do we think mitochondria and chloroplasts were once independent organisms?
3. Describe the plasma membrane. Include how a lipid membrane functions in a watery environment.
4. What role do the proteins in the plasma membrane play?
5. How are prokaryotic cells different from eukaryotics cells?
6.What can cyanobacteria do that the bacteria living in your mouth do not do?
7.How are archeae different from the bacteria living on your skin?
8.Describe briefly what organelles would be involved in making a protein and exporting it from the cell.
9.Give an example of two cell organelles working together to accomplish a task.
10.What organelle is found on the ER?
11.What is the function of lysosomes?
12.Where is the nucleolus, and what is its function?
13.What are the functions of the Golgi bodies?

Chapter 5

1. A plant cell in a hypertonic solution will under go _____________
2. An animal cell in a hypotonic solution may undergo _____________
3. A cell must maintain an imbalance of sodium ions on either side of the membrane for it to function. What process would it most likely use of the ones we discussed in class?
4. How is active transport different from diffusion and osmosis?
5. How is dialysis different from osmosis?
6. What affect would a hypertonic solution have on a cell?
7. In a hypotonic solution water would move ________ a cell.
8. If a .9% salt solution is isotonic to a red blood cell, a 2% salt solution would be _____.

Zion National Park

There are few species that were or are more endangered than the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus). When they were taken in from the wild as part of a captive breeding program in the 1980s there were only 22 birds left alive. They were bred in captivity and then released back into the wild beginning in 1992. Today there are 369 birds alive with 191 in the wild as of March of 2011. They are now found in Arizona, California, Baja, and Utah. I was lucky enough two of these birds when hiking the Angels Landing Trail in Zion National Park.

Condors are huge birds. They have a 9 foot wingspan and weigh up to 25 lbs. They can fly 100 miles a day in search of food, and glide at speeds up to 50 miles per hour. They are scavengers and eat dead deer, cattle and other large animals. This is one of the reasons they became endangered. As they ate the carcasses of hunted animals they ingested lead ammunition used to kill the animal by hunters. Many developed lead poisoning. The bird in the picture above, number 99 had to be captured recently and treated for lead poisoning before being re-released.

I took these photos with a 300mm telephoto lens. It is very important not to approach any wild animal too closely. It just is not a good thing for wild animals to get too used to humans. Condors are curious birds, and that has also caused them problems as they visit areas like campsites humans have purposely harmed them.

The Angels Landing Trail is a very steep trail and very narrow in places with long drop offs as one climbs up the cliff sides. Just the kind of area condors like to use for nesting.

Can you see the people in this photo? They are below the last part of the trail, but where is the trail?

Here it is

The last one half of a mile is up this trail and has a 500 foot elevation gain.

The view from the top makes all the work worthwhile, and seeing the condors was a huge added bonus.