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What are the names of the different stages of mitosis? What key events define each stage? What happens to the nuclear membrane; and how is that related to phosphate and kinases? Trick question: during which stage of mitosis is the DNA replicated?? When can you see the chromosomes, and why; and when and how do they disappear? Do microtubules get connected to chromosomes? Where? Is there a tug-of-war? When? What is meant by the mitotic spindle = mitotic apparatus? Where do chromosomes accumulate? *Could the same forces cause the chromosome movements of anaphase as well as metaphase? What are the differences between cytokinesis as compared with mitosis? Are they related? What is the evidence that contractile ring formation is induced by the mitotic spindle poles? Are there poisons that specifically interfere with microtubules? Are any used medically? What are the different stages of the cell cycle? During which is DNA copied? What are checkpoints? * How are checkpoints related to cancer and to cancer chemotherapy? * What prize was won for checkpoints? Where (when) are the (known) key checkpoints in the cell cycle? * Are any related to DNA damage? How can some kinases cause diseases, if over-active? *What chemicals are used to treat cancer? What is one of the three amino acids to which kinases attach phosphates? How do the phosphates get off? * Do cancer cells necessarily grow faster than normal cells? What two abnormalities DO they have? What is meant by "the genome" of a given kind of organism, for example "the human genome"? What is the name of the human chromosome with the most DNA base pairs? The one with the 3rd most? What are the haploid and diploid chromosome numbers of humans? What about in Down syndrome? Are these numbers the same for all kinds of animals, or what? *What % of human pregnancies abort? How many base pairs in the human genome? About how many in a given species of procaryote? How big are some mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes? Have any been entirely sequenced? How many sex chromosomes in human males? In human females? Which ones in each sex? What is special about DNA synthesis between the 1st & 2nd meiotic divisions? As compared with mitosis Contrast the time meiosis is finished in sperm cells as compared with egg cells (in humans). In what sense are human eggs triploid after fertilization? What are chiasmata and synapsis, and how are they related to genetic crossing over? What is the apparent "two fold disadvantage" of sexual as compared with asexual reproduction? * What is at least one explanation for this paradox? (i.e. the evolutionary advantage of sex) * What are two different categories of asexual reproduction? When was DNA discovered? ...found to be the genetic material? When was its structure known? Prior to ~1950, what material were genes believed to be made of? * Why was that believed? What correct predictions did a physicist make about the genetic material? Based on what? In genes for what ability in what kind of organism was DNA first shown to be the genetic material? How did this study depend on enzymes that specifically destroyed different kinds of chemicals? What are transgenic animals, plants, bacteria (genetically modified)? * The Morse Code is to the alphabet as what is to the 20 amino acids? Explain! How was radioactive isotope labeling of bacterial viruses used to confirm that genes are DNA? (** Why was it a good thing that kinases hadn't yet been found then?) * To study genes needed for photosynthesis, why do you need plants that can use acetic acid? Who proposed the idea of "One gene: One enzyme", and based on what research in what fungus?
What were "Chargaff's Laws", and how are these related to the structure of DNA? * If mutating a promoter region causes a phenotypic difference, does that make promoters genes? * Why does mutating pseudogenes produce no phenotypic difference? **What if it did? * How can very strong selection for phenotypic differences allow study of rare genetic changes? Mendel studied inheritance in what kind of organism? When did he do this? Relative to Darwin? * Could he have made the same discoveries using other organisms? *What were some obstacles? When did main-line science realize that his discoveries were important? If all genes were co-dominant, and none were recessive, then why would we not need the distinction between phenotype and genotype? Are there such things as co-dominant genes? Did Mendel find any? What if heterozygous individuals were always intermediate between homozygous ones? How many chromosomes do peas have? *Why is that ironic, in relation to Mendel's research? What are 2 or 3 of the specific genetic differences studied by Mendel? How many did he study? * Did Darwin already know a little about some of the phenomena discovered by Mendel? What are the expected percentages of different phenotypes in the F1 generation, and in the P1 generation of a cross between organisms homozygous for dominant and recessive genes? How is Mendel's "Principle of Independent Assortment" related to "genetic linkage"? Suppose the members of the P generation differed at two different genetic loci? CC DD x cc dd then what percentage of the F1 generation will be Cc Dd? List all the different genotypes that should occur in the F2 generation: CCDD, CcDD, ccDD etc.? Why does color blindness occur in men, even if they have only one copy of a recessive gene? If a woman is not color blind, but has a son that is color blind, then what is the probability that if she has another son, then he will be color blind? What if the woman herself were color blind? If a given % of babies are homozygous for a certain gene, what % of the population are carriers? Why is it not really contrary to Darwinism that harmful recessive genes sometimes accumulate? How many X chromosomes do human females have? Males? Is this also true for other species? The Hardy-Weinberg Equation predicts what? Who figured out this equation, and about when? What is one of the codons for glycine? What is the total number of different codons? How is this number of codons related to the length of each codon, and the number of different bases? Why would a mutation have no phenotype if it changed one codon into one coding for the same a.a.? If you knew the amino acid sequence of a protein, could you figure out its DNA base sequence? How can certain base substitution mutations cause shortening of the protein the gene codes for? How can some mutations cause nearly all the amino acids to become different, beyond the mutation? hint: Why does inserting (or removing) 3 base pairs not produce such a big change as just 1 or 2? If a diagram of the genetic code were projected during an exam, then could you figure out what amino acid sequences would be coded for by a given RNA base sequence? For all reading frames? Do any of the codons mean "Stop"? (Stop doing what?) What aspect of the genetic code suggests that all life forms evolved from a single ancestral species? If you knew the amino acid sequence of a protein, could you figure out the its DNA base sequence? How do scientists usually find out the amino acid sequence of a given protein? Why do so indirectly? What effect does dideoxyATP have on DNA synthesis? How is this related to pharmacology? If an exam were to include a sketch of 4 parallel electrophoresis gels, such as are used in the Sanger method for determining DNA base sequences, then could you figure out the DNA base sequence? Could you draw the expected appearance of such a gel, corresponding to a given base sequence? Could you figure out which 6 alternative amino acid sequences the base sequence could code for? Could the numbers of "stop" codons be used to decide between alternative amino acid sequences? If you changed your own cells so that GGG would "mean" alanine instead of glycine, why would that be equivalent to mutating nearly all of your genes at the same time? Mutating what part of a transfer RNA gene would cause it to bind to the wrong codons? What special meanings do geneticists give to the words transcription and translation? What are the functions of messenger RNA, as compared with transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA? From what raw materials is DNA is synthesized? What is "semi-conservative" replication? What is the distinction between 3-prime and 5-prime ends in nucleic acids? What class of enzymes allow double stranded DNA to uncoil in its replication? In DNA replication, are both strands copied in the same direction, or what? (hint: Okazaki fragments) Why are actual mutation rates much lower than the rate in which wrong bases are put in DNA? Are humans ever genetically defective in the ability to repair damage or abnormalities in DNA? How can mutations of certain genes cause large increases in mutation rates? For themselves and all genes. PCR takes advantage of what enzyme from bacteria that lived in Yellowstone National Park? What does PCR stand for, and how can this method help solve crimes and evolutionary questions? How is repair of DNA damage related to one of the cell cycle checkpoints? What are pseudogenes? What makes them different from genes? Are DNA repair mechanisms be just as likely to repair damage to DNA in pseudogenes as in genes? What three main changes are made in "processing" eucaryote messenger RNA? What are introns? What is the function of operons? What are two specific examples of operons? Do operons control gene expression at the level of translation or of transcription? Operons depend on special cytoplasmic proteins that can bind to what?, and also bind to what? Can mutations occur that cause bacteria to make certain enzymes whether they need them or not? What are histones? What kinds of organisms have histones; and which don't? (*What about introns?) What is meant by differentiated cell types, in multicellular animals & plants? What are examples? About how many kinds of differentiated cell types are found in the human body? Do different cells get different genes in embryonic development, or what? (If they did, then would Dolly the sheep ever have been born?) How is this question related to the possibility (in principle) of cloning humans and other animals? What sort of mutation might cause hemoglobin to be made in skin cells, instead of in blood cells? Compare the control of gene expression in cell differentiation, as compared with in operons? In level of control? External cause? Permanence? Numbers of genes? Locations of genes?
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