AP Biology
Exam Review Questions
1. Surface to Volume
 Simple cuboidal epithelial cells are associated with tissue that function
in glandular secretions. Comparing three different cells sizes; a) 10 μm/
side b) 20μm/ side and c) 30μm/ side, calculate the following:
 A. Make up a formula to represent surface area, and use it to calculate
surface area for all three cells.
 B. Make up a formula to represent volume, and use it to calculate
volume for all three cells.
 C. Determine surface area to volume ratio for all three cells.
 D. Which of the three cuboidal cells would be most efficient at
transporting nutrients into the cell through diffusion? Why?
 E. Which cell is more likely to go through mitosis? Why?
2. Peptides:
 Draw two basic amino acid structures in optimal position
to form a dipeptide.
Hardy Weinberg:
 In a population of certain bubble guppies in which the
allele for blue skin is dominant to the allele for turquoise
skin, an under water volcano leads to the selection
against turquoise skinned bubble guppies. When the
volcano stops erupting, 14 percent of the remaining
bubble guppies are turquoise. If the population is now
in Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium, what would the
frequency of the turquoise allele in bubble guppies of
the next generation be?
Tonicity:
In terms of tonicity, explain what would
happen to a freshwater fish that is
placed into a salt water environment.
Also, explain why hospitals use a 0.9%
salt solution to rehydrate patients
suffering, among other things,
dehydration. What would result if
straight water or a 2.0% salt solution
were used?
6. Describe the picture:
7. Immune System
Describe the process of a pathogen being consumed by the
innate immune response.
What types of cells do the consuming? Examples?
How is the pathogen recognized?
What happens to the pathogen once inside the cell?
8. Mechanisms of Evolution:
 Name and describe the three mechanisms of evolution
that affect allele frequency.
9. Types of Natural Selection:
Name the types of natural selection:
10. Genetics
 An organism AaBBCcDd is crossed with an
organism AaBbCcDD. Without working out
the entire cross, determined the expected
frequency of an offspring with the genotype
aaBbCcDd.
11. Biological Species
Concept
 What is the biological species concept?
 What are some of the barriers that could
impede members of different species from
interbreeding?
 What are some other species concepts?
12. Metabolic adaptations of
prokaryotes:
 Describe the difference between a
photoautotroph and chemoautotroph.
 Describe the difference between a
photoheterotroph and chemoheterotroph.
13. Feedback Systems
 What are positive and negative feedback
systems (loops)?
 Can you give an example of both?
#14: Lac operon
1. What are the components of an operon?
2. Is the operon model depicted utilizing lactose or is it
inactive?
3. Is the lac operon a repressor operon model or an inducible
operon model? Explain.
#15 Constructing a Cladogram:
#16 Chi Square
A scientist predicts that the kittens born with a congenital
birth defect will be 25% based on the hypothesis that it is
caused be a recessive gene in that breed of cat. After
surveying several litters, he found that 44 out of 125 kittens
had the defect. Is his hypothesis correct?
#17 Chi Square
. A poker-dealing machine is supposed to deal cards at
random, as if from an infinite deck.
 In a test, you counted 1600 cards, and observed the
following: Spades 404, Hearts 420, Diamonds 400, Clubs 376
 Could it be that the suits are equally likely? Or are these
discrepancies too much to be random?
#18 Hardy- Weinberg
 In 1848, the pepper moth population consisted of 98%
white and 2% black moths. By 1895, do to the onset of
the industrial revolution, the population had shifted to
95% black and 5% white moths. Calculate all genotypic
and allelic frequencies for the 1895 moth population.
 Homozygous white = ww
 Heterozygous Black = Ww
 Homozygous Black = WW
Answer to #5:
 A fresh water fish exists in a hypotonic environment where the solute
concentration of its tissue is greater than the environment, therefore, water
will naturally want to move into the tissue. The fish is designed to pump
excess fluids out
 If the same fish is place in salt water, the environment changes to hypertonic
where the solute concentration is greater than the fish’s tissue. Water will
naturally run out, combined with the fish’s design to pump water out will
result in crenation.
 Hospitals use a .9% salt solution as an intravenous fluids to maintain the
isotonic environment between RBC and blood fluids. If concentration is too
high, crenation would result, if concentration is too low, cell lysis would result.
Answer #6
 Transduction is a process where bacterial genetic
information is exchanged from a donor bacterium to a
recipient bacterium via a bacteriophage.
 Recombination occurs in the recipient bacterium resulting
in a change in the recipient’s genotype
Answer #7
 One part of the innate immune response is the secretion of phagocytic
cells such s macrophages (neutrophils, dendritic cells and eosinophils are
some other phagocytic cells)
 Phagocytic cells recognize and attach via surface receptor
(polysachharides) found on the microorganisms but not on normal body
cells.
 Once recognition and attachment occurs, then the pathogen is consumed
(engulfed) and fuses with a lysosome. The action of the lysosome will
ultimately destroy the pathogen and the cell will exocytose the contents
out of the cell.
Answer #8
 Genetic drift- unpredictable fluctuations of allele frequencies from one
generation to the next
 Bottleneck effect- sudden changes in the environment causing the loss
of an allele from a small population
 Founders effect- new population being established from the isolation of
a few individuals from a larger population
 Gene flow: gaining or losing of alleles resulting from the movement
of fertile individuals or gametes
 Natural Selection: individuals within a population exhibit variations in
their heritable traits, and those with variations that are better suited to
their environment tend to produce more offspring than those with
variations that are less suited.
Answer #9
 I. Directional
 II. Disruptive
 III. Stabilizing
 IV. Directional
Answer #11
 The biological species concept defines a species as a population or
group of populations whose members have the potential to interbreed
in nature and produce viable, fertile offspring with members of another
population.
 hinges on the potential to interbreed
 Prezygotic and post zygotic barriers
 Habitat, temporal, behavioral, mechanical and gametic isolation
 Reduced hybrid viability, reduced hybrid viability and hybrid
breakdown
 Morphological, paleontological, ecological, phylogenetic species
concepts
Answer #12:
 Photoautotrophs are photosynthetic organism- use light
energy to synthesize organic compounds
 Chemoautotrophs use inorganic substances such as H2S,
NH3, Fe3+ and CO2 to build organic compounds
 Photoheterotrophs use light energy but get carbon source
form organic compounds and not CO2
 Chemoheterotrophs consume organic compounds as
source of carbon and energy.
Answer #13
 Negative Feedback Systems: any deviation or variation
from a set point or normal limits is made smaller or
corrected.
 maintains a Homeostasis:
 Three components: receptors, control center, effectors
 Examples:
 Thermoregulation
 Hormone control
Answer #13 cont.
 Positive Feedback system: any deviation or variation from
a set point or normal limits is enhanced or made greater.
 non- homeostatic and not as common as negative feedback
 Moves away from homeostasis and can be fatal
 Examples:
 Contractions during birth
 Exercise and blood pressure
 Hormone secretion
 Decrease in blood pressure
Answer #14:
 Operon is composed of a 1)promoter (DNA sequence
recognized by RNA polymerase), 2) operator(controls RNA
polymerases access to genes) and 3) associated genes.
 The repressor protein is attached to the operon therefore
inactivating it. Lactose is not being utilized.
 Lac Operon model is the inducible model. Lactose acts as the
inducer which attaches to the repressor removing it from the
operon an allowing the transcription of the associated genes.
Answer #15
Answer #16
 Observed – 44
 Expected – 31.25
 O-E = 12.75
 (O-E)2 = 162.6
 (O-E)2/E = 5.202
 The critical value for P= .05 is 3.841, the null hypothesis
is rejected.
Answer #17
 Observed: Spades 404, Hearts 420, Clubs 376, Diamonds
400
 Expected: 400 each
 Spades = (O-E)2/E =.04
 Hearts = (O-E)2/E = 1
 Clubs = (O-E)2/E =1.44
 X2 = 2.48
 Critical value for 3 degrees of freedom is 7.815, null
hypothesis is accepted.
Answer #18
 q2 = .05 = ww
 q = .22 = w
 p = 1- q = 1- .22 = .78 = W
 p2 = .61 = WW
 2pq = 0.34 = Ww