Final Exam Review (S2)

Unit 1: Ecology

  1. Ecological Levels of Organization

    • Individual, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere

    • Differences between them and examples

  2. Ecosystems

    • Energy flow in ecosystems (food chains, food webs)

    • Trophic levels (producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, decomposers)

    • Primary productivity and secondary productivity

    • Energy pyramids, biomass pyramids, and their efficiency

    • Biogeochemical cycles: Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Water

  3. Population Ecology

    • Population growth models: Exponential vs. Logistic growth

    • Carrying capacity

    • Factors affecting population size (density-dependent vs. density-independent factors)

    • R vs. K selection theory

    • Survivorship curves and life tables

  4. Community Ecology

    • Interactions between species (competition, predation, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism)

    • Niche concept (fundamental vs. realized niche)

    • Keystone species and ecological succession

    • Biodiversity and its importance

  5. Ecosystem Ecology

    • Energy flow and nutrient cycling (e.g., the Nitrogen cycle, Carbon cycle)

    • Primary production and secondary production

    • Ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, water purification)

  6. Human Impact on Ecosystems

    • Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and deforestation

    • Climate change and its effects on ecosystems

    • Pollution (air, water, land) and its ecological consequences

    • Conservation biology and sustainability

  7. Biomes

    • Characteristics of different biomes: Tundra, Desert, Rainforest, Grasslands, etc.

    • Adaptations of species to each biome

    • Distribution of biomes and their relation to climate

Unit 2: Evolution

  1. Theories of Evolution

    • Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

    • Lamarkism and its criticisms

    • Modern Synthesis (Integration of genetics and evolution)

    • Evidence for evolution: Fossil record, Homologous structures, Vestigial structures, Comparative embryology, Biogeography, Molecular evidence

  2. Mechanisms of Evolution

    • Natural selection (directional, stabilizing, disruptive selection)

    • Genetic drift (bottleneck effect, founder effect)

    • Gene flow (migration and its effects)

    • Mutation and its role in genetic variation

    • Non-random mating and sexual selection

  3. Speciation

    • Allopatric vs. sympatric speciation

    • Reproductive isolation mechanisms (prezygotic and postzygotic barriers)

    • Adaptive radiation

  4. Population Genetics

    • Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and its assumptions

    • Genetic variation and allele frequency

    • Calculation of allele frequencies (p + q = 1, p² + 2pq + q² = 1)

    • Factors disrupting Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

  5. Co-evolution

    • Mutualistic and antagonistic co-evolution

    • Examples: Predator-prey co-evolution, parasite-host co-evolution, plant-pollinator relationships

  6. Evolutionary Patterns

    • Convergent evolution vs. divergent evolution

    • Parallel evolution

    • Extinction and its role in evolution

  7. Human Evolution

    • Evolution of Homo sapiens

    • Fossil evidence (Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus)

    • Genetic evidence (mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome studies)

Unit 3: Genetics

  1. Mendelian Genetics

    • Laws of inheritance (Law of Segregation, Law of Independent Assortment)

    • Punnett squares for monohybrid and dihybrid crosses

    • Phenotype vs. Genotype

    • Dominant and recessive alleles

    • Homozygous vs. Heterozygous

    • Incomplete dominance, codominance, and multiple alleles

    • Sex-linked inheritance (X-linked traits)

  2. Gene Linkage and Crossing Over

    • Genetic linkage and recombination

    • Mapping genes and calculating genetic distances (map units, centimorgans)

    • Crossing over during meiosis and its effects on genetic diversity

  3. DNA Structure and Function

    • Structure of DNA (nucleotides, double helix, base-pairing)

    • DNA replication and enzymes involved (DNA polymerase, helicase, ligase)

    • DNA repair mechanisms

    • RNA structure and types (mRNA, tRNA, rRNA)

  4. Protein Synthesis

    • Transcription (from DNA to mRNA)

    • Translation (mRNA to protein synthesis)

    • Role of ribosomes, tRNA, and mRNA

    • Genetic code and codons

    • Mutations (point mutations, frameshift mutations, silent mutations, missense, nonsense)

  5. Genetic Regulation

    • Gene expression and regulation (operons in prokaryotes, enhancers and silencers in eukaryotes)

    • Epigenetics: DNA methylation, histone modification

    • Transcription factors and their roles in gene expression

  6. Genetic Technologies

    • PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) and its applications

    • Gel electrophoresis and its use in DNA analysis

    • Recombinant DNA technology (gene cloning, CRISPR-Cas9)

    • Genomic sequencing and bioinformatics

  7. Genetic Disorders

    • Inherited genetic diseases (Cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Huntington’s disease)

    • Pedigree charts and inheritance patterns (autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, X-linked)

    • Non-Mendelian inheritance (mitochondrial inheritance, polygenic inheritance)

  8. Population Genetics and Evolutionary Genetics

    • Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and its applications

    • Genetic drift, gene flow, and selection in populations

    • Evolutionary significance of mutations and genetic variation