AP Biology: Chapter 16 - 19
Genetics
Before you come to class:
- Read the textbook pages that have been assigned on your calendar
- Complete the chapter reading guide questions that correspond to those pages
- Be prepared to take a quiz at the beginning of class. You may use your homework on the quizzes.
Chapter 16: The Molecular Basis of Inheritance
1. After Morgan and fellow scientists developed the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance, the
search was on for the chemical mechanism of inheritance. What are the two components of the
chromosome? ______________________________________________________________________
2. From initial logic, which component would be the most likely candidate for the genetic
material and why? _____________________________________________________________________
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3. What did Griffith, Avery, and others accomplish with bacteria? ____________________________
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4. Define transformation. _______________________________________________________________
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5. What did the experiments done by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase show?
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6. What are Chargaff’s rules? ____________________________________________________________
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7. If a species has 35% adenine in its DNA, determine the percent of the other three bases.
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8. What was the role of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin in determining the structure of
DNA? ________________________________________________________________________________
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9. Use the diagram to describe the
structure of DNA. Include several
comments.
10. What is the advantage of the double stranded aspect of the DNA? ________________________
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11. Which model of DNA replication is accepted? __________________________________________
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12. What happens at the DNA replication fork? ____________________________________________
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13. Make a list of the enzymes involved in replication and their role.
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14. Why does the DNA have to add nucleotides in the 5’ to 3’ direction?
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15. Label the diagram of DNA replication. Include the directions and the terms.
16. Describe the “priming of the DNA” before replication. __________________________________
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17. List some of the steps involved in DNA repair. _________________________________________
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18. What is the problem that occurs at the ends of the chromosome during replication?
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19. What is a telomere and its role in cell division. __________________________________________
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20. Why was there no selection pressure for prokaryotes to evolve a telomere-like solution on
their chromosome? ____________________________________________________________________
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21. Why is telomerase an active area in cancer research? ____________________________________
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CHAPTER 17: FROM GENE TO PROTEIN
1. How did diseases involving metabolic pathways lead to hypotheses about the nature of genes?
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2. Identify some genetic diseases that occur along metabolic pathways.
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3. What was Beadle and Tatum’s hypothesis regarding enzymes?
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4. How has that hypothesis been modified? _______________________________________________
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5. What occurs during transcription? _____________________________________________________
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6. What occurs during translation? _______________________________________________________
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7. How does the protein process differ in prokaryotes and eukaryotes?
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8. Briefly explain how Marshall Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei “cracked the genetic code?”
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9. What is the genetic code and why is said to be universal?
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10. List several features about the genetic code.
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11. Give an example of what happens if reading frames are altered?
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12. List the highlights of the three stages of transcription.
a. Initiation ___________________________________________________________________________
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b. Elongation __________________________________________________________________________
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c. Termination _________________________________________________________________________
13. What happens to the transcript RNA before it leaves the nucleus?
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14. What is the advantage of the 5’ cap and poly A tail?
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15. Distinguish between exons and introns. _______________________________________________
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16. Describe the mechanism for splicing RNA. _____________________________________________
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17. What does alternative RNA processing do for cells?
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18. Identify the roles of the players of the translation process.
a. Transfer RNA _______________________________________________________________________
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b. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase __________________________________________________________
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c. Ribosomes __________________________________________________________________________
19. Identify and briefly describe the steps of translation. Initiation Elongation Termination
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20. What is the advantage of polyribosomes? ______________________________________________
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21. Give an example of how a polypeptide gets into the ER for additional processing.
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22. How does protein synthesis differ between prokaryotes and eukaryotes?
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23. Define point mutations. _____________________________________________________________
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24. Define mutations that are:
a. Missense ___________________________________________________________________________
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b. Nonsense ___________________________________________________________________________
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c. Insertion or deletion _________________________________________________________________
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25. Use the diagram to trace the flow of chemical information from the gene to the protein
product.
CHAPTER 18: MICROBIAL MODELS
1. What makes microbes good models to study molecular mechanisms?
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2. List several characteristics of viruses. ___________________________________________________
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3. What are the two basic components of viruses? __________________________________________
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4. Use the diagram to help explain typical viral reproduction.
5. Identify the cycle used by the virulent
phage.___________________________________________________
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6. Compare the lytic and lysogenic cycles.
7. What is the role of the viral envelope?
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8. Outline the steps in the life cycle of the envelope viruses.
9. Review the life cycle of the HIV virus.
10. What is reverse transcriptase and why is it important in biotechnology?
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11. What is a vaccine? __________________________________________________________________
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12. Where do emerging viruses come from? _______________________________________________
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13. What is a viroid? Give some examples _________________________________________________
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14. What is a prion and what do they do to the cells? _______________________________________
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15. List and describe the three basic shapes of bacteria used for classification.
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16. Most bacteria are not pathogenic. Identify several important roles they play in the ecosystem
and human culture. ____________________________________________________________________
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17. How do variations arise in bacteria considering they reproduce mostly by asexual means?
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18. Define bacterial transformation. ______________________________________________________
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19. How does transduction differ from transformation?
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20. What is a plasmid and identify its role in bacterial conjugation?
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21. What is the major method utilized by bacteria to pass along resistance to antibiotics?
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22. What is a transposon? _______________________________________________________________
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23. Describe potential problems caused by transposons.
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24. E. coli use a regulatory system called an operon. Identify the components with their
functions of the operon. ________________________________________________________________
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25. Use the diagram of the Tryp operon to outline how it regulated tryptophan levels.
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26. Describe how the trp operon is a repressible operon.
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27. Use the diagram of the lac operon to outline how it regulates glucose levels.
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28. Does the diagram above represent the condition for the absence or presence of lactose?
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29. Describe what happens when lactose is absent. _________________________________________
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30. How is the lac operon an inducible system?
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31. Summarize how the presence and absence of glucose influences the lac operon.
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CHAPTER 19: CONTROL OF EUKARYOTIC GENOME
1. Outline the levels of DNA packing within the eukaryote nucleus.
2. What is the difference between heterochromatin and euchromatin? Which is transcribed?
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3. Which regions of the chromosome will typically be in the form of hererochromatin?
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4. How do the coding regions and genome sizes of prokaryotes and eukaryotes compare?
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5. Much of mammalian non-coding DNA is in the form of __________________________________
6. What is the cause of Fragile X? ________________________________________________________
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7. What is the cause of Huntington’s disease? ______________________________________________
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8. Discuss an example of interspersed repetitive DNA? _____________________________________
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9. What is a multigene family? ___________________________________________________________
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10. Multigene families are hypothesized to have evolved from... _____________________________
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11. How is the globulin multigene family an adaptive to mammals?
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12. Explain how gene amplification can regulate gene expression.
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13. How can transposons alter gene expression? ___________________________________________
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14. How do immunoglobulin genes code for a seemingly infinite variety of antibodies?
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16. Where is the most important step in gene regulation?
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17. Describe the effect of each of the following control mechanisms.
a. DNA methylation ___________________________________________________________________
b. Histone acetylation __________________________________________________________________
c. Transcription factors _________________________________________________________________
d. Control elements ____________________________________________________________________
e. Enhancers __________________________________________________________________________
f. Activators ___________________________________________________________________________
g. DNA-binding domain ________________________________________________________________
18. How does alternative RNA splicing affect gene expression?
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19. How does RNA degradation affect gene expression?
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20. How does protein processing and degradation affect gene expression?
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21. Identify the opportunities to regulate gene
expression in eukaryotes.
22. Typically, what happens to cell function when cells become cancerous?
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23. What is a proto-oncogene? What happens to them when cancer occurs?
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24. List the three events that can turn proto-oncogenes into oncogenes.
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25. Identify and describe mutations in specific proteins that can lead to cancer.
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26. What is p53? _______________________________________________________________________
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27. Why is it said that cancer formation is a multi-step process?
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