Final Exam Pearson Questions

An example of a systems biology experiment might be __________.

determining how insulin resistance affects transcription of thousands of other genes in the genome

NCBI provides __________.

All of the choices are correct:

BLAST

a database of protein structures

Genbank

Which best describes the findings of the ENCODE pilot study that thoroughly studied the human genome?

Over 90% of the region was transcribed into different types of RNA.

The human genome is thought to contain about how many genes?

>21,000

Why might the number of genes in the genome underestimate the number of different proteins that an organism makes?

Many genes undergo alternative splicing, so that different proteins with different exon combinations are produced from the same gene.

What factor accounts most for the difference in genome size between vertebrates and prokaryotes?

Vertebrates have more noncoding DNA sequences.

Although containing about the same number of genes as the nematode genome, the human genome is thought to bear greater phenotypic diversity by means of __________.

All of the choices are correct:

alternate splicing of RNA transcripts

regulation of gene expression by miRNAs

post-translation addition of carbohydrates to polypeptides

post-translational cleavage of a polypeptide into active forms

Who discovered transposons?

McClintock

Alu elements __________.

are derived from or related to transposable elements

Segments of eukaryotic DNA that can move from one site to another in the genome by means of an RNA intermediate are called __________.

retrotransposons

Multigene families arise as a result of __________.

errors during DNA replication and recombination

Chromosomal rearrangements may be important in evolution because __________.

chromosomal rearrangements lead to gene duplication, thus generating a "spare" copy of the gene that is free to evolve and acquire a new function

The molecular data indicate that the globin gene family __________.

evolved from a common globin gene ancestor that gave rise to both alpha- and beta-globin genes, as well as myoglobin and plant leghemoglobin

A rapid way for natural evolution to alter a protein-coding gene so it encodes a protein with a different structure and function is __________.

exon duplication and exon shuffling

Why might active transposons be rare in natural populations?

Individuals with active transposons are usually eliminated by natural selection, because transposition events usually produce harmful mutations.

The highly conserved sequence element present within homeotic genes is called the __________.

homeobox

The similarity of the homeobox in many different kinds of organisms is evidence __________.

of the common ancestry of different life-forms

What can be learned from comparing the genomes of distantly related species, such as yeast and humans, or plants and fruit flies?

Conserved genes provide insight into their evolutionary relationships.

Detailed comparison of the human and chimpanzee genomes has revealed that __________.

most differences are in the form of chromosomal rearrangements

A gene family has been identified that has undergone extensive duplication in humans, but is present in only one or a few copies in other primates or other mammals. What experimental approaches could be used to determine the function of this gene and its significance in human evolution?

Create knockout mice to determine their phenotype.

A group of scientists is attempting to sequence the Neanderthal genome with DNA extracted from Neanderthal bones. Information from this project might reveal __________.

what genetic differences may be connected to differences in behavior between the two species

Which best describes the experimental evidence that the FOXP2 gene is vital to the normal development of vocalization in vertebrates and yet has evolved among different vertebrate lineages?

Replacing the FOX2P gene in mice with a humanized version of the gene had no negative effects on the mice but did lead to the development of brain cells in neural circuits that are associated with speech development in humans.

The advantage of copy-number variants (CNVs) over SNPs in human genomic studies is that CNVs __________.

occupy much longer stretches of DNA than SNPs, and are likely to have greater phenotypic consequences

Evolution is broadly defined by Darwin as __________.

descent with modification

Which is a key observation that must be explained in a unifying theory about life?

Many basic characteristics are shared by all living things.

The scala naturae, or scale of nature, is based on the ideas of __________.

Aristotle

At the time Darwin voyaged on the survey ship HMS Beagle, the popularly accepted theory in Western culture that explained the origin of Earth's plants and animals held that the various species __________.

had been created by divine intervention a few thousand years before

Carolus Linnaeus is considered to be the founder of __________, and he __________.

the binomial classification system … thought that resemblances among different species reflected the pattern of their creation

The modern idea of extinction as a common occurrence in Earth's history was first proposed in the early 19th century writings of __________.

Cuvier

Lyell's principle of uniformitarianism __________.

strongly influenced Darwin's view of how living organisms could change over time

Which is a true statement about Charles Darwin?

He proposed natural selection as the mechanism of evolution.

At the time Charles Darwin sailed on the HMS Beagle, __________.

several biologists had proposed that species might change over time, but none had suggested a convincing mechanism that might cause the change

After invoking selective breeding of domesticated species as evidence that groups of organisms are capable of change, Darwin then proposed that natural populations can change as well. On which two lines of evidence did he base this proposal?

Organisms within a population vary, and all populations produce more offspring than can be supported by the environment, resulting in competition for survival within the population.

During his voyage around the world, Darwin was inspired to think about evolution by __________.

All of the choices are correct:

studying adaptations of organisms to their environments

the works of others such as Lamarck

the unique organisms he saw in the Gálapagos Islands

fossils he collected

In Darwin's view of descent with modification __________.

natural selection can improve the match between an organism and its environment

What insight did Darwin gain from reading Thomas Malthus's essay on human suffering?

Organisms have the capacity to over-reproduce.

The breeding of plants and animals for particular traits by humans is called __________.

artificial selection

During periods of rapid environmental change, what may happen to a species that was well-suited to the former environment?

All of the choices are correct:

Individuals with particular traits that provide an advantage in the new environment will have higher reproductive success.

The population may change so much in adapting to the new environment that it is considered a new species.

Traits that were favorable in the original environment may be detrimental in the new environment.

The species may go extinct.

The smallest unit that can evolve is a(n) __________.

population

According to the theory of evolution, anatomical and molecular homologies should __________.

produce similar patterns of evolutionary relatedness

When they were first sold, aerosol insecticides were highly effective in killing flies and mosquitoes. Now, several decades later, a much smaller proportion of these insects from a given species die when sprayed. The reason fewer insects die when they are sprayed is that __________.

many mosquitoes today are descendants of mosquitoes with insecticide-resistant characteristics

19

Question 19:A population of zooplankton is exposed to a small number of predatory fish that feed on the larger-sized (adult) zooplankton. Which prediction would most likely occur based on the principles of natural selection?

Adult zooplankton will start to reach sexual maturity when they are still relatively small.

How did some strains of Staphylococcus aureus become resistant to antibiotic drugs?

Some members of the bacteria population must have had a genetic variation that made them resistant to antibiotics.

An important challenge to traditional, pre-Darwinian ideas about species was the observation that seemingly dissimilar organisms such as hummingbirds, humans, and whales have similar skeletal structures. This most directly suggested to biologists that __________.

dissimilar organisms might have evolved from a distant, common ancestor

Animals that possess homologous structures probably __________.

evolved from the same ancestor

Vestigial organs are __________.

remnants of structures that were useful to an organism's ancestors

All known organisms transcribe genetic information to protein molecules via the same genetic code. This finding strongly supports the hypothesis that __________.

all organisms are descended from a single common ancestor

Evidence from molecular biology supports the theory of evolution by demonstrating that __________.

closely related organisms have more similar DNA and proteins

What did Darwin observe about species on islands?

They are often closely related to species from the nearest mainland or neighboring islands.

To describe evolution as a "scientific theory" means that __________.

it is a broad model that is supported by many observations and much experimental evidence