Biol 131
Question bank
Cell Structure
You are expected to bring completed study questions to the evening study session. Answer
these study questions by referencing the relevant sections of the textbook. The written
explanations are the most important part of your answers and key to learning of concepts.
1. Assume that the cube to the right has edges 4 inches long.
A. The surface area of each side of the cube is _____ in2,
and the total surface area of this cube is _____ in2.
The volume of this cube is _____ in3.
The surface/volume ratio of this cube is _____ .
B. If this cube was cut up into 64 one inch square cubes, what would be the
Surface/volume ratio of each cube? _____
Show calculations:
C. Which would have the larger surface/volume ratio:
small bacterial cell or larger eukaryotic cell (circle)
2. For your biology capstone research project you have decided to study the properties of epithelial
cells that line the trachea of mice. You find that these cells can be grown in cell culture and
retain many of their in vivo properties. Since learning how to use different types of microscopy
is an important part of your project, you must decide which technique would be most appropriate
to make different types of observations. Which type of microscopy would you recommend in
order to:
A. create time-lapse video of the cells moving and dividing.
___________________
B. count the number of cilia on the cell surface.
___________________
C. show where the protein myosin occurs in the cell.
___________________
D. monitor general appearance of the cells
in the culture plate: ___________________
Choices
Bright field
Fluorescence
DIC
Scanning electron
microscopy
Transmission electron
microscopy
E. examine the arrangement of ER in the cell:
___________________
Biol 131
Question Bank
Cell Structure
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3. Answer the following questions to best understand the relative sizes of different objects.
A. Review the basic structures of the following six items, and pair them together as follows:
a. Human body cell
d. Ribosome
b. Mitochondrion
e. Protozoan
c. Virus
f. Bacteria
1. ___ and ___ are similar in size and smallest
2. ___ and ___ are similar in size and next largest
3. ___ and ___ are similar in size and largest
B. In the scale bar below,
cm (10-2 M) = centimeter
mm (10-3 M) = ___________________
μm (10-6 M) = _________________
nm (10-9 M) = ____________________
C. Place each pair of items on the scale bar below (using corresponding numbers).
4. You have grown a culture of human cells and discover that it is heavily contaminated with
bacteria. Which of the following procedures will most likely eliminate the bacteria without
killing the human cells?
A. Treating the culture with a drug that causes microtubules to fall apart.
B. Diluting a small portion of the contaminated culture with 1000 times as much fresh
nutrient broth and regrowing the cells.
C. Treating the culture with a drug that damages DNA.
D. Treating the culture with a drug that dissolves cell walls.
E. Treating the culture with a detergent that destroys cell membranes.
Explain your selection:
Biol 131
Question Bank
Cell Structure
Page 2
5. Eukaryotic cells have an extensive and complex cytoskeleton, yet prokaryotic organisms lack a
cytoskeleton. Identify 2 functions of eukaryotic cells that are dependent upon the cytoskeleton,
and explain why each function are not important to prokaryotes.
Why not important in prokaryotes
1. ________________________ :
2. ________________________ :
6. When cells (or entire organisms) are heated, proteins called ‘Heat Shock Proteins’ (HSP) are
produced. There are many different types, and they are usually referred to as HSP70, HSP60,
HSP25, etc., where the number represents the molecular weight of the protein in Kd
(Kilodaltons). These proteins are now known to be ‘chaperone’ proteins.
A. What does heating do to the structure of a protein? ________________________
B. What are the functions of chaperone proteins? _________________________
C. How would you explain the dramatic increase in HSP synthesis under heated conditions?
D. What is a ‘dalton’? ________________________________
- How many daltons are in a 75Kd protein? _______________
- If the average molecular weight of an amino acid is 135d, approximately how many
AAs would be expected in HSP70? _____________
Show calculation:
7. Circle the appropriate cell type in which the listed structure or molecule can be found. Note that
the structure or molecule can be found in more than one type of cell type or virus.
Structure or Molecule
A.
nucleic acids
Is found in this Cell Type or Virus?
___Eukaryotes___
Prokaryote noncellular
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
B.
nucleus
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
C.
cell membrane
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
D.
chloroplast
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
E.
cell wall
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
F.
lysosome
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
G.
mitochondrion
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
H.
protein coat
animal
plant
bacterial
virus
Biol 131
Question Bank
Cell Structure
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8. Your friend has just returned from a deep sea mission and claims to have found a new singlecelled life form. He believes this new life form may not have descended from the common
ancestor that all types of life on Earth share. However, he’s never taken Cell Biology, so he asks
you determine whether his claim is true. In order to verify or dispute your friend’s claim, you
realize that you must first make a list of characteristics common to all prokaryotes and
eukaryotes, so that you can check whether this new life form is different in some fundamental
characteristic from all other types of life on Earth. So you generate a list of traits shared by all
prokaryotes and eukaryotes. What would you place on that list?
Characteristics shared by prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
9. Examine the picture to the right and answer the
following questions.
A. What type of organelle is this?
______________________
B. Redraw the organelle in cross-section as a flat
2-D projection.
C. Label the inner, outer membranes
D. Review the process called endosymbiosis. Based upon this,
which membrane would you expect to be most similar in
structure to that of the endosymbiotic bacteria?
_____________________
Explain:
E. Would you expect the other membrane to be most similar in composition to:
a. the ER membrane
b. the cell membrane
c. the chloroplast membrane
Explain:
10. The drug called colchicine is highly toxic to eukaryotic cells because it causes disassembly of
microtubule filaments. What are three cellular processes that would be disrupted in cells treated
with colchicine?
1: ________________________
2: ________________________
3: ________________________
Biol 131
Question Bank
Cell Structure
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11. A. Identify the type of cytoskeletal filament diagrammed in each of the following images. (The
dark spot represents the cell nucleus.)
__________________
__________________
_________________
B. In the appropriate diagram above, label the centrosome. What is its function?
C. Explain why the distribution of each type of filament makes sense for the functions it serves.
Intermediate filaments:
Actin Filaments:
Microtubules:
12. The picture to the right shows a nucleus.
A. The dark region that the arrow points at is called the
_____________________ and it is the site of
_____________________ synthesis.
B. What macromolecule would be most abundant in the
light regions? ____________________
C. Is the nuclear membrane most similar to that of the ER or
chloroplasts? ____________________
Explain.
D. How do materials enter and exit the nucleus?
Biol 131
Question Bank
Cell Structure
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13. The diagram to the right shows a plant cell.
1. What are the structures labeled as:
Enlargement
‘A’ ______________________
‘B’ ______________________
‘C’ ______________________
2. ‘D’ points to the boundary between two
cells. Draw an enlarged diagram of this
region and label the cell walls,
membranes, cytoplasms and intercellular
space for the two adjacent cells.
14. Matching: Match each cellular component with its function/description.
_______ mitochondria
_______ lysosomes
_______ ribosome
_______ vesicle
_______ golgi
_______ nucleolus
_______ nucleus
_______ smooth ER
_______ chloroplast
Biol 131
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
synthesis of new polypeptide chains
used to store or transport substances in cell
sorting and packaging of proteins to various cell locations
degradation of inter and extra cellular materials
allows for exchange of materials between nucleus and cytoplasm
location where photosynthesis occurs, contains genetic material
double membrane compartment, contains most cellular DNA
area where ribosomes are constructed
manufactures fatty acids/membrane components
location where cellular respiration occurs
Question Bank
Cell Structure
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16. The diagram below shows the components of the endomembrane transport system. Complete the
diagram by:
A. Labeling the:
ER; smooth and rough
nucleus
endosome
golgi; cis and trans faces
lysosome
cell membrane
B. Adding arrows and vesicles that show the pathway of movement
of the transport cargo between the appropriate cellular
compartments. As shown to the right, label membrane transport
vesicles that are carrying:
-- ‘NP’ = vesicles containing new proteins moving to the golgi
-- ‘HE’ = vesicles containing hydrolase (hydrolytic) enzymes
-- ‘CE’ = vesicles containing materials from the cell exterior
to be broken down
-- ‘SE’ = materials to be secreted outside of the cell
Indicate direction of
vesicle movement
and content like this:
C. Assume that 3 different types of protein are processed through the endomembrane transport
system. Although each protein serves a different function, when they ultimately reach the
cell membrane, all three are glycoproteins and possess the same oligosaccharide.
Explain why 3 different mutations would be required to alter the primary structures of these
proteins, but only a single mutation to alter the oligosaccharides on all three?
Biol 131
Question Bank
Cell Structure
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