Ch 1

Question 1

What are the names of the four bases? (DNA)

Answer 1

Guanine, Cytosine, adenine and thymine.

Question 2

What are the two complementary base pairs? (DNA)

Answer 2

G-C, A-T

Question 3

What to complementary base pairs use to bond?

Answer 3

hydrogen bonds.

Question 4

What is the most important property of DNA and the key to understanding how DNA functions?

Answer 4

molecular compementarity.

Question 5

The DNA regions that encode proteins are called what?

Answer 5

Genes.

Question 6

DNA molecules carrying genes are assembled into what?

Answer 6

Chromosomes.

Question 7

What are chromosomes?

Answer 7

organized structures containing DNA and proteins that package and manage the storage, duplication, expression and evolution of DNA.

Question 8

The name for the DNA within the entire collection of chromosomes in each cell of an organism is?

Answer 8

it’s genome.

Question 9

Relate the structure of DNA to its function.

Answer 9

DNA, a double-stranded macromolecule composed of four nucleotides, is the repository of genetic information.

Question 10

Differentiate between a chromosome, DNA, a gene, a base pair, and a protein.

Answer 10

base pairs are sets of bases that comprise building blocks of DNA. Chromosomes contain genes, the DNA regions that encode proteins. A protein is a polymer composed of specific amino acids that serves a certain function in the body.

Question 11

Compare the chemical structure of DNA and proteins.

Answer 11

DNA is a double stranded helix with complementary base pairs surrounded by phsphate bonds. Proteins are made of a series of many amino acid blocks, whose order dictate shape, which folds over on itself to form a specific shape with a specific function.

Question 12

Differentiate between the functions of DNA and the functions of proteins.

Answer 12

DNA is the genetic code by which the body creates proteins. Proteins form specific functions in the body, like hemoglobin protein’s ability to transport oxygen in the bloodstream and release it into tissue.

Question 13

The ability of an organism to convert foreign matter into their own body parts is called what?

Answer 13

metabolism.

Question 14

What are proteins?

Answer 14

large polymers composed of hundreds to thousands of amino acid subunits strung together in long chains. Each chain folds into a specific three-dimensional conformation dictated by the sequence of its amino acids.

Question 15

Most proteins are comprised of around how many different kinds of amino acids?

Answer 15

20 kinds.

Question 16

Explain the process by which DNA and protein replaced more ancient RNA.

Answer 16

RNA was first, but unstable, replaced by DNA in information storage and replication and by protein with other uses due to their combined ability to fold three-dimensionally. RNA became an intermediary in the conversion process of DNA info to amino acid sequencing in proteins. All known organisms descend from the first organisms that happened upon this molecular specialization, as it is so efficient.

Question 17

Which was the first information processing molecule to appear (as believed by many scientists)?

Answer 17

RNA (ribonucleic acid)

Question 18

What are the four bases of RNA?

Answer 18

Guanine, cytosine, adenine, and uracil (replaces thymine.)

Question 19

Though RNA is similar to DNA, what is the big way in which they differ?

Answer 19

RNA is unstable.

Question 20

Summarize the molecular evidence for the common origin of all living organisms.

Answer 20

it is present in DNA sequences. All use the same genetic code in which various triplet groupings of the four letters of DNA/RNA alphabets encode 20 letters of the amino acid alphabet. Also evident from comparison of genes with similar functions in different animals, for example most amino acids in the cytochrome c proteins of diverse species are identical (though some are different due to mutation.) The way every organism uses DNA and RNA similarly is additional molecular evidence.

Question 21

what is mutation (genetically speaking)?

Answer 21

changes in nucleotide base pairs.

Question 22

When does mutation occur?

Answer 22

when genes are passed from one generation of an organism to the next.

Question 23

What is the main driving force of evolution? (Genetically speaking?)

Answer 23

The accumulation of mutations in genomes.

Question 24

True or False. You can often place a similar gene from one organism into another and have it perform similar in function.

Answer 24

True.

Question 25

what is convergent evolution?

Answer 25

structurally unrelated but functionally analogous organs emerge in different species as a result of natural selection.

Question 26

What were the results of the study of the Pax6 gene?

Answer 26

Mutations in Pax6 lead to a failure of eye development in both people and mice and studies have suggested that it may play a central role in the initiation of eye development in all vertebrates. When the human Pax6 gene was placed onto a fruit fly body, little eyes developed. Fruit flies have a gene similar to Pax6. This is evidence for divergent evolution.

Question 27

What is divergent evolution?

Answer 27

pattern in which species sharing a common ancestry become more distinct due to differential selection pressure.

Question 28

Describe mechanisms by which new genes arise.

Answer 28

New genes arise through duplication followed by divergence.

Question 29

Explain how regulation of gene expression can alter gene function.

Answer 29

Changes in DNA that affect gene regulation (where when and tow hat degree genes are expressed) also generate evolutionary change. (???)

Question 30

What are exons?

Answer 30

small pieces of DNA that code for proteins.

Question 31

What are introns?

Answer 31

separators of exons that don’t code for proteins.

Question 32

Explain how advances in technology have accelerated the analysis of genomes.

Answer 32

in use of model organisms, scientists can analyze mutations to understand the basis of many biological processes.

Question 33

Compare the knowledge obtained from genetic dissection and from genome sequencing.

Answer 33

genetic dissection looks at individual genes and removes functional genes to determine what their absence does to model organisms, whereas genome sequencing uses high throughput DNA sequencing to study the genome as a whole, isolating mutations that cause disease.

Question 34

Discuss how genome sequence information can be used to treat or cure diseases.

Answer 34

Knowledge of disease genes helps parents make informed reproductive decisions, allows pharmaceutical companies to design effective drugs, and in the future will enable medical researchers to manipulate somatic cell genomes to reverse gene effects.

Question 35

Name some model organisms.

Answer 35

bacteria, yeast, nematodes, fruit flies, Arabidopsis, zebrafish, and mice.

Question 36

What is genomics?

Answer 36

the study of one genome as a whole.

Question 37

What is gene therapy?

Answer 37

introduction of normal genes in an effort to negate the negative effects of mutations.

Question 38

What is genome editing?

Answer 38

a change in the base=pair sequence of a mutant gene to that of its normal counterpart. (too early for human use.)

Question 39

Describe the types of information that can be obtained from an individual’s genome sequence.

Answer 39

doctors can use sequencing to identify diseases that have a genetic component. However, looking at 23 and me info on my own profile, an awful lot of correlating or risk increasing genes have thus been identified, including odd balls like prone to watery ear wax or being more adequate at elite athleticism or aerobic.

Question 40

Describe social issues that arise from the availability of personal genome sequences.

Answer 40

information can be helpful or harmful, depending on its utilization. Privacy of genetic material will be a concern, as well as discrimination based on genetic profiles, something we are born with and cannot change. A law has already been passed in the US restricting employers and insurance companies from using genetic information to discriminate on policy holders and employees. (2008, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.) Access to the information provided without adequate education may lead to overly risky procedures or laymen assessments of health. Somatic cell gene therapy is less scary than germline genetic engineering, which could change the evolution of an entire species in a generation.