Review sheet for the material covered by exam I
WARNING: I have tried to be complete, but I may have missed something. You are
responsible for all the material discussed in class. This is only a guide.
1) Introduction to Biology:
What is the definition of biology? What is life? Be able to define both terms.
What are the different levels at which we can study biology (e.g., biosphere, ecosystem, etc.)?
What is the scientific method? What is the difference between discovery and hypothesis based
science? What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning? What are some
examples of each?
Why is biology increasingly important in today's society (even if you don't like it!!)?
2) Chemistry
What is an element? What are the most common elements in organisms? What are trace
elements? Why are they needed? Make sure you can give some examples of each.
What is a compound? Molecule? Does a compound (or molecule) have the same properties as
the elements making it up? Give some examples.
What is an atom? What three parts of atoms did we discuss in class? What are the properties of
each of these parts? What is the structure of atoms?
What is the difference between protons and neutrons? Which determines the properties
of the atom? Which can vary in number (and not change nature of the "element")?
What are radioactive isotopes? Give an example.
What is an electron shell? How many electrons do atoms have in their electron shells?
How many do they want in their electron shells?
What types of bonds can hold atoms together? Why do these bonds work?
What is a covalent bond? Know some examples of molecules with covalent bonds.
What is a single/double/triple covalent bond?
What is the chemical makeup of water?
What is an ionic bond? Why does this bond work (what keeps the atoms stuck
together)?
Know some examples of compounds with ionic bonds.
What is a hydrogen bond? Why can water form hydrogen bonds? What properties do hydrogen
bonds give to water (there's a long list here (e.g., evaporation, ice being less dense than water,
surface tension, etc.) - make sure you know it)? Why are these properties important (know why
each is important?
What is pH? What is the difference between something at pH 10 and pH 11? What is an acid?
A base? What is a buffer? Why are buffers important? What happens if blood pH changes too
much? What is the pH of blood? What is acid rain?
What is a chemical reaction?
3) Biological molecules
Which element are most biological molecules based on? Why?
What are different ways of representing molecules? What are hydrocarbons? Know some
simple hydrocarbons (as explained in class).
What are functional groups?
hydroxyl, carbonyl (ketones & aldehydes), carboxyl, amino, phosphate
What do each of these look like? What do they do?
What is a polar molecule? Non-polar? What role do functional groups play in this?
What can happen with if the functional group of a molecule is changed?
What are the four main groups of biological molecules? What is a monomer? Polymer?
Approximately how many biologically common monomers are there?
What is a dehydration reaction? What is hydrolysis? Be able to identify and illustrate
these reactions.
What is a carbohydrate? What functional groups does it have? What is a monosaccharide?
Disaccharide? Polysaccharide? What are isomers?
What are some common monosaccharides? disacchides? polysaccharides?
What is the difference between starch, glycogen & cellulose?
What are modified carbohydrates? What are some examples?
What are lipids? What monomers do they have? (glycerol (or related molecule) and fatty acid
chains). How do fatty acid chains hook into glycerol? What good is fat (what can it be used
for)? What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats?
Other than fats, what other lipids did we discuss? What are some of the properties of
these?
What are proteins? What are they made up of? What is a peptide bond? How many different
amino acids are there? What do all amino acids have in common? What is different about the
20 different amino acids? What is the ultimate shape of a protein?
What is primary structure? Secondary? Tertiary? Quaternary? What is the difference
between a polypeptide and a protein (if any)?
Make sure you know the details here - what does the primary sequence do?
What is an alpha helix? a beta pleated sheet? What role do hydrogen bonds
play?
How can 20 amino acids give rise to over a trillion different proteins? What happens
when a protein denatures? What can cause a protein to denature?
What are nucleic acids? What three parts make up a nucleotide (what is a nucleotide, anyway?)
What are nitrogenous bases? How are these different in DNA and RNA (know the names of
these!!). What does/can each sequence of three nucleotides do?
4) Cells
What are some different kinds of microscopes? How small can we see things? What is the
difference between resolution and magnification?
What is the range of cell sizes? Know the metric system! Particularly for length!
What is the limit to the size of cells (why can't we have huge cells?) What is the surface
area to volume ratio? Why is this important? Make sure you can follow the example in
the notes and in the book (comparing one large cell to nine smaller cells).
What is the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells? Which is more primitive?
What features do prokaryotes and eukaryotes share?
What is a ribosome? Nucleus? Organelle?
What is a cell wall? What is a capsule? What are pilli? flagella?
What advantages do eukaryotic cells have over prokaryotic cells? What are the main
differences between plant and animal cells?
What happens in a cell's nucleus? What is a nucleolus? What is the nuclear envelope?
What is the endomembrane system? Is this connected? Why or why not? What do each of the
following structures look like?
What happens in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum (smooth ER)? Notice that this can
have several different function depending on where it's located.
Does it have ribosomes? What can be made here? What can be stored (and
released here)?
What is the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rough ER)? What function do ribosomes
play here? What happens to products made in the rough ER? What can the rough ER
do to membranes?
What is the Golgi apparatus? What are the sacs? What is the receiving side? What are
vessicles? What is the main function of the Golgi apparatus?
What are lysosomes? What happens to old or injured organelles? What can happen if
lysosomes are defective? Give an example.
What are vacuoles? How are they different from lysosomes? What can vacuoles do?
What is a peroxisome? Give an example (what happens to hydrogen peroxide?).
What are chloroplasts? How many membranes do they have? What do they do (and what is
photosyntheses)? What do they look like?
What about mitochondria? How many membranes do they have? What do they do? What do
they look like? What is a cristae? What is the mitochondrial matrix?
What is the internal skeleton of cells? What is the cytoskeleton?
What are microfilaments? intermediate filaments? microtubules? How are they
similar? Different? What do each of these do? What do each of these look like?
What are cilia and flagella? What are they used for? Do humans have these? What is the
physical arrangement of these structures? What do we mean by a 9 + 2 arrangement? What
does this look like? How does it work (what role do Dynein arms play?). What is a basal
body? How about centrioles?
How do cell surfaces protect and communicate with their surroundings? What is a cell wall?
What are plasmodesmata? What three ways can animal cells attach themselves to one another?
When is each of these three methods used? Why? What are the advantages and disadvantages
of each?
The book provides a useful summary of many of these cell structures in a table (4.19 in the 5th
edition) at the end of the chapter. You might want to go through the table.