Genetics and Medicine Exam 4 Biology 1010 Spring 2014

Name: ________________________________________________________ Studio section:_________

Enter 1 if your Studio starts at 2pm (Prof. Hanna)
Enter 4 if it starts at noon (Prof. Roy)
Instructions:
Please enter Last Name, First Name and your RIN on both, this page and in the bubbles of the Scantron sheet.
Multiple choice questions: Read each question carefully, looking at all the suggested answers. Select the best answer and mark
it on the Scantron sheet using pencil. Check all your answers at least once to make sure you have chosen the best answer and
marked the corresponding place on the form.
Essay questions: please use pen, and write clearly below each question.

1) Dengue fever
a. Is caused by infected birds
b. Is responsible for influenza
c. Is confined to the tropics because its non-human host cannot survive at low temperatures
d. Is spreading into temperate zones because of climate changes
2) Suppose you find in a forensic analysis that a crime sample matches all 14 of the standard DNA polymorphisms of
a suspect. (That is, the genotype is exactly the same at all 14 standard polymorphic loci). To calculate the chance that
this is a coincidence, i.e., the result of a random match, what information do you need?
a. Additional tests of more polymorphic loci
b. The entire DNA sequence of both the crime sample and the suspect.
c. The frequency of each of these polymorphic alleles in the population.
d. None of the above
3) Suppose you want to clone a bacterial gene in yeast. Which of the following steps do you NOT have to do?
a. Isolate mRNA from the bacteria
b. Mix the bacterial gene with vector DNA
c. Transform the yeast with recombinant DNA
d. Screen yeast cells for the bacterial gene sequence.
4) The concept of alleles has been extended to noncoding sequences in DNA, such as STR sequences. These alleles
can be tracked in pedigrees and compared with ____________ in order to identify genes that cause disease.
a. records of crossing over
b. DNA sequences of normal genes
c. health records in the pedigree
d. All of the above
5) In the lac operon in E. coli, covered in class, suppose there is a mutation that completely deletes the operator
sequence. In this mutant, which of the following characteristics would be found?
a. the cell cannot use lactose as nutritional source.
b. the cell is less efficient than normal at using glucose and lactose
c. the cell is always making enzymes for the utilization of lactose, even when no lactose is available
d. the cell is always making enzymes for the utilization of glucose, except when lactose is available
6) A sequence in a certain stretch of DNA is
5P-AGTCCGG-3OH.
The RNA transcribed from this template would therefore have the sequence
a. 5-TCAGGCC-3OH
b. 5-CCGGACU-3OH
c. 5-AGUGGCC-3OH

7) _____________ is an example of post-translational modification of proteins

a. Insulin
b. Progesterone
c. Hemoglobin
d. Rubisco
8) Why does a DNA strand grow only in the 5' to 3' direction?
a. because DNA polymerases can only add nucleotides to the 3' end of the growing molecule
b. because DNA polymerases can only add nucleotides to the 5' end of the growing molecule
c. because the DNA molecule only unwinds in the 5' to 3' direction
d. because DNA polymerase requires the addition of a starter nucleotide at the 5' end
9) We would expect that a 15-nucleotide sequence ending with a stop codon will direct the production of a
polypeptide that consists of
a. 2 amino acids.
b. 3 amino acids.
c. 4 amino acids.
d. 5 amino acids.
10) Which of the following enzymes is used by viruses and in biotechnology applications to synthesize DNA on an
RNA template?
a. ligase
b. RNA polymerase
c. reverse transcriptase
d. DNA convertase
11) Which of the following statements about the treatment or prevention for a prion infection is true?
a. Antibiotic therapies such as penicillin are very effective cures.
b. High doses of anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen reduce the symptoms of prion infections.
c. Preventative vaccines have recently been shown to be effective in preventing prion infections.
d. There is no known treatment or cure for prion infections.
12) In female mammals, the inactive X chromosome in each cell
a. can be activated if mutations occur in the active X chromosome.
b. is broken down, and its nucleotides are degraded and reused.
c. is absorbed and used in energy production.
d. is transcriptionally inactive.
13) The number of proteins in humans
a. is approximately equal to the number of genes.
b. cannot be determined because the human genome is too complex.
c. is less than half the number of genes.
d. is much greater than the number of genes.
The following information is needed to answer questions 14 and 15.
Four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, the remains of an Air Force pilot were discovered and returned to the
United States. A search of Air Force records identified three families to which the remains might possibly belong.
Each family had a surviving twin of a missing service member. The following STR profiles were obtained from the
remains of the pilot and the surviving twins from the three families.

14) In order to match the pilot's remains to the correct family using DNA profiling,
a. the majority of the STR bands must match.
b. each of the 13 STR bands must match.
c. the bands for site 13 must match.
d. bands 5 and 7 must match.
15) Based on analysis of the STR sites shown, does the missing pilot belong to any of these three families?
a. No, none of the families match.
b. Yes, family 1 matches.
c. Yes, family 2 matches.
d. Yes, family 3 matches.
Essay questions:

1. Antithrombin III, a human anti-coagulant with important medical applications, can be

manufactured in goats milk using recombinant DNA technology (illustrated in an in-class
video). What are the advantages of using this methodology as compared to purification of the
same protein from human blood serum samples/donations? (6 points)

2. The largest and the most frequent new disease outbreaks are recorded for Europe and North
America. But the majority of new diseases arise by transfer of infectious agents from animals to
people, in other locations often where people live in closer proximity to their farm animalstypically from rural and/or third world countries. How do you reconcile these two diverse
observations concerning the source of an emerging infectious disease and the location of its
greatest impact? (4 points)