Unit 4 Review: Cell Cycle, Meiosis, Cancer, and Genetics

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the cell cycle, meiosis, tumor biology, carcinogenesis, and genetic inheritance systems.

Cell cycle checkpoints

Regulatory control points in the cell cycle governed by specific proteins that activate or deactivate cell division before a cell proceeds.

Cell division

The biological process in which a single cell divides in half to produce two cells, requiring its DNA to be fully copied beforehand.

Regeneration

The biological capability of an organism to regrow lost body parts or tissues, such as a starfish growing back an arm.

Tumor

A mass of cells undergoing unregulated cell division that serves no functional biological purpose.

Malignant tumor

A tumor that is actively growing and invading tissues beyond the normal tissue structure.

Metastatic tumor

A tumor that sheds free cancerous cells into the bloodstream or lymphatic system to establish secondary tumors in other body locations.

Lymphatic system

One of the two primary internal transport networks, along with the circulatory system, through which free cancer cells travel throughout the body.

Crossing over

A key event during meiosis in which separate chromosomes swap large segments of DNA to ensure that unique genetic copies are distributed to daughter cells.

Gametes

Specialized haploid reproductive cells (sperm and egg cells) produced via meiosis.

Mutagen

Any physical or chemical agent that has the ability to cause changes or mutations in DNA.

Carcinogen

An agent capable of inducing cancer, typically by generating mutations in genetic material.

Antioxidants

Molecules that protect cells from damage and work to help prevent cancer.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy

The two most prevalent medical therapeutic approaches utilized to treat and manage cancer.

Achondroplastic dwarfism

A dominant genetic condition that causes severe skeletal malformation; homozygous individuals are spontaneously aborted (lethal), while heterozygous individuals survive and exhibit the dwarf phenotype.

Autosomal recessive inheritance

A pattern of inheritance exemplified when self-pollinated or true-breeding crosses yield standard Mendelian phenotypic ratios (such as a $3:1$ ratio of blue to pink flowers) distributed independently of sex.

Cynoglossus semilaevis

The tongue sole fish species whose biological sex determination depends on a combination of sex chromosomes ($\text{ZZ}$ males and $\text{ZW}$ females) and environmental temperature.

$Z^*$ chromosome

A thermally modified $Z$ chromosome that arises when Cynoglossus semilaevis are raised at $28\,^{\circ}\text{C}$, causing genotypic $\text{Z}^*\text{W}$ individuals to develop into fertile phenotypic males.