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Chapter 23 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 23    Evolution of Populations
Objectives
Population Genetics
1. Explain the statement “It is the population, not the individual, that evolves.”
2. Explain how Mendel’s particulate hypothesis of inheritance provided much-needed support for Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
3. Distinguish between discrete and quantitative traits. Explain how Mendel’s laws of inheritance apply to quantitative traits.
4. Explain what is meant by “the modern synthesis.”
5. Define the terms population, species, and gene pool.
6. Explain why meiosis and random fertilization alone will not alter the frequency of alleles or genotypes in a population.
7. List the five conditions that must be met for a population to remain in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
8. Write the Hardy-Weinberg equation. Use the equation to calculate allele frequencies when the frequency of homozygous recessive individuals in a population is 25%.
Mutation and Sexual Recombination
9. Explain why the majority of point mutations are harmless.
10. Explain why mutation has little quantitative effect on allele frequencies in a large population.
11. Describe the significance of transposons in the generation of genetic variability.
12. Explain how sexual recombination generates genetic variability.
Natural Selection, Genetic Drift, and Gene Flow
13. Explain the following statement: “Only natural selection leads to the adaptation of organisms to their environment.”
14. Explain the role of population size in genetic drift.
15. Distinguish between the bottleneck effect and the founder effect.
16. Describe how gene flow can act to reduce genetic differences between adjacent populations.
Genetic Variation, the Substrate for Natural Selection
17. Explain how quantitative and discrete characters contribute to variation within a population.
18. Distinguish between average heterozygosity and nucleotide variability. Explain why average heterozygosity tends to be greater than nucleotide variability.
19. Define a cline.
20. Define relative fitness.
a. Explain why relative fitness is zero for a healthy, long-lived, sterile organism.
b. Explain why relative fitness could be high for a short-lived organism.
21. Distinguish among directional, disruptive, and stabilizing selection. Give an example of each mode of selection.
22. Explain how diploidy can protect a rare recessive allele from elimination by natural selection.
23. Describe how heterozygote advantage and frequency-dependent selection promote balanced polymorphism.
24. Define neutral variations. Explain why natural selection does not act on these alleles.
25. Distinguish between intrasexual selection and intersexual selection.
26. Explain how female preferences for showy male traits may benefit the female.
27. Describe the disadvantages of sexual reproduction.
28. Explain how the genetic variation promoted by sex may be advantageous to individuals on a generational time scale.
29. List four reasons why natural selection cannot produce perfect organisms.

 
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Chapter 36 AP Objectives

Chapter 36     Transport in Plants
Objectives
An Overview of Transport Mechanisms in Plants
1. Describe how proton pumps function in transport of materials across plant membranes, using the terms proton gradient, membrane potential, cotransport, and chemiosmosis.
2. Define osmosis and water potential. Explain how water potential is measured.
3. Explain how solutes and pressure affect water potential.
4. Explain how the physical properties of plant cells are changed when the plant is placed into solutions that have higher, lower, or the same solute concentration.
5. Define the terms flaccid, plasmolyze, turgor pressure, and turgid.
6. Explain how aquaporins affect the rate of water transport across membranes.
7. Name the three major compartments in vacuolated plant cells.
8. Distinguish between the symplast and the apoplast.
9. Describe three routes available for lateral transport in plants.
10. Define bulk flow and describe the forces that generate pressure in the vascular tissue of plants.
11. Relate the structure of sieve-tube cells, vessel cells, and tracheids to their functions in bulk flow.
Absorption of Water and Minerals by Roots
12. Explain what routes are available to water and minerals moving into the vascular cylinder of the root.
13. Explain how mycorrhizae enhance uptake of materials by roots.
14. Explain how the endodermis functions as a selective barrier between the root cortex and vascular cylinder.
Transport of Xylem Sap
15. Describe the potential and limits of root pressure to move xylem sap.
16. Define the terms transpiration and guttation.
17. Explain how transpirational pull moves xylem sap up from the root tips to the leaves.
18. Explain how cavitation prevents the transport of water through xylem vessels.
19. Explain this statement: “The ascent of xylem sap is ultimately solar powered.”
The Control of Transpiration
20. Explain the importance and costs of the extensive inner surface area of a leaf.
21. Discuss the factors that may alter the stomatal density of a leaf.
22. Describe the role of guard cells in photosynthesis-transpiration.
23. Explain how and when stomata open and close. Describe the cues that trigger stomatal opening at dawn.
24. Explain how xerophytes reduce transpiration.
25. Describe crassulacean acid metabolism and explain why it is an important adaptation to reduce transpiration in arid environments.
Translocation of Phloem Sap
26. Define and describe the process of translocation. Trace the path of phloem sap from a primary sugar source to a sugar sink.
27. Describe the process of sugar loading and unloading.
28. Define pressure flow. Explain the significance of this process in angiosperms.
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Chapter 24 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 24    Origin of Species
Objectives
What Is a Species?
1. Distinguish between anagenesis and cladogenesis.
2. Define Ernst Mayr’s biological species concept.
3. Distinguish between prezygotic and postzygotic isolating mechanisms.
4. Describe five prezygotic isolating mechanisms and give an example of each.
5. Explain a possible cause for reduced hybrid viability.
6. Explain how hybrid breakdown maintains separate species even if fertilization occurs.
7. Describe some limitations of the biological species concept.
8. Define and distinguish among the following: ecological species concept, paleontological species concept, phylogenetic species concept, and morphological species concept.
Modes of Speciation
9. Distinguish between allopatric and sympatric speciation.
10. Explain the allopatric speciation model and describe the mechanisms that may lead to divergence of isolated gene pools.
11. Describe examples of adaptive radiation in the Galápagos and Hawaiian archipelagoes.
12. Explain how reproductive barriers evolve. Describe an example of the evolution of a prezygotic barrier and the evolution of a postzygotic barrier.
13. Define sympatric speciation and explain how polyploidy can cause reproductive isolation.
14. Distinguish between an autopolyploid and an allopolyploid species and describe examples of each.
15. Describe how cichlid fishes may have speciated in sympatry in Lake Victoria.
Adaptive Radiation
16. Define adaptive radiation and describe the circumstances under which adaptive radiation may occur.
17. Describe the two gene loci implicated in speciation in Mimulus.
From Speciation to Macroevolution
18. Explain in general terms how a complex structure can evolve by natural selection.
19. Define exaptation and illustrate this concept with an example.
20. Explain how slight genetic divergences may lead to major morphological differences between species.
21. Explain how the evolution of changes in temporal and spatial developmental dynamics can result in evolutionary novelties.
22. Define evo-devo, heterochrony, allometric growth, and paedomorphosis.
23. Explain why extracting a single evolutionary progression from a fossil record can be misleading.
24. Define and illustrate the concept of species selection.
25. Explain why evolutionary change is not goal-directed.
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Chapter 37 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 37     Nutrition in Plants
Objectives
Nutritional Requirements of Plants
1. Describe the ecological role of plants in transforming inorganic molecules into organic compounds.
2. Define the term essential nutrient.
3. Explain how hydroponic culture is used to determine which minerals are essential nutrients.
4. Distinguish between macronutrient and micronutrient.
5. Name the nine macronutrients required by plants.
6. List the eight micronutrients required by plants and explain why plants need only minute quantities of these elements.
7. Explain how a nutrient’s role and mobility determine the symptoms of a mineral deficiency.
The Role of Soil in Plant Nutrition
8. Define soil texture and soil composition.
9. Explain how soil is formed.
10. Name the components of topsoil.
11. Describe the composition of loams and explain why they are the most fertile soils.
12. Explain how humus contributes to the texture and composition of soils.
13. Explain why plants cannot extract all of the water in soil.
14. Explain how the presence of clay in soil helps prevent the leaching of mineral cations.
15. Define cation exchange, explain why it is necessary for plant nutrition, and describe how plants can stimulate the process.
16. Explain why soil management is necessary in agricultural systems but not in natural ecosystems such as forests and grasslands. Describe an example of human mismanagement of soil.
17. List the three mineral elements that are most commonly deficient in agricultural soils.
18. Explain how soil pH determines the effectiveness of fertilizers and a plant’s ability to absorb specific mineral nutrients.
19. Describe problems resulting from farm irrigation in arid regions.
20. Describe actions that can reduce loss of topsoil due to erosion.
21. Explain how phytoremediation can help detoxify polluted soil.
The Special Case of Nitrogen as a Plant Nutrient
22. Define nitrogen fixation and write an overall equation representing the conversion of gaseous nitrogen to ammonia.
23. Explain the importance of nitrogen-fixing bacteria to life on Earth.
24. Summarize the ecological role of each of the following groups of bacteria.
a. ammonifying bacteria
b. denitrifying bacteria
c. nitrogen-fixing bacteria
d. nitrifying bacteria
25. Explain why improving the protein yield of crops is a major goal of agricultural research.
Nutritional Adaptations: Symbiosis of Plants and Soil Microbes
26. Describe the development of a root nodule in a legume.
27. Explain how a legume protects its nitrogen-fixing bacteria from free oxygen, and explain why this protection is necessary.
28. Describe the basis for crop rotation.
29. Explain why a symbiosis between a legume and its nitrogen-fixing bacteria is considered to be mutualistic.
30. Explain why a symbiosis between a plant and a mycorrhizal fungus is considered to be mutualistic.
31. Distinguish between ectomycorrhizae and endomycorrhizae.
Nutritional Adaptations: Parasitism and Predation by Plants
32. Name one modification for nutrition in each of the following groups of plants:
a. epiphytes
b. parasitic plants
c. carnivorous plants
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Chapter 25 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 25    Tracing Phylogeny
Objectives
Phylogenies are Based on Common Ancestries
1. Distinguish between phylogeny and systematics.
2. Describe the process of sedimentation and the formation of fossils. Explain which portions of organisms are most likely to fossilize.
3. Explain why it is crucial to distinguish between homology and analogy before selecting characters to use in the reconstruction of phylogeny.
4. Explain why bird and bat wings are homologous as vertebrate forelimbs but analogous as wings.
5. Define molecular systematics. Explain some of the problems that systematists may face in carrying out molecular comparisons of nucleic acids.
Phylogenetic Systematics: Connecting Classification
with Evolutionary History
6. Explain the following characteristics of the Linnaean system of classification:
a. binomial nomenclature
b. hierarchical classification
7. List the major taxonomic categories from most to least inclusive.
8. Define a clade. Distinguish between a monophyletic clade and paraphyletic and polyphyletic groupings of species.
9. Distinguish between shared primitive characters and shared derived characters.
10. Explain how shared derived characters can be used to construct a phylogenetic diagram.
11. Explain how outgroup comparison can be used to distinguish between shared primitive characters and shared derived characters.
12. Define an ingroup.
13. Distinguish between a phylogram and an ultrameric tree.
14. Discuss how systematists use the principles of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood in reconstructing phylogenies.
15. Explain why any phylogenetic diagram represents a hypothesis about evolutionary relationships among organisms.
16. Distinguish between orthologous and paralogous genes. Explain how gene duplication has led to families of paralogous genes.
17. Explain how molecular clocks are used to determine the approximate time of key evolutionary events. Explain how molecular clocks are calibrated in actual time.
18. Describe some of the limitations of molecular clocks.
19. Explain the neutral theory of evolutionary change.
20. Explain how scientists determined the approximate time when HIV-1 M first infected humans.
21. Describe the evidence that suggests there is a universal tree of life.
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