BIOL 10 - Second Study Guide
These questions are designed to help you study for your BIOL 10 exams. The questions on the exams will cover the same material as on these study questions - though the questions may be asked in a different way on the exams. You should be able to answer the following questions and know the vocabulary used, but you do not have to write-up and turn in answers to these questions.
What did Mendel do?
Distinguish among gene, allele, and locus.
Distinguish between homozygous and heterozygous and between genotype and phenotype.
Be able to determine offspring genotype and phenotype ratios with a Punnett Square.
What are the principles of segregation and independent assortment?
When are genes "linked"? How does this affect the principle of independent assortment?
Distinguish among dominance, codominance, incomplete dominance, and recessive.
When does a gene have multiple alleles?
Describe the inheritance of ABO blood groups.
Distinguish between autosomes and sex chromosomes.
What are sex-linked traits? How are they inherited?
What are sex-influenced traits?
What is polygenic inheritance? What are some traits that are inherited this way?
What are multifactorial traits? What are some examples?
Describe the structure of DNA, including the base-pairing rules.
How is information stored in the DNA molecule?
What is the "central dogma of molecular biology"?
What is the relationship between genes and proteins?
Outline the process of DNA replication.
Outline the process of RNA transcription.
How is the initial RNA strand processed in eukaryotic cells before it can be translated?
What are the different functions of messenger RNA, transfer RNA, and ribosomal RNA?
Outline the process of protein translation.
What are the properties of the genetic code?
What is a codon?
How does the genetic code vary among organisms?
What are mutations? Distinguish between point mutations and chromosomal mutations.
Distinguish among silent, missense, nonsense, and frameshift point mutations.
Distinguish among deletion, inversion, translocation and duplication chromosomal mutations.
What is cell differentiation?
What is differential gene expression?
What is recombinant DNA?
What are plasmids?
What are restriction enzymes?
Outline the steps for cloning a gene using bacteria.
What are restriction fragments? What is a DNA fingerprint?

What is junk DNA?
What are jumping genes?
What kinds of products have been made using recombinant DNA technology?
What kinds of genetically engineered plants are commonly grown in the US?
What controversies surround the growing of genetically engineered organisms?
What is a hybrid cross in genetics?
What is gel electrophoresis? What is it used for? How does it work?
Why may it be difficult to do DNA analysis on old DNA samples?
Describe the evidence that evolution has acted to produce the diversity of life on earth.
Outline Darwin's argument for natural selection.
Describe how natural selection works, giving examples.
Distinguish between directional, stabilizing, and diversifying selection.
What is sexual selection? How does it work? Give an example.
What is a population? What is a gene pool?
What is the importance of mutation to evolution?
What are the sources of genetic variation in populations?
What are allele (or gene) frequencies?
Describe the mechanisms of microevolution - i.e., natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, and mutation.
What are genetic bottlenecks and the founder effect?
What is the relationship of the environment to natural selection?
Why is sickle-cell disease common in some parts of Africa?
What is speciation?
How is a species defined, according to the biological species concept?
Distinguish between pre- and post-zygotic reproductive barriers.
Outline the process of allopatric speciation.
How can polyploidy lead to sympatric speciation?
Describe the taxonomic hierarchy used to classify organisms.
What is a phylogeny?
Distinguish among the three domains of living things.
What are the distinguishing features of Archaea? Where are they found? How do they obtain nutrition?
What are the distinguishing features of Bacteria? Where are they found? How do they obtain nutrition?
What are the ecological impacts of bacteria?
What are some human uses of bacteria?
Distinguish among the four kingdoms of eukaryotic organisms.
Distinguish between algae, protozoa, and fungus-like protists. What are some examples of each group? How does each group obtain its nutrition? Where are they found? What is the ecological importance of each group?
What are the distinguishing features of Fungi? How do they obtain nutrition?
Distinguish among mycelium, hyphae, sporangium, and yeast.
What is a mutualism? What are lichens? What are mycorrhizae?