Review guidelines for discussion test in WFB 224
Examples of types of questions are given in italics
Basic terminology – review terms in genetics (Hardy-Weinberg, Mendel, molecular genetics); you
should not only be able to define the terms, but understand the concepts behind them
Define F1, homozygote, allele, reciprocal cross, dominance
A syndrome in humans is manifest by follicle death, so that no hair grows anywhere on the
body. This is an epistatic/pleiotropic/dominant/mutant trait (choose one)
Basic processes – Mendelian inheritance, DNA replication, transcription, translation
In which generation is it possible to determine that a trait is dominant?
How many codons are there in the genetic code? How many amino acids?
What is meant by ‘redundancy’ in the genetic code?
What is the function of tRNA?
What is meant by ‘base pair’?
Gene expression – be familiar with the various ways in which phenotypes can be derived from
genotype, from simple dominance:recessive relationships of alleles to multi-gene interactions
What is the difference between co-dominance and incomplete dominance?
Mutation – how is DNA altered, what the effect will be depending on the type of DNA affected
(coding, non-coding, regulatory) and how many base pairs are involved, how the characteristics of
DNA and its ‘machinery’ tend to reduce the impact of mutation
Give an example of a mutation that has no effect on the phenotype
Give an example of a mutation that has a profound effect on the phenotype
Does having skin cancer indicate that your offspring will have mutated DNA? Why or why not?
Variation – where it is present (within individuals, within and among populations), how it is
measured/quantified (# alleles, average polymorphism, average heterozygosity), how it is gained and
lost at each level (drift, inbreeding, outbreeding, migration, sexual reproduction, founder effect,
bottlenecks), what are the sources of variation at each level
Define/give the equation for Ho
Which of the Hardy-Weinberg principles is violated in population undergoing drift?
What factors tend to reduce genetic variation in populations?
Spreadsheets – be familiar with the Excel functions we have been using, and what they do.
What is the function of the F9 key (in Windows) or Cmd+ (on a Mac)?
What does =COUNTIF(A1:A10, 9) do?
Equations – know the equations for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (and the assumptions behind H-W),
Ne (sex ratio), calculating the effect of inbreeding on genotype frequencies. You will not be asked to
do any computer work or calculations on the test
Fill in the missing pieces (X and Y): X = p2 + 2pq + q2 + r2 + Y + 2qr
If F = 1, what will be the change in number or proportion of heterozygotes in one generation?
Guest lectures – review general content and application to conservation biology