Knowledge Check: Unit 3 — Chapters 11–17
Chapter 11: Meiosis and Sexual Reproduction
11.1 The Process of Meiosis
Which structure do most animal cells and some fungi use to divide the cytoplasm during cytokinesis?
The formation of a close association between homologous chromosomes during prophase I is called ________.
Why have biologists had difficulty testing hypotheses about how meiosis evolved from mitosis, and what four events did Wilkins and Holliday identify as necessary for that evolution?
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11.2 Sexual Reproduction
Early in embryonic development, specialized diploid cells that undergo mitosis to perpetuate their own line and meiosis to produce eggs or sperm are called ________.
In asexually reproducing organisms, the only source of genetic variation is ________.
How do meiosis and fertilization together let a sexually reproducing organism alternate between haploid and diploid stages?
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Chapter 12: Mendel’s Experiments and Heredity
12.1 Mendel’s Experiments and the Laws of Probability
Which feature of Mendel’s garden pea experiments let him conclude that his results did not simply come about by chance?
Mendel worked with traits inherited in distinct classes, such as violet versus white flowers, rather than a continuous range of forms — an inheritance pattern known as ________.
What is the difference between an empirical probability and a theoretical probability, and where does each come from?
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12.2 Characteristics and Traits
Sort each human trait into the inheritance pattern it follows.
Dominant Traits
Recessive Traits
In the human MN blood groups, a heterozygote expresses both the M and the N antigen equally. This inheritance pattern, in which both alleles for a characteristic are simultaneously expressed in the heterozygote, is called ________.
An inheritance pattern in which an allele is lethal both when present as a single copy and as two copies, and so can only be passed on if death occurs after reproductive age, is called ________.
12.3 Laws of Inheritance
Mendel’s principle that, in a heterozygote, one trait conceals the presence of another trait for the same characteristic is called the ________.
A cross between two true-breeding parents that express different traits for two characteristics is called a ________ cross.
What happens to maternal and paternal alleles during recombination between homologous chromosomes, and does this change the order of the genes?
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Chapter 13: Modern Understandings of Inheritance
13.1 Chromosomal Theory and Genetic Linkage
Which scientist’s 1902 observation that proper sea urchin embryonic development does not occur unless chromosomes are present helped establish the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance?
Offspring whose allele combination differs from their parents’, produced by crossing over during meiosis, are called a ________.
Why did Mendel consistently observe independent assortment among the seven traits he studied in pea plants, even though homologous recombination is a common genetic process?
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13.2 Chromosomal Basis of Inherited Disorders
In the process of creating a karyogram, which technique is described as producing approximately 400 to 800 bands of tightly coiled DNA and condensed proteins along the chromosomes?
An individual who has exactly the expected number of chromosomes for their species, such as 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes in humans, is called ________.
What chromosomal change produces cri-du-chat syndrome, and what symptom gives the syndrome its name?
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Chapter 14: DNA Structure and Function
14.1 Historical Basis of Modern Understanding
In Griffith’s experiments, the two strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae were named “rough” and “smooth” after what characteristic?
DNA was first isolated from white blood cells by Friedrich Miescher, who called it ________ because it was isolated from nuclei.
How did Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty determine that DNA, rather than protein, was the transforming principle in bacterial transformation?
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14.2 DNA Structure and Sequencing
How many hydrogen bonds hold a cytosine–guanine base pair together in the DNA double helix?
In prokaryotes such as E. coli, the twisting of DNA that is either under-wound or over-wound from its relaxed state, letting a 4.6-million-base-pair chromosome fit inside a small bacterial cell, is called ________.
What recognition did Fred Sanger’s dideoxy chain termination method for sequencing DNA earn him, and in what year?
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14.3 Basics of DNA Replication
In which model of DNA replication do both copies of DNA end up with double-stranded segments of parental DNA and newly synthesized DNA interspersed within a single strand?
The single chromosome of a prokaryote or each chromosome of a eukaryote consists of a single continuous ________.
What did Watson and Crick’s 1953 paper say the specific base pairing they had postulated immediately suggested?
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14.4 DNA Replication in Prokaryotes
Which polymerase is now known to be the main enzyme required for DNA synthesis in prokaryotes?
A ring-shaped protein that binds to the DNA and holds the DNA polymerase in place while it continues adding nucleotides is called the ________.
Why does the leading strand need only one primer, while the lagging strand needs a new primer for each Okazaki fragment?
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14.5 DNA Replication in Eukaryotes
Which protein serves as the eukaryotic sliding clamp that holds DNA polymerase in place during replication?
Which DNA polymerase continuously synthesizes the leading strand during eukaryotic replication?
Why is the rate of DNA replication lower in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes?
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14.6 DNA Repair
A variation in the nucleotide sequence of a genome is called a ________.
Which type of point mutation substitutes a stop codon for an amino acid, terminating protein synthesis early?
Why do silent mutations usually not change the function of the protein in which they occur?
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Chapter 15: Genes and Proteins
15.1 The Genetic Code
Because only 16 possible two-nucleotide combinations exist, nucleotide doublets cannot specify every amino acid. How many possible nucleotide triplets exist to encode the 20 amino acids?
In terms of RNA and protein, three “units” of RNA (nucleotides) specifying one “unit” of protein (amino acid) in a consecutive fashion is described as ________.
Why is it considered powerful evidence for a single common origin of life that a horse-globin mRNA transferred into a tulip cell would be translated into horse globin?
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15.2 Prokaryotic Transcription
A shorter, circular DNA molecule that may contain one or a few genes and can be transferred independently of the bacterial chromosome during cell division is called a ________.
In prokaryotes, an mRNA transcript that covers more than one gene and is translated to produce more than one kind of protein is called ________.
Explain why the E. coli RNA polymerase’s core enzyme cannot accurately begin transcription without its σ subunit.
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15.3 Eukaryotic Transcription
Eukaryotic mRNAs are usually described as ________ because each one specifies only a single protein.
The eukaryotic TATA box, with its consensus sequence TATAAA, sits at approximately which position relative to the transcription initiation (+1) site?
What promoter elements are sufficient on their own to initiate transcription of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase I, and what additional sequences can further enhance that initiation?
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15.4 RNA Processing in Eukaryotes
Every intron in a eukaryotic pre-mRNA is marked at its 5′ end by which specific nucleotides?
The RNA molecules that base-pair with a trypanosome pre-mRNA transcript and serve as the catalysts for RNA editing, rather than proteins, are called ________.
Describe how a mature tRNA’s three-dimensional structure positions its two functional ends.
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15.5 Ribosomes and Protein Synthesis
A tRNA that interacts with the start codon, binds directly to the ribosome’s P site, and links to a special methionine to begin a polypeptide chain is called the ________.
Which ribosomal component is responsible for binding the mRNA template, while the other subunit sequentially binds tRNAs?
Describe how an aminoacyl tRNA synthetase “charges” a tRNA with its corresponding amino acid.
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Chapter 16: Gene Expression
16.1 Regulation of Gene Expression
The final level of active protein in a cell depends not only on the rate of synthesis but also on the rate of ________ of mRNA and protein.
Which cellular process is thought to have evolved to let a cell quickly shut off gene expression for a short time and survive a viral or parasitic infection?
How does the pattern of gene expression differ between prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms?
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16.2 Prokaryotic Gene Regulation
The Z gene of the lac operon encodes which product, the one that breaks lactose down into glucose and galactose?
The series of genes necessary to synthesize tryptophan in prokaryotic cells is called the ________.
Explain how a drop in glucose levels leads to increased transcription of the genes needed to process an alternative sugar source, in terms of cAMP and CAP.
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16.3 Eukaryotic Epigenetic Gene Regulation
Adding acetyl groups to histone proteins makes their charge less positive. What effect does this have on the binding between the histones and DNA?
Transcriptional access to eukaryotic DNA is controlled in which two general ways?
What does it mean for a gene to be imprinted, and how can parental diet affect this?
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16.4 Eukaryotic Transcription Gene Regulation
The TATA box, located 25 to 35 bases upstream of the transcriptional start site, is the binding site for which protein complex?
Proteins that bend the DNA so that a distant enhancer region can come into contact with the promoter are called ________ proteins.
How do transcriptional repressors block gene transcription in eukaryotic cells?
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16.5 Eukaryotic Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation
Ribonucleoprotein complexes that recognize the two ends of an intron, cut the pre-mRNA transcript at those points, and bring the exons together for ligation are called ________.
After a mature miRNA binds to a complementary mRNA sequence as part of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), what can happen to that mRNA?
How do the 5′ cap and poly-A tail protect a eukaryotic mRNA molecule?
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16.6 Eukaryotic Translational and Post-translational Gene Regulation
In eukaryotes, translation is initiated by binding the initiating met-tRNAi to ________.
What happens immediately after the anticodon of the initiator tRNA aligns with the start codon AUG during translation initiation?
What does the addition of a ubiquitin group signal for a protein, and where is that protein sent as a result?
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16.7 Cancer and Gene Regulation
The most-studied tumor-suppressor gene, which is mutated in over 50 percent of all cancer types, encodes a protein that carries out which function in the cell?
The protein that mediates the cell-death pathway and comes in a long and a short form is called ________.
What is personalized medicine, and how does understanding gene expression patterns in individual tumors make it possible?
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Chapter 17: Biotechnology and Genomics
17.1 Biotechnology
Which bacterium is the source of Taq polymerase, the heat-stable enzyme PCR uses to synthesize new DNA strands?
A single-stranded overhang left by a restriction endonuclease’s staggered cut, able to anneal with a complementary overhang, is called a ________.
What is parthenogenesis, and how does fertilization determine whether an insect or reptile’s parthenogenic egg develops into a male or a female?
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17.2 Mapping Genomes
A gene or sequence on a chromosome with a known location that is associated with a specific trait is called a ________.
Which physical mapping method uses x-rays to break DNA into fragments, so that increased or decreased recombination frequency does not affect the resulting map?
How do variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs) and microsatellite polymorphisms differ as genetic markers?
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17.3 Whole-Genome Sequencing
An individual DNA monomer that is missing a hydroxyl group at the site where another nucleotide normally attaches is called a ________.
Which technique can provide information about all six billion base pairs in the human genome, compared to the roughly one million genotypic abnormalities detectable by DNA microarrays?
How does pairwise-end sequencing improve on the original shotgun sequencing method, which analyzed only one end of each DNA fragment for overlaps?
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17.4 Applying Genomics
According to genome analysis at the individual level, approximately what percentage of diseases in developed countries results from a single-gene defect?
Genomics is applied to developments such as generating new biofuels, ________ using mitochondria, advances in forensic science, and improvements in agriculture.
How can a patient’s genome sequence information help a doctor prescribe medication under pharmacogenomics?
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17.5 Genomics and Proteomics
Which protein-imaging technique uses atoms’ magnetic properties to determine a protein’s three-dimensional structure in aqueous solution?
How does two-hybrid screening reveal whether a bait protein and a prey protein interact?
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Unlike a genome, a proteome is ________ and in constant flux, which makes it both more complicated and more useful than the knowledge of genomes alone.
This knowledge check is written for Unit 3 (Chapters 11–17) of Biology 2e by Mary Ann Clark, Jung Choi, Matthew Douglas, and OpenStax, © OpenStax, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Access the original for free at openstax.org. Changes: every question is locally written from the pinned text of the chapters’ own modules — their section summaries, glossary definitions, body passages, and comparison tables — and none is transcribed from the book’s exercise sets, which the section pages already carry; no question carries a hint, and every self-check carries a rubric that decomposes a model answer made of the module’s own sentences.