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Chapter 17 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 17    From Gene to Protein
Objectives
The Connection Between Genes and Proteins
1. Explain why dwarf peas have shorter stems than tall varieties.
2. Explain the reasoning that led Archibald Garrod to first suggest that genes dictate phenotypes through enzymes.
3. Describe Beadle and Tatum’s experiments with Neurospora and explain the contribution they made to our understanding of how genes control metabolism.
4. Distinguish between the “one geneÐone enzyme” hypothesis and the “one geneÐone polypeptide” hypothesis and explain why the original hypothesis was changed.
5. Explain how RNA differs from DNA.
6. Briefly explain how information flows from gene to protein.
7. Distinguish between transcription and translation.
8. Compare where transcription and translation occur in prokaryotes and in eukaryotes.
9. Define codon and explain the relationship between the linear sequence of codons on mRNA and the linear sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide.
10. Explain the early techniques used to identify what amino acids are specified by the triplets UUU, AAA, GGG, and CCC.
11. Explain why polypeptides begin with methionine when they are synthesized.
12. Explain what it means to say that the genetic code is redundant and unambiguous.
13. Explain the significance of the reading frame during translation.
14. Explain the evolutionary significance of a nearly universal genetic code.
The Synthesis and Processing of RNA
15. Explain how RNA polymerase recognizes where transcription should begin. Describe the promoter, the terminator, and the transcription unit.
16. Explain the general process of transcription, including the three major steps of initiation, elongation, and termination.
17. Explain how RNA is modified after transcription in eukaryotic cells.
18. Define and explain the role of ribozyme.
19. Describe the functional and evolutionary significance of introns.
The Synthesis of Protein
20. Describe the structure and functions of tRNA.
21. Explain the significance of wobble.
22. Explain how tRNA is joined to the appropriate amino acid.
23. Describe the structure and functions of ribosomes.
24. Describe the process of translation (including initiation, elongation, and termination) and explain which enzymes, protein factors, and energy sources are needed for each stage.
25. Describe the significance of polyribosomes.
26. Explain what determines the primary structure of a protein and describe how a polypeptide must be modified before it becomes fully functional.
27. Describe what determines whether a ribosome will be free in the cytosol or attached to the rough endoplasmic reticulum.
28. Describe two properties of RNA that allow it to perform so many different functions.
29. Compare protein synthesis in prokaryotes and in eukaryotes.
30. Define point mutations. Distinguish between base-pair substitutions and base-pair insertions. Give examples of each and note the significance of such changes.
31. Describe several examples of mutagens and explain how they cause mutations.
32. Describe the historical evolution of the concept of a gene.

 
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Chapter 1 AP Objectives

 

 

CHAPTER 1          INTRODUCTION: THEMES IN THE STUDY OF LIFE
OBJECTIVES
Exploring Life on Its Many Levels

1.  Briefly describe the unifying themes that characterize the biological sciences.

2.  Diagram the hierarchy of structural levels in biological organization.

3.  Explain how the properties of life emerge from complex organization.

4.  Describe the two major dynamic processes of any ecosystem.

5.  Distinguish between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

6.  Describe the basic structure and function of DNA.

7.  Describe the dilemma of reductionism.

8.  Discuss the goals and activities of systems biology. List three research developments that have advanced systems biology.

9.  Explain the importance of regulatory mechanisms in living things. Distinguish between positive and negative feedback.

Evolution, Unity, and Diversity

10. Distinguish among the three domains of life. List and distinguish among the three kingdoms of multicellular, eukaryotic life.

11. Explain the phrase “life’s dual nature of unity and diversity.”

12. Describe the observations and inferences that led Charles Darwin to his theory of evolution by natural selection.

13. Explain why diagrams of evolutionary relationships have a treelike form.

The Process of Science

14. Distinguish between discovery science and hypothesis-based science. Explain why both types of exploration contribute to our understanding of nature.

15. Distinguish between quantitative and qualitative data.

16. Distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning.

17. Explain why hypotheses must be testable and falsifiable but are not provable.

18. Describe what is meant by a controlled experiment.

19. Distinguish between the everyday meaning of the term theory and its meaning to scientists.

20. Explain how science is influenced by social and cultural factors.

21. Distinguish between science and technology. Explain how science and technology are interdependent.

 
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Chapter 18 – AP Objectives

 

Chapter 18    Genetics of Viruses & Bacteria
Objectives
The Genetics of Viruses
1. Recount the history leading up to the discovery of viruses. Include the contributions of Adolf Mayer, Dimitri Ivanowsky, Martinus Beijerinck, and Wendell Stanley.
2. List and describe the structural components of viruses.
3. Explain why viruses are obligate intracellular parasites.
4. Explain how a virus identifies its host cell.
5. Describe bacterial defenses against phages.
6. Distinguish between the lytic and lysogenic reproductive cycles, using phage lambda as an example.
7. Describe the reproductive cycle of an enveloped virus. Explain the reproductive cycle of the herpesvirus.
8. Describe the reproductive cycle of retroviruses.
9. List some characteristics that viruses share with living organisms and explain why viruses do not fit our usual definition of life.
10. Describe the evidence that viruses probably evolved from fragments of cellular nucleic acids.
11. Define and describe mobile genetic elements.
12. Explain how viral infections in animals cause disease.
13. Describe the best current medical defenses against viruses. Explain how AZT helps to fight HIV infections.
14. Describe the mechanisms by which new viral diseases emerge.
15. Distinguish between the horizontal and vertical routes of viral transmission in plants.
16. Describe viroids and prions.
17. Explain how a non-replicating protein can act as a transmissible pathogen.
The Genetics of Bacteria
18. Describe the structure of a bacterial chromosome.
19. Compare the sources of genetic variation in bacteria and humans.
20. Compare the processes of transformation, transduction, and conjugation.
21. Distinguish between generalized and specialized transduction.
22. Define an episome. Explain why a plasmid can be an episome.
23. Explain how the F plasmid controls conjugation in bacteria.
24. Describe the significance of R plasmids. Explain how the widespread use of antibiotics contributes to R plasmid-related disease.
25. Explain how transposable elements may cause recombination of bacterial DNA.
26. Distinguish between an insertion sequence and a transposon.
27. Describe the role of transposase in the process of transposition.
28. Briefly describe two main strategies that cells use to control metabolism.
29. Explain the adaptive advantage of genes grouped into an operon.
30. Using the trp operon as an example, explain the concept of an operon and the function of the operator, repressor, and corepressor.
31. Distinguish between structural and regulatory genes.
32. Describe how the lac operon functions and explain the role of the inducer, allolactose.
33. Explain how repressible and inducible enzymes differ and how those differences reflect differences in the pathways they control.
34. Distinguish between positive and negative control and give examples of each from the lac operon.
35. Explain how cyclic AMP and catabolite activator protein are affected by glucose concentration.
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Chapter 26 Early Earth & the Origin of Life

 

Chapter 26    Early Earth & the Origin of Life
Objectives
The Origin of Life
1. Describe the four stages of the hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth by chemical evolution.
2. Describe the contributions that A. I. Oparin, J.B.S. Haldane, and Stanley Miller made toward developing a model for the abiotic synthesis of organic molecules. Describe the conditions and locations where most of these chemical reactions probably occurred on Earth.
3. Describe the evidence that suggests that RNA was the first genetic material. Explain the significance of the discovery of ribozymes.
4. Describe how natural selection may have worked in an early RNA world.
5. Describe how natural selection may have favored the proliferation of stable protobionts with self-replicating, catalytic RNA.
Introduction to the History of Life
6. Explain how the histories of Earth and life are inseparable.
7. Explain how index fossils can be used to determine the relative age of fossil-bearing rock strata. Explain how radiometric dating can be used to determine the absolute age of rock strata. Explain how magnetism can be used to date rock strata.
8. Describe the major events in Earth’s history from its origin until 2 billion years ago. In particular, note when Earth first formed, when life first evolved, and what forms of life existed in each eon.
9. Describe the mass extinctions of the Permian and Cretaceous periods. Discuss a hypothesis that accounts for each of these mass extinctions.
The Major Lineages of Life
10. Describe how chemiosmotic ATP production may have arisen.
11. Describe the timing and significance of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
12. Explain the endosymbiotic theory for the evolution of the eukaryotic cell. Describe the evidence that supports this theory.
13. Explain how genetic annealing may have led to modern eukaryotic genomes.
14. Describe the timing of key events in the evolution of the first eukaryotes and later multicellular eukaryotes.
15. Explain how the snowball-Earth hypothesis explains why multicellular eukaryotes were so limited in size, diversity, and distribution until the late Proterozoic.
16. Describe the key evolutionary adaptations that arose as life colonized land.
17. Explain how continental drift explains Australia’s unique flora and fauna.
18. Explain why R. H. Whittaker’s five-kingdom system has been replaced by a new system with three domains.
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Chapter 19 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 19    Eukaryotic Genomes
Objectives
The Structure of Eukaryotic Chromatin

1.  Compare the structure and organization of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes.

2.  Describe the current model for progressive levels of DNA packing in eukaryotes.

3.  Explain how histones influence folding in eukaryotic DNA.

4.  Distinguish between heterochromatin and euchromatin.

The Control of Gene Expression

5.  Explain the relationship between differentiation and differential gene expression.

6.  Describe at what level gene expression is generally controlled.

7.  Explain how DNA methylation and histone acetylation affect chromatin structure and the regulation of transcription.

8.  Define epigenetic inheritance.

9.  Describe the processing of pre-mRNA in eukaryotes.

10. Define control elements and explain how they influence transcription.

11. Distinguish between general and specific transcription factors.

12. Explain the role that promoters, enhancers, activators, and repressors may play in transcriptional control.

13. Explain how eukaryotic genes can be coordinately expressed and give some examples of coordinate gene expression in eukaryotes.

14. Describe the process and significance of alternative RNA splicing.

15. Describe factors that influence the life span of mRNA in the cytoplasm. Compare the longevity of mRNA in prokaryotes and in eukaryotes.

16. Explain how gene expression may be controlled at the translational and post-translational level.

The Molecular Biology of Cancer

17. Distinguish between proto-oncogenes and oncogenes. Describe three genetic changes that can convert proto-oncogenes into oncogenes.

18. Explain how mutations in tumor-suppressor genes can contribute to cancer.

19. Explain how excessive cell division can result from mutations in the ras proto-oncogenes.

20. Explain why a mutation knocking out the p53 gene can lead to excessive cell growth and cancer. Describe three ways that p53 prevents a cell from passing on mutations caused by DNA damage.

21. Describe the set of genetic factors typically associated with the development of cancer.

22. Explain how viruses can cause cancer. Describe several examples.

23. Explain how inherited cancer alleles can lead to a predisposition to certain cancers.

Genome Organization at the DNA Level

24. Describe the structure and functions of the portions of eukaryotic DNA that do not encode protein or RNA.

25. Distinguish between transposons and retrotransposons.

26. Describe the structure and location of Alu elements in primate genomes.

27. Describe the structure and possible function of simple sequence DNA.

28. Using the genes for rRNA as an example, explain how multigene families of identical genes can be advantageous for a cell.

29. Using a-globin and b-globin genes as examples, describe how multigene families of nonidentical genes may have evolved.

30. Define pseudogenes. Explain how such genes may have evolved.

31. Describe the hypothesis for the evolution of a-lactalbumin from an ancestral lysozyme gene.

32. Explain how exon shuffling could lead to the formation of new proteins with novel functions.

33. Describe how transposition of an Alu element may allow the formation of new genetic combinations while retaining gene function.

 
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