Review Questions - Lecture 1: Intro to Biology
Questions:
1. What is life?
2. What are some of the major themes in biology?
3. List the levels of organization (biological hierarchy) in order from atoms to the biosphere.
4. What is evolution?
5. Your friend has trouble understanding the process of evolution by natural selection. Come
up with an example, using whatever organism you wish, to explain the 4 steps of the process
to them. (e.g., Fig. 1.20 in your text).
6. What are the differences between discovery science and hypothesis driven science?
7. What is the difference between a hypothesis and a scientific theory?
8. What is the importance of skepticism, peer review and reproducibility to the scientific
method?
9. You have a hummingbird feeder in your backyard. Over the years you have noticed that
during the spring and summer it gets visited by both Rufous hummingbirds and Anna’s
hummingbirds, but during the fall and winter, only Anna’s hummingbirds visit the feeder.
You wonder why this might occur. What are the steps you would go through if you were to
approach this question using the scientific method?
Review Questions - Lecture 2, Parts 1 & 2: A Tour of the Cell
10. What is cell theory?
11. Explain the benefit to a cell of having greater surface area to volume ratio.
12. What are the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells?
13. What are some groups of organisms that are prokaryotes? eukaryotes?
14. Why are plasma membranes important?
15. Describe the hypothesis that explains how the endomembrane system was formed. Does this
seem reasonable? What are some things that may support this idea.
16. Draw a picture of an animal cell and label all the major components.
17. Draw a picture of a plant cell and label all the major components.
18. Define the terms cytoplasm and cytosol
19. What are the functions of the nucleus?
20. What does the nucleolus do?
21. What does the nuclear lamina do?
22. What is the function of ribosomes?
23. What molecules do ribosomes need to interact with in order to accomplish their function?
24. How are bound ribosomes and free ribosomes different in structure? In function?
25. What is the endomembrane system and why is it important to the functioning of the cell?
26. What organelles make up the endomembrane system? Describe the structure and function of
each.
27. How are rough ER & Smooth ER different in structure? In function?
28. What does the Cisternal Maturation Model attempt to explain?
29. How do cells get rid of damaged organelles?
30. Describe the central vacuole of plants. What are its functions?
31. What is the function of mitochondria?
32. Do plants have mitochondria? Why or why not?
33. What are the three types of plastids and what are their functions?
34. What is the function of peroxisomes? Where are they made?
35. What are some functions of the cytoskeleton?
36. Make a table comparing the three types of fibers that make up the cytoskeleton. Be sure to
include function as well as structure.
37. What are some differences between cilia and flagella?
38. What are the functions of cilia and flagella?
39. Draw a picture showing the extracellular matrix of an animal cell. Label all of the
components.
40. What are the three types of intercellular junctions in animal cells?
41. What is the one type of intercellular junction in plant cells?
42. What are the functions of cell walls and what organisms are they found in?
43. What are the cell walls of plants made of?
44. What is the difference between monomers, polymers and macromolecules?
45. What are the functions of carbohydrates?
46. How are polymers synthesized? broken down?
47. What is cellulose made of?
48. How is cellulose different from starch?
Review Questions - Lecture 3: Membrane Structure & Function
49. What are the functions of the plasma membrane?
50. What is the basic structure of a plasma membrane?
51. What are the functions of proteins?
52. Describe the four levels of protein structure.
53. What is denaturation?
54. What are some functions of lipids?
55. Draw a picture showing the structure of a phospholipid.
56. Draw a picture showing the structure of a phospholipid bilayer.
57. How is the fact that lipids can self-assemble (organize themselves in a certain orientation)
important to the understanding of how the first cell may have been formed?
58. What is the fluid mosaic model?
59. Explain why membranes are considered “dynamic”.
60. Explain the relationship between temperature and membrane fluidity.
61. What are some major functions of membrane proteins?
62. What is the difference between an integral protein and a peripheral protein?
63. What is a glycoprotein? glycolipid? What is their function?
64. Are the inside and outside faces of membranes the same?
65. Explain “path” and “driving force” in terms of membrane transport.
66. What is the permeability of a lipid bilayer to water? to gases? ions?
67. Explain the differences between concentration gradient, electrochemical gradient and
pressure gradient.
68. What is diffusion?
69. Describe passive transport in terms of a “path” and “driving force” .
70. What is osmosis?
71. Draw a diagram showing what happens to an animal cell placed in a hypertonic solution, an
isotonic solution and a hypotonic solution. Do the same for a plant cell. Diagram what
happens clearly.
72. What is turgor pressure?
73. Described facilitated diffusion in terms of a “path” and “driving force”
74. What are aquaporins?
75. What is the difference between a channel protein and a carrier protein?
76. Describe active transport in terms of a “path” and “driving force” .
77. What does the sodium-potassium pump do?
78. What is a membrane potential
79. Be able to explain which direction an ion would move based on its electrochemical gradient.
80. What does a proton pump do and what organisms is it found in?
81. Describe coupled transport in terms of a “path” and “driving force” .
82. What is exocytosis?
83. Explain the differences between the three types of endocyctosis.