Reviewer in General Biology

★ Allopatric speciation - some groups of a population become geographically separated from the other
members thereby preventing gene flow
★ Application of Recombinant DNA - The use of recombinant (r-)DNA technology to produce genetically
engineered organisms started in the early 1970s
★ Carolus Linnaeus
a. introduced Linnaeus’ Binomial System
b. Father of Taxonomy (the science of describing, classifying, and naming species)
c. Published his classification system Systema Naturae (1735)
★ Characteristics of Different Taxa
a. Kingdom Archaea -don’t have peptidoglycan, mostly extremophiles, halophiles, methanogens,
and thermophiles
b. Kingdom Eubacteria - true bacteria and cyanobacteria, cells have peptidoglycan, and are
chemoautotrophs
c. Kingdom Protista - eukaryotes, mostly aquatic, some are heterotrophs and some are autotrophs
d. Kingdom Fungi - eukaryotes, heterotrophs, cell wall contains chitin, model organisms
e. Kingdom Plantae - cells have cell walls, has chlorophyll, bryophytes and tracheophytes
f. Kingdom Animalia - biggest kingdom, vertebrates and invertebrates
★ Charles Darwin
a. An English biologist (1809-1882)
b. Author of On the Origin of Species, 1859
c. Theory of evolution by natural selection
d. Explained how organisms develop through inheritance of behavioral and physical
characteristics
★ Clade
a. group of organisms that includes an ancestor and all its descendants
b. represented by cladograms
★ Cladistics - a biological classification system that involves the categorization of organisms based on
shared traits
★ Convergent Evolution - involves unrelated species that develop similar characteristics over time
★ Divine Creation Theory - involves unrelated species that develop similar characteristics over time
★ Divergent evolution - when two species diverge from a common ancestor and develop different
characteristics
★ DNA sequencing - the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence
★ 4 nucleotides - adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). These bases form specific pairs (A
with T, and G with C).
★ Extremophiles - an organism that is tolerant to environmental extremes
★ Fossils - provide solid evidence that organisms from the past are not the same as those of today
★ Genetic Drift - a mechanism of evolution in which allele frequencies of a population change over
generations due to chance (sampling error)
a. Bottleneck effect - population decreases due to environmental factors
b. Founder effect - small population separates from the larger group to invade a new area
★ Genetic Engineering - the process of using rDNA technology to alter the genetic makeup of an
organism.
★ Groups of Evolutionary Tree
a. Monophyletic Group - consist of a recent common ancestor and its offspring, all of which share
the same physical traits
b. Paraphyletic Group - share recent common ancestors but not all share common physical traits
c. Polyphyletic Group - may have similar characteristics but
d. Polytomy - indicates more than two immediate descendants
★ Halophiles -organisms that can thrive in environments with high salt concentrations
★ Homologous structure - similar biological structures but different functions, indicates close relations
★ Hybridization - results from combining the qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties,
species or genera through sexual reproduction
★ Jean Baptise Lamarck - French naturalist who proposed that species evolved through the inheritance of
acquired characteristics
★ Methanogens - microorganisms that produce methane as a metabolic by-product in oxygen-limited
environments
★ Molecular Biology - the field of biology that studies the composition, structure and interactions of
cellular molecules
★ Mutation
a. a change in DNA sequence, usually occurring because of errors in replication or repair
b. The ultimate source of genetic variation
c. Insertion, deletion, and substitution
★ Natural Selection
a. The process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change
b. Some individuals have traits better suited to the environment than others
★ Paleozoic era (541-252 million years ago)
a. divided into six periods: Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrian.
b. when the trilobites and cephalopods became dominant in the ocean particularly during the
Cambrian and Ordovician
c. Ancient life
★ Postzygotic isolation - prevents hybrid from passing on their genes
a. Hybrid Inviability
b. Hybrid Sterility
c. Hybrid Breakdown
★ Pre-cambrian
a. Age of Early Life
b. the longest geologic period
c. 4.6 BYA - 541 MYA
★ Prezygotic isolation - prevents fertilization and zygote formation
a. Habitat Isolation
b. Seasonal Isolation
c. Behavioral Isolation
d. Mechanical Isolation
e. Gametic Isolation
★ Process of Genetic Engineering
a. DNA Extraction - extracting DNA from an organism
b. Gene Cloning - selecting a gene for cloning
c. Gene Design - replacing an existing promoter with a new promoter
d. Transformation - new gene is inserted into some of the cells using various techniques (e.g. gene
gun, agrobacterium, microfibers, and electroporation)
e. Backcross Breeding - GMOs are crossed with elite breeding lines using traditional breeding
methods to combine desired traits of elite parents and the transgene into a single line
★ Selective Breeding
a. Animals with desired characteristics are mated to produce offspring with those traits
b. Man intervenes in the breeding of species to produce desired traits in offspring
★ Speciation - a process of a new genetically independent group of organisms, called species, through the
course of evolution
★ Structure of Phylogenetic Tree
a. Root - indicates that an ancestral lineage gave rise to all organisms on the tree
b. Branch Point - indicates where two lineages diverged
c. Basal Taxon - a lineage that remains unbranched
d. Sister Taxa - when two lineages stem from the same branch point
e. Polytomy - a branch with more than two lineages
★ Vestigial Structure - serve little to no present purpose for an organism