1. What are some characteristics that separate living organisms from non-living entities?
living things have all of the following
... [Show More] characteristics:
-made up of cell(s)
-acquire energy and matter from surroundings (anaerobic and aerobic metabolism)
-respond to the environment
-have the capacity to reproduce
-are hereditary
-carbon based
-can evolve with natural selection
2. Are viruses alive? Why or why not?
not really because they aren't made up of cells, and by themselves they don't have the capacity to reproduce
3. What are the three domains in life? Which of the domains is/are prokaryotes? What is an important difference between a eukaryote and a prokaryote?
Bacteria, Eukarya, and Archea; bacteria and archea are prokaryotes
prokaryotes are single-celled, have no nucleus, have no membrane-bound organelles, have circular DNA, and reproduce via binary fusion
eukaryotes can be unicellular or multicellular, they have a nucleus, divide via mitosis and meiosis, and have membrane-bound organelles
4. What does the tree showing the three domains of life tell us about how Eukarya, Archaea, and Bacteria are related to each other? Which other domain are Archaea most closely related? Which domain do animals belong to?
archea evolved from bacteria, and they are more closely related to each other than to eukarya. Animals belong to eukarya
5. Where do Archaea and Bacteria live? What roles do they play ecologically?
basically everywhere including extreme environments;
ecologically they are responsible for oxygenation of the atmosphere, nitrogen fixation, decomposition, cycling of nutrients, and mutualisms.
6. What is the genetic material of all living organisms? What are four key characteristics of it?
DNA
1. diversity of structure
2. the ability to replicate
3. mutability
4. gene expression (the central dogma)
7. What allows for a diversity of structure in DNA?
different combinations of nucleotides create different DNA molecules (CG;AT/AU)
8. Why is it important to be able to replicate DNA? What needs to happen in order for DNA to replicate? What is the end product of DNA replication?
replication is essential to reproduction; in order for DNA to replicate, the strands in the double helix separate, become their own template strands and create a complementary strand. the end result is two identical double helixes
9. What does it mean to say there was a mutation? What do mutations lead to? Are they all bad?
errors during DNA replication that introduce mutations which lead to genetic variation; not all are bad
10. What does it mean to say that mutations are spontaneous and random?
it means they are spontaneous and random lol what
11. What are proteins and what do they do?
proteins are polymers of amino acids, enzymes, and they help with movement, DNA structure, replication, and signaling.
12. What is a gene?
a section of DNA that contains information for building protein (or RNA molecule)
13. What is meant by the phrase "the central dogma"?
genetic information goes from DNA then (transcription) to mRNA, the RNA (translation) to proteins. mRNA codons w/ genetic code leaves the nucleus and goes to cytoplasm
14. What is transcription? What regulates it? What is a key enzyme that is part of this process? What is different about base pairing in transcription as opposed to DNA replication?
transcription is (regulated by non-coding DNA) and the process of transferring moving information from DNA to a messenger RNA molecule.
15. What is translation? How does the ribosome do translation and what is a ribosome made of? What is an anticodon? What is the end product of translation?
translation is (regulated by ribosomes) and the process of using genetic information from mRNA to make proteins
16. Three kinds of RNA play roles in the central dogma: what are their names and roles?
tRNA (transfer RNA), mRNA (messenger RNA), rRNA (ribosomal RNA);
tRNA carries individual amino acids for use in translation.
mRNA combines with a ribosome to direct protein synthesis; it carries the genetic "message" from the DNA to the ribosome.
rRNA makes up the bulk of ribosomes and is essential in translation. In eukaryotic cells, the genes and transcripts for rRNA are concentrated in the nucleolus, a distinct, dense, non-membrane-bound spherical structure observed within the nucleus.
17. What is the genetic code? How do you use the table that contains the genetic code?
64 codons, 3 base pairs long, 20 amino acids and 3 stop codons. shows the combination of nucleic acids and what codons they produce
18. What process produced the diversity of life that we see all around us?
evolution (decent with modification)
19. What are the three requirements for evolution by natural selection?
1. traits are variable within a population
2. the trait is heritable
3. some individuals reproduce more than others
20. What is the root of a phylogenetic tree? What are the tips of a tree? In what direction does time run on a phylogenetic tree? What is a node? What does MRCA stand for?
the root is the furthest ancestor away from us chronologically; the tips are the closest to current descendants; time chronologically runs from the root to the tips.
a node shows the most recent common ancestor of individuals that are further up the tree.
MRCA: most recent common ancestor
21. Given a set of species and a phylogenetic tree, how can you tell which species are more closely related to one another?
if their node is closer to recent descendants
22. How can you compare two phylogenetic trees to each other to tell if they are equivalent?
if you can rotate the nodes, and they means the same thing, they are equivalent
23. Is the vast majority of life microscopic or macroscopic?
microbial
24. Why are rRNA genes used to build the tree of life?
it's universal; all living things have ribosomes because they all have proteins [Show Less]