Study Guide for Exam 3
BIO1200 – Summer I 2025
Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18
Study Guide – Chapter 13
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Understand why the expression of the genes needs to be regulated using
the examples discussed and presented on the chapter slides.
Why do cells with the same genome look so diverse in different tissues?
Understand the different levels of the regulation of gene expression. How
is the gene expression in prokaryotic organisms different from that of
eukaryotes?
What are operons? Understand the regulation of the lac operon, including
the catabolite repression.
Compare and contrast the lac and trp operons as discussed during the
lecture.
Understand the transcription initiation complex in eukaryotes, including the
TATA box, GTFs, and the Preinitiation complex formation.
How do the activators and repressors of higher eukaryotes differ from their
counterpart in prokaryotes?
Understand DNA packaging in terms of hetero- and euchromatin. What
roles do histone acetylation and DNA methylation play in DNA packaging?
What is alternative splicing, and what is its importance in gene expression
in higher organisms?
What are microRNAs, and their importance in gene regulation
Understand the translation regulation of gene expression using the
example of iron toxicity discussed in mammals.
Using a few examples, understand the post-translational regulation of
gene expression.
Study Guide – Chapter 14
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What is a mutation? Understand various types of point mutation, including
silent, missense, nonsense, and frame-shift mutations.
What is sickle-cell anemia, and what is the molecular basis of this
disease?
Understand how mutations in positions other than the coding region can
affect gene expression.
What is the difference between the somatic and germ-line mutation?
Know the common causes of gene mutations presented on the slide and
discussed during the lecture.
Know how nucleotide base analogs cause mutations using the examples
discussed during the lecture.
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How does UV cause mutations? How does our defense repair the
mutations caused by UV and the disease caused by the deficiency in the
repair mechanism?
What is cancer?
What are the Proto-oncogene and Tumor-suppressor genes?
Know the various types of mutations and chromosomal abnormalities that
are associated with cancer, including gene amplification, missense
mutation, chromosomal translocation (Philadelphia syndrome)
What are the various checkpoints during cell division?
What is the role of cyclins and cyclin-depend protein kinases during cell
division?
What is the p53 gene and its association with cancer in humans?
What is the “Two-hit” model of retinoblastoma?
Study Guide – Chapter 15
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Understand what chromatin is and the compaction of DNA in the nucleus
involving the role of histones.
What are nucleosome, 30-nm fiber structure, and chromatin structure?
Understand the fundamental difference between mitosis and meiosis,
including which cells undergo these processes. You should know the
chronological order of the various stages of mitosis and meiosis, as
discussed during the lecture.
What is cytogenetics? What is karyotype, and what is the advantage of
this procedure?
In relation to meiosis, you should understand why the offspring in humans
are more genetically diverse than their parents.
You should know the terms Trisomic and Monosomic, which refer to the
numbers of chromosomes produced due to the nondisjunction of
chromosomes during cell division.
Study Guide – Chapter 16
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Know why Mendel is regarded as the father of Genetics and why he chose
Garden Pea (Pisum Sativum) for his experiments.
Know and understand the terms monohybrid vs. dihybrid crosses, P, F1,
and F2 generations, homozygous vs. heterozygous genotype, dominant
vs. recessive trait, and phenotype vs. genotype.
What is test cross, and why is it performed?
Understand the phenotypic and genotypic ratio of Mendelian inheritance of
monohybrid and dihybrid crosses (Hint: 3:1 segregation in F2 in
monohybrid cross vs 9:3:3:1 in F2 generation in dihybrid crosses)
Understand Mendelian principles of segregation and alleles
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Understand the chromosomal theory of inheritance and the rules of
probability in genetics.
Understand pedigree analysis of Cystic Fibrosis (recessive trait) vs
Huntington’s disease (dominant trait).
Understand X-linked traits and why males are more affected by diseases
linked to X-chromosomes. Understand the inheritance of Hemophilia A.
Why Morgan chose Fruit Fly (Drosophila melanogaster) for his
experiments.
Understand why Morgan’s experiment produced only white-eyed males in
the F2 generation.
What is a pleiotropy or pleiotropic mutation? Understand the diseases
displaying pleiotropy.
What is polygenic or quantitative inheritance? Understand the concept of
the inheritance of skin color discussed during the lecture.
What is incomplete dominance? Know the examples discussed in the
class.
Understand multiple alleles using ABO blood types in humans.
Understand the nature vs nurture hypothesis and the role of the
environment in genetics.
Study Guide – Chapter 17
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Understand Epistasis using the examples presented on the slides.
What is recombination frequency? Understand how the map distance
between the genes is calculated based on recombination frequency.
What is the unit used to display map distance?
What are linked genes?
Understand the cytoplasmic inheritance of chloroplasts and mitochondria
using the examples presented on the slides.
What is epigenetic inheritance? Are they permanent? Why or why not?
What is X-inactivation? Why is it important? What are Barr bodies, and
how are they formed? Understand the fur color pattern of calico cats,
which involves X inactivation.
What is genomic imprinting? Understand the concept using paternal
inheritance of the Igf-2 gene in mice.
Study Guide – Chapter 18
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Know the basic structure of the bacterial DNA with the details presented
on the slides.
What are plasmids? How do bacterial cells reproduce?
Know the three modes of DNA transmission between bacterial cells
(Conjugation, Transformation, and Transduction).
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Understand conjugation with the fertility (F) factor mating type in E.coli
What is horizontal gene transfer?
Understand the basic structure of viruses.
What is the difference between the lysogenic and lytic cycles of viral
infection?
Understand the life cycle of HIV, which belongs to the retrovirus family of
viruses.
What cell does HIV infect?
What is reverse transcriptase and its role during HIV infection?
What are prions? How do they cause disease? Know the disease/s
caused by prions discussed in the class.