Please note that I will do my best to avoid tricky or misleading questions on the exam.
The exam questions will not be designed to try to trick you in any way.
 

LINK TO SAMPLE QUESTION ANSWERS

CHAPTER 12:

1. For a species with a haploid number of 13 chromosomes, how many different
combinations of maternal and paternal chromosomes are possible for the gametes?
A. 13² = 169
B. 2¹³ = 8,192
C. 13⁴ = 28,561
D. 4¹³ = 67,108,864
E. 26
 

2. Crossing over occurs during which phase of meiosis?
A. prophase I
B. anaphase I
C. telophase I
D. prophase II
E. metaphase II
 

3. Which of the following is the term for a human cell that contains 22 pairs
of autosomes and two X chromosomes?
A. an unfertilized egg cell
B. a sperm cell
C. a male somatic cell
D. a female somatic cell
E. both A and D are correct
 

4. How does the sexual life cyle increase the genetic variation in a species?
A. by producing gametes with different combinations of parental chromosomes
B. by allowing the combination of chromosomes from two different individuals
C. by allowing recombination of alleles on a chromosome
D. both A and B are correct
E. A, B, and C are correct
 

5. Which of the following statements are true regarding meiosis
A. the random orientation of tetrads along the metaphase plate during metaphase I ultimately results in independent assortment
B. Mendel's "inheritance factors" are segregated during anaphase I
C. meiosis results in the formation of 2 gametes from the original parental cell
D. Half of the daughter cells formed during meiosis are identical to the father and half are identical to the mother
E. Both A and B
 

6. Copies of chromosomes linked together at their centromeres at the
beginning of meiosis are appropriately called what kind of chromatids?
A. mother
B. daughter
C. sister
D. homologous
E. none of these
 

CHAPTER 13

1. The F2 phenotypic ratio of a monohybrid cross is
A. 1:1.
B. 2:1.
C. 9:3:3:1.
D. 1:2:1.
E. 3:1.
 

2. Roan color in cattle is the result of absence of dominance between red and
white color genes. How would you produce a herd of pure-breeding roan-colored cattle?
A. cross roan with roan
B. cross red with white
C. cross roan with white
E. it cannot be done
 

3. Tallness (T) is dominant to dwarfness (t), while red flower color is due to gene (R) and the alternative allele (r) results in white flower colors. The heterozygous condition results in pink (Rr) flower color. A dwarf red snapdragon is crossed with a plant homozygous for tallness and white flowers. What are the genotype and phenotype of the F1 individuals?
A. ttRr - dwarf and pink
B. ttrr - dwarf and white
C. TtRr - tall and red
D. TtRr - tall and pink
E. TTRR - tall and red
 

4. A 1:2:1 phenotypic ratio in the F2 generation of a monohybrid cross is a sign of
A. complete dominance
B. multiple alleles
C. incomplete dominance
D. polygenic inheritance
E. pleiotropy
 

5. In snapdragons, heterozygotes have pink flowers, whereas the two homozygotes have red flowers or white flowers. When plants with red flowers are crossed with plants with white flowers, what proportion of the offspring will have pink flowers?
A. Zero
B. 25%
C. 50%
D. 75%
E. 100%
 

6. One reason Mendel was able to discover the basic principles of inheritance is that he:
A. Understood the behavior or chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis
B. Studied a wide variety of experimental organisms
C. Began by establishing true-breeding lines
D. Studied various types of linkage
E. All of the above
 

7. The frequency of crossing over between any two linked genes is
A. higher if they are recessive
B. difficult to predict
C. determined by their relative dominance
D. the same as if they were not linked
E. proportional to the distance between them
 

8. In birds, sex is determined by a ZW chromosome scheme. Males are ZZ and females are ZW. A lethal recessive allele that causes death of the embryo occurs on the Z chromosome in pigeons. What would be the sex ratio in the offspring of a cross between a male heterozygous for the lethal allele and a normal female
A. 2:1 male to female
B. 1:2 male to female
C. 1:1 male to female
D. 4:3 male to female
E. 3:1 male to female
 

9. There is good evidence for linkage when
A two genes occur together in the same gamete
B. a gene is associated with a specific phenotype
C. genes do not segregate independently during meiosis
D. two characteristics are caused by a single gene
E. genes segregate independently during meiosis
 

10. All of the following statements are true about chromosomal inversions except
A. they do not alter phenotype
B. they involve breakage of a chromosome
C. they do not change the normal balance of genes
D. they change the order of genes on the chromosome
E. they involve the rearrangement of the genes
 

11. Red-green colorblindness is an X-linked recessive disorder in humans. Your friend is the daughter of a colorblind father. Her mother had normal color vision, but her maternal grandfather was colorblind. What is the probability that your friend is colorblind?
A. 100%
B. 75%
C. 50%
D. 25%
E. She cannot be colorblind
 

12. An X-linked carrier is a
A. homozygous dominant female.
B. heterozygous female.
C. homozygous recessive female.
E. homozygous male.
E. heterozygous male.
 

CHAPTER 14

1. What happens when T2 phages are grown with radioactive phosphorous?
A. their DNA becomes radioactive
B. Their proteins become radioactive
C. Their DNA is found to be of medium density in a centrifuge tube
D. They are no longer able to transform bacterial cells
E. They transfer their radioactivity to E. coli chromosomes during infection
 

2. What kind of chemical bonds are found between paired bases of the DNA double helix?
A. hydrogen
B. ionic
C. covalent
D. sulfhydryl
E. phosphate
 

3. When a double-stranded DNA molecule is heated, it denatures into two single-stranded molecules. The reason for this is that
A. the proteins associated with the double helix are denatured and can no longer hold the DNA strands together
B. the heat causes the helix to straighten, breaking the connections between bases
C. the heat breaks the hydrogen bonds holding the bases together in the center of the molecule but does not effect the covalent bonds of the backbone
D. the heat denatures the bases, preventing them from hydrogen-bonding with each other
E. the heat causes the phosphate groups to ionize, preventing them from hydrogen- bonding to the bases.
 

4. Which of the following statements does NOT apply to the Watson and Crick model of DNA?
A. the two strands of the DNA helix are antiparallel
B. the distance between the strands of the helix is 20 angstroms
C. the framework of the helix consists of sugar-phosphate units of the nucleotides
D. the two strands of the helix are held together by covalent bonds
E. the purines are attached to pyrimidines
 

5. What is the function of DNA polymerase?
A. to unwind the DNA helix during replication
B. to seal together the broken ends of DNA strands
C. to add nucleotides to the end of a growing DNA strand
D. to repair damaged DNA molecules
E. to rejoin the two DNA strands after replication
 

6. DNA ligase
A. fills tiny gaps between short stretches of DNA.
B. participates in DNA repair.
C. is involved in crossing over.
D. fills tiny gaps between short stretches of DNA and participates in DNA repair.
E. all of these
 

7.  Replication bubbles form:
A. after small segments of primase are formed on the leading strand at replication forks
B. between Okazaki fragments to aid in synthesis of the leading strand of DNA
C. when several gyrase molecules help stabilize the unwound DNA during DNA replication
D. in multiple locations along chromosomes in procaryotic cells
E. in multiple locations along chromosomes in eukaryotic cells
 

8. The significance of the experiments in which 32P and 35S were used is that
A. the semiconservative nature of DNA replication was finally demonstrated.
B. it demonstrated that harmless bacterial cells had become permanently transformed through a change in the bacterial hereditary system.
C. it established that pure DNA extracted from disease-causing bacteria transformed harmless strains into killer strains.
D. it demonstrated that radioactively labeled bacteriophages transfer their DNA but not their protein coats to their host bacteria.
E. I don't have the slightest idea
 
 

CHAPTER 15:  Please stay tuned for how far we get in this chapter!!!

1. Which of the following is not true of RNA processing
A. Exons are excised and hydrolyzed before mRNA moves out of the nucleus
B. The existence of exons and introns may facilitate crossing over between regions of a
    gene that code for polypeptides
C. Ribozymes function in RNA splicing
D. RNA splicing may be catalyzed by spliceosomes
E. A primary transcript is often much longer than the final RNA molecule that leaves the nucleus
 

2. Which component is not directly involved in the process known as translation?
A. mRNA
B. DNA
C. tRNA
D. ribosomes
E. GTP
 

3. The anticodon of a particular tRNA molecule is
A. complementary to the corresponding mRNA codon
B. complementary to the corresponding triplet in rRNA
C. the part of tRNA that bonds to a specific amino acid
D. changeable, depending on the amino acid that attaches to the tRNA
E. catalytic, making the rRNA a ribozyme
 

4. Using the genetic code in Figure 15.1, identify a possible 5' to 3' sequence of nucleotides in the DNA template strand for an mRNA coding for the polypeptide sequence Phe-Pro-Lys (Note: this one is a bit tricky, drawing a diagram helps)
A. UUU-GGG-AAA
B. GAA-CCC-CTT
C. AAA-ACC-TTT
D. CTT-CGG-GAA
E. AAA-CCC-UUU
 

5. What is the proper order of the following events in the expression of a eukaryotic gene?
1. Translation, 2. RNA processing, 3. Transcription, 4. Modification of protein
A. 1,2,3,4
B. 3,2,1,4
C. 4,2,3,1
D. 2,3,4,1