Study Guide for FINAL EXAM

First, as always, you should review all old bell quizzes and make corrections. These are
probably the best tool you have to study with.

Also review all worksheets. Be able to do similar problems that you find on the worksheets
you had for homework. Review all web lessons as well.

Specific Information you should know about Genetics and DNA:

About Genetics and Mendel:

- Who was Gregor Mendel? What famous experiments did he do? What conclusions did he
come to in his work?
- What were Mendel’s Three Laws of Inheritance? Do these three laws still hold true today?
- Why did Mendel chose to work with peas?
- Why are genetic studies involving humans difficult and long?
- What is a parental generation? An F1 generation? An F2?
- Explain why, when Mendel crossed a pure bred purple flower to a pure bred white flower, did
he only get purple flowers? When two of those offspring were then bred together, why did he
sometimes get white flowers? What was the ratio of purple to white in the F2?
- What are alleles, phenotypes and genotypes? Monohybrid cross?
- Be able to do Punnet squares!!

About DNA and its Structure:

- What is DNA? What does it stand for?

- Where is DNA found in the cell?
- What are the three main components of a nucleotide?
- What is a nucleotide? Not what it is made up of, but what is it?
- In most cases, is DNA in your cells double stranded or single-stranded?
- When might DNA be single-stranded?
- When would DNA need to replicate itself in order to make copies?
- What are the four bases of DNA?
- Which bases are purines? Which bases are pyrimidines?
- What is the name of the sugar in DNA?
- What are base pairs? Give an example. (ie, what base does G pair with?)
- Why does DNA form a double strand and not a single strand?
- What is a double helix? How does it apply to the shape of DNA?
- What two substances form ‘the backbone’ of the DNA double helix?
- What substances form the steps of the ladder?
- What is RNA? How is it different from DNA?
- Where is RNA found in the cell?
- What does RNA stand for?
- What is the name of the sugar in RNA?
- What four bases does RNA have?
- Why does DNA need RNA to take its message outside the nucleus?
- How many bases are needed in order to code for an amino acid?
- A chain of amino acids forms what?
- What is a protein?
 Specific Information you should know about Viruses, and Bacteria

ABOUT VIRUSES:

- What is a virus? How is it passed from person to person?

- Structurally, how does a virus look? IE, does it have a cell membrane, etc?

- Is a virus considered to be something ‘living?’ Why or why not?

- What are the two main types of viruses?

- What is a host cell?

- What does a virus do once it is inside a host cell? Be able to give a detailed account of this
process.

- How does the human body fight a viral infection? What type of cells are responsible for
fighting the infection?

- What are vaccines? What are the two types of vaccines?

- What do vaccines do? How specifically do they cause immunity?

- What virus was the first vaccine for? Who invented it? How specifically did he come to
the idea of a vaccine?

- Be able to list some viruses.

- What was the Spanish Influenza? In what year did the largest outbreak occur? What war
was ongoing at the time?

- Why was the Spanish Influenza so deadly? (there is more than one reason)

- What are some of the similarities and differences (political, technological, etc) of the time
period of the Spanish Influenza compared to today?

- Explain, in detail, the structure of a typical flu virus.

- Describe the typical infection pathway of an avian flu (IE, starts in birds, then needs a
second mammal before infecting humans)

ABOUT BACTERIA:

- What are bacteria? Are they all harmful? What is the approximate percentage of harmful
bacteria in the environment?

- Structurally, how does bacteria look? IE, what structures make it different, similar to plant
cells and animal cells? Flagella, pillus, etc

- Are bacteria considered to be something living? Why or why not?

- How does bacteria reproduce? Asexual? Sexual? What is the difference? Be able to
explain how these methods of reproduction occur and how they are different from one another.

- What are endospores? What is an example of an infectious bacteria that can produce
endospores? Why is an endospore advantageous?
 - What are the three shapes of bacteria? Know the Latin/Greek names and be able to identify
them.

- What are some diseases that are caused by bacteria?

- Where in your body would you likely find the largest concentration of helpful bacteria?

- What does anaerobic and aerobic mean?

- What is a saprophyte?

- What is an antibiotic?

- What is agar?

ABOUT TAXONOMY AND THE SIX KINGDOMS

- What is taxonomy?

- Why did scientists see the need for taxonomy?

- What two major things does taxonomy seek to do?

- What is a scientific name? Common name?

- What is binomial nomenclature? How is it written?

- Know the taxonomic breakdown of Kingdom, Phylum, Class, etc. Which one is the most
specific group? Least specific?

- What are the six kingdoms of Life?

- What is a heterotroph? Autotroph?

- Know how each of the Kingdoms are different, AND what they are. IE, what is
archaebacteria? Where would you likely find archaebacteria? Are these organisms
multicellular? Are they prokaryotic? Heterotrophs? Be able to do that for all six
kingdoms!

Specific Information you should know about Animals:

- What is an animal? How do you define an animal?

- What do the terms cephalization, dorsal, ventral, anterior, posterior and segmentation
mean?

- Explain what is meant by the term filter feeder? A parasite?

- What does a herbivore, carnivore and omnivore eat?

- What is an adaptation? Give some examples of an adaptations based on obtaining food?

Based on avoiding predators? Based on hiding to surprise prey?

- What is meant by the terms asymmetrical, radial, bilateral? What is the trend in this
characteristic as you follow it through the animal kingdom?

- What are hermaphrodites? Why is this condition advantageous over other conditions?
 - What does it mean to be sessile? What group has a sessile life stage, and then a mobile
stage? What are these two stages called?

- What group is considered the simplest groups of animals (Phylum Porifera)? Where in
the environment would you find this animal? What does it eat? How does it eat? Does it
have a nervous system? A digestive system?

- What is a Cnidarian? Give some examples of a Cnidarian. Where in the environment

would you find this animal? What does it eat? How does it eat? Does it have a nervous
system? A digestive system? Does it have organs? Describe it’s life cycle.

- What are germ layers? What is the significance of having all three (endoderm, ectoderm,
and mesoderm)? What animals have 2 germ layers? Which have 3?

- What is a coelom? What is the name to describe animals that don’t have one at all?
What is the name to describe animals that have one, but don’t have one as advanced as
ours?

- What is a flatworm? Where might you find a flatworm? What is important about
flatworms? What new adaptation did flatworms develop (what was new and different
from the Cnidarians or Sponges?)? What kind of body cavity does it have? What kind of
symmetry does it have?

- What is a nematode? What kind of body cavity does it have? What parasites are
nematodes? How does it reproduce?

- What is an annelid? What kind of body cavity does it have? What new things did
annelids develop that where carried on to most animals?

- What are the three groups of Arthropods? What are examples for each group? Which
groups have a cephalothorax? What characteristics do all arthropods have in common?

- What is an Echinoderm? Give some examples. Explain the typical life cycle of an
echinoderm. What kind of symmetry do they have? What kind of body cavity? Do they
have a brain or head? How do they move?

- What is a mollusk? Give some examples. What are some characteristics that all
mollusks share? What kind of body symmetry and body cavity do they have?

- BE ABLE to identify animals to their phylum. For example: If I give you a picture of a
sea star, you need to be able to say it belongs to the Phylum Echinodermata.

I will be adding a little more about vertebrates and ecology over the next
few weeks…stay tuned.