Biology 3451 Name:_____________________________

Exam I, Fall ‘13

Read all of the possible answers for each question before choosing the BEST ANSWER.
You may write on the exam as you wish but it must be turned in with the Scantron®
before you leave.

1. The presently accepted theory explaining how we have achieved the diversity of life
we now find on Earth today was first presented by:
a. Wallace and Darwin.
b. Watson and Crick.
c. Cohen and Boyer.
d. Malthus.
e. Avery, McCarty and MacLeod.

2. A eukaryotic cell is described as being n = 50. This means that:

a. it has 25 pairs of chromosomes.
b. it is diploid.
c. after meiosis n will equal 25.
d. it is haploid.
e. Answers A, B and C are all correct.

3. The inheritance and expression patterns of the “cock feathering” phenotype in

domestic fowl is considered to be a classic example of the phenomenon known as:
a. expressivity.
b. genetic imprinting.
c. X-linked inheritance.
d. sex-influenced inheritance.
e. sex-limited inheritance.

4. An individual possesses both sexual systems (male and female). This individual
would be best described as:
a. prokaryotic.
b. disexual.
c. hermaphroditic.
d. asexual.
e. isogametic.

5. The concept that “DNA encodes RNA, which most often encodes a polypeptide” is
known as:
a. the translational dogma of genetics.
b. the primary dogma of genetics.
c. the inferential dogma of genetics.
d. the central dogma of genetics.
e. the transcriptional dogma of genetics.
6. The “endosymbiont theory” is now used to explain the origin of:
a. nuclei.
b. the endoplasmic reticulum.
c. chloroplasts.
d. the process of meiosis.
e. all membrane bound organelles.

7. You have chosen to perform genetics experiments with a model organism that
commonly/only produces two offspring, reproduces only once per year and is rather
expensive to maintain (feed). Regrettably, due to funding cuts, you are unable to
perform the number of crosses that you originally promised Mendel (your mentor)
that you would carry out. However, you still believe that you have sufficient data to
adequately and strongly support the hypothesis that he would like to present at the
next meeting of the Austrian Society of Geneticist Monks. To support/demonstrate
your point, you would be best advised to perform a/an ______ of your data.
a. Punnett square analysis
b. fork analysis.
c. Chi-square analysis.
d. null analysis.
e. P square analysis

8. In the case of humans, polar bodies are formed during:

a. Both male and female gametogenesis processes.
b. somatic meiosis.
c. spermatogenesis.
d. oogenesis.
e. karyokinesis.

9. The Bombay phenotype for a locus affecting/controlling human blood type is an

example of:
a. allelic complementation.
b. incomplete dominance.
c. pleiotrophy.
d. codominance.
e. epistasis.

10. The first person(s) to successfully assign/collect a group of genes (or mutant alleles of
genes if you prefer) that were located on the same eukaryotic chromosome was/were:
a. Thomas Morgan.
b. Calvin Bridges.
c. Watson and Crick.
d. Fred Griffith.
e. Sutton.
11. The physiological state which allows a bacterial cell to take up foreign DNA into the
cell and subsequently incorporate a strand of the DNA into its own chromosome is
called:
a. transformation.
b. conjugation.
c. transduction.
d. recombination.
e. competence.

12. In humans, 47,XXY individuals are said to suffer from:

a. sexual trisomy.
b. Klinefelter syndrome.
c. Turner syndrome.
d. Huntington disease.
e. fragile X syndrome.

13. At the beginning of metaphase I, the two homologous chromosomes of a tetrad are
held together at/by:
a. centromeres.
b. terminal chiasma.
c. centrioles.
d. synaptonemal complexes.
e. kinetochores.

14. Mendel’s early studies often found that F2 generation pea plants seemed to come with
either purple and white flowers in a three to one ratio (purple to white). In this
situation purple colored flowers would be most specifically considered a pea plant’s:
a. phenotype.
b. allele.
c. allotype.
d. variant.
e. genotype.

15. The famous white eyed mutant of Drosophila was first observed and studied by:
a. Alfred Sturtevant.
b. Malthus.
c. Gregor Mendel.
d. Thomas Morgan.
e. Sutton and Boveri.

16. An Hfr strain of E. coli would likely exhibit::

a. a high rate of gene transfer by conjugation.
b. a high level of competence.
c. a high susceptibility to transduction
d. a strong tendency to accept lysogenic bacteriophage.
e. resistance to multiple antibiotics.
17. A pair of homologous chromosomes during metaphase I (meiosis) is referred to as
a/an:
a. dyad.
b. monad.
c. synapse.
d. chiasma.
e. tetrad.

18. If one crosses two yellow coat mice one obtains offspring that are yellow and agouti
in a 2/3 and 1/3 proportion, respectively—not in quarters or even 16ths as might have
been expected. The explanation for this result involves:
a. experimental error.
b. incomplete dominance.
c. partial penetrance.
d. lethal alleles.
e. sex linkage.

19. A human female that lacks a Barr body would suffer from:
a. Turner syndrome.
b. Lyon syndrome.
c. cri-du-chat syndrome.
d. Klinefelter syndrome.
e. Patau syndrome.

20. In his “simultaneous infection studies” using mutants at the rII locus of the E. coli
phage T4, Benzer observed that sometimes infecting E. coli simultaneously with two
phage with mutations in the rII region did not give any plaques while other
combinations of mutant rII region phage did in fact yield plaques on the plate Benzer
called the phenomenon that led to the production of plaques from the two combined
phage:
a. lysogeny.
b. syntenny.
c. positive interference.
d. complementation.
e. transduction.

21. Which of the following processes is considered a reduction division in the context of
genetics?
a. mitosis
b. meiosis I
c. meiosis II
d. All of the above are considered reduction divisions because each reduces the
DNA content of the resultant cells by half.
e. None of a-c are considered reduction divisions because each doubles the cell
number after cytokinesis.
22. An example of a species that contains individuals who are “naturally” considered
hermaphroditic is:
a. N. crassa.
b. Chlamydomonas.
c. D. melanogaster.
d. Zea mays.
e. C. elegans.

23. The term that best describes those genetic elements that can either replicate
independently or as part of the bacterial chromosome is:
a. prophage.
b. lysogens.
c. plasmids.
d. episomes.
e. transposable elements.

24. The frequency of sister chromatid exchanges is increased by?

a. colchicine.
b. excessive tandem repeat regions.
c. colicins.
d. DNA damage.
e. None of the above affects the rate of sister chromatid infection.

25. An E. coli strain that requires a minimal growth media to be supplemented with
methionine and leucine would be termed a/an:
a. prototroph.
b. autotroph.
c. ditroph.
d. auxotroph.
e. chemotroph.

26. During the short time that would constitute metaphase I, one each of the two sister
chromatids that in turn make up each of the two homologous chromosomes of a tetrad
are connected to each other by:
a. centromeres.
b. terminal chiasma.
c. centrioles.
d. synaptonemal complexes.
e. kinetochores

27. A male bird would be expected to be:

a. XX.
b. XY.
c. XO.
d. ZZ.
e. ZW.
28. A type of nuclease commonly found in many bacterial strains that cleaves DNA only
at specific nucleotide sequences is called a/an:
a. endonuclease.
b. restriction endonuclease.
c. exonuclease.
d. recombinase.
e. site specific recombinase.

29. During mitosis of mammalian cells, the chromosomes are connected to the spindle
apparatus through specialized structures called:
a. telomeres.
b. centrioles.
c. centromeres.
d. kinetochores.
e. basal bodies.

30. Extensive methylation of CpG dinucleotides within and around a gene cause the gene
to be turned off. The use of this modification of the DNA molecule as a mechanism
to turn off genes in a heritable fashion turned out to be the explanation for a genetic
phenomenon called:
a. genetic anticipation.
b. epistasis.
c. genetic imprinting.
d. infectious inheritance.
e. position effect.

31. Lederberg and Tatum are known as the discovers of the phenomenon/process termed:
a. transformation.
b. transduction.
c. conjugation.
d. gene conversion.
e. linkage.

32. Nearly all of the oocytes found in the ovary of a teenage human female will be:
a. suspended in interphase.
b. in G0.
c. suspended in prophase I.
d. suspended in metaphase II.
e. suspended between meiosis I and meiosis II.

33. Mendel used monohybrid crosses to demonstrate the phenomenon of:

a. segregation.
b. meiosis.
c. mitosis.
d. independent assortment.
 e. heterozygosity.

34. The random distribution of orange and black patches in the calico cat is a classic
illustration of:
a. mitotic recombination.
b. the Lyon hypothesis.
c. position effect.
d. nondisjunction.
e. gene conversion.

35. You have 16 offspring (still trying for a boy???):

1/4 of all your offspring have the genes to give them Blood Type A
1/2 of all your offspring have the genes to give them Blood Type A/B
1/4 of all your offspring have the genes to give them Blood Type B

1/4 of all of your offspring are also homozygous for the non-functioning mutant allele
of the FUT1 gene and do not form H substance.

How many of your offspring have the Bombay phenotype?

a. 1
b. 4
c. 9
d. 3
e. None of them

36. Which of the following individuals would NOT be called heterogametic?

a. ZW bird.
b. XY human
c. X0 insect
d. All of the above are heterogametic.
e. None of the above is heterogametic.

37. The genes for colicins and resistance to antibiotics are commonly encoded by::
a. bacteriophage.
b. plasmids.
c. kappa particles.
d. bacterial host chromosomes.
e. prophage.

38. An example of a dosage compensation solution, when appropriate, that is utilized

by homo sapiens is:
a. inactivation of the Y chromosome.
b. Barr bodies.
c. inactivation of SRY.
d. activation of an additional Y chromosome.
 e. epigenetics.
39. Genetic information is transferred from one bacterial cell to another by means of a
bacteriophage. This is an example of:
a. transformation.
b. conjugation.
c. prototrophy.
d. autotrophy.
e. transduction.

40. The protein structures that are assembled in the regions between homologous
chromosomes during the early phases of meiosis I are called:
a. synaptonemal complexes.
b. centromeres.
c. chiasmata.
d. kinetochores.
e. dyads.

41. The pattern of inheritance shown is the pedigree below is most consistent with the
allele under study being:
a. autosomal recessive.
b. autosomal dominant.
c. X-linked recessive.
d. X-linked dominant.
e. autosomal codominant.

42. During the process of genetic recombination a specialized structure is assembled

between the two chromosomes at the point of the genetic exchange. This structure is
called a:
a. centrosome.
b. centromere.
c. chiasma.
d. kinetochore.
 e. dyad.

43. Which of the following human genetic-based disorders does NOT have a delayed
onset of symptoms?
a. Tay-Sachs disease
b. Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
c. Duchenne muscular dystrophy
d. Huntington disease
e. All of the above have a delayed onset of symptoms and affected individuals
show few if any symptoms at birth.

44. Converting the colorless flower pigment precursor #1 to the yellow colored pigment
#2 can be accomplished by either of two single enzyme pathways. The first pathway
is encoded by locus A (alleles “A” for functional and “a” for the inactive recessive)
and the alternative second pathway by locus B (again “B” is the wt functional allele
and “b” is the nonfunctional recessive allele). A cross of an AABB plant with an aabb
plant gives an F1 generation all with yellow flowers. The expected ratio of yellow to
white plants in the F2 generation would be:
a. 3:1.
b. 1:3.
c. 9:7.
d. 15:1.
e. 12:4.

45. The expression of the MN group of human blood antigens is an example of:
a. allelic complementation.
b. incomplete dominance.
c. pleiotrophy.
d. codominance.
e. epistasis.

46. Height in humans is a classic example of a trait that exhibits:

a. continuous variation.
b. incomplete dominance.
c. pleiotrophy.
d. codominance.
e. epistasis.

47. During the cell cycle, which of the following is not considered to be part of
interphase?
a. S phase
b. G1
c. G2
d. G0
e. All of the above are considered to be part of interphase.
48. The process of transferring genetic information from one bacterium to another
through via the release of “naked” DNA into the medium and the uptake of this DNA
directly from the medium, followed by incorporation/recombination with the
recipient bacterium’s genetic material, is called
a. transduction.
b. transformation.
c. conjugation.
d. segregation.
e. cotransformation.

49. The first genetic map, using Drosophila to measure crossover frequencies, was
actually and personally constructed by:
a. Alfred Sturtevant.
b. Sutton and Boveri.
c. Gregor Mendel.
d. Thomas Morgan.
e. Messelson and Stahl.

50. Three genes, designated red, wht and blu, have been mapped to autosome number 2
of a Drosophila species native only to the U.S. A red wht blu (NOTE this may not
be the correct order and only indicates the alleles at each locus) fly was crossed to
a + + + fly. One of the resulting female offspring was testcrossed to a male true
breeding red wht blu fly. The results for the offspring of the testcross are given in the
table below (the boxes at right are for your use). What is the correct order of these 3
genes on the chromosome?

Offspring Phenotype Number Total and % Exchange

Classification
red wht blu 300 1120
+ + + 300 56%
red + blu 100 400
+ wht + 100 20%
red wht + 400 80
+ + blu 400 4%
+ wht blu 200 400
red + + 200 20%

a. red wht blu

b. blu red wht
c. red blu wht
d. blu wht red
e. Based upon these results the order cannot be determined.
51. Portions of the human Y chromosome share sequence homology with portions of the
human X chromosome. These regions are called:
a. SRYs.
b. PARs.
c. TDFs.
d. MSYs.
e. heterochromatin.

52. It was once believed (based upon observations) that the offspring of two parents
would/should be a blend of their parents’ phenotypes (e.g. red x white would give
pink, pink x white would give lighter pink). Had this been correct, Mendel would not
have observed discrete genetic factors (specific variants of a trait) but would have
virtually always observed a phenomenon called:
a. complete dominance.
b. averaging.
c. continuous variation.
d. natural selection.
e. selectional blending.