Format:  

• A third of the test is multiple choice, including some simple genetics problems related to recent biotechnological advances, like gene testing and genetic engineering.  Most multiple choice questions will come from the help page materials and sample questions, including those specified in the textbook.
• The second third is other types of evaluation--short essays and other short written answers (ID's, analyses of news stories, experiment summaries (including the take-home part), examples, compare and contrasts), maybe a graph or sketches to explain a process (like DNA fingerprints or speciation or changing gene pool frequencies).  
• The third third is the best of the other thirds counted again.    
• Really important stuff like DNA, mutations, probes, sequencing, natural selection, , laws and theories,  and news stories could be in both parts. 
• Many questions from both sections will come from excerpts of these articles:   
  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/uoia-get100603.php    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/cshl-rtg100103.php 
  http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/09_03/dog_genome.shtml  
  and the experiments emphasized in lectures and the CD activities

TAKE-HOME QUESTION:
Use the summary form to summarize this news story:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/uoia-get100603.php . 
If you also email your form, your paper will be among the first to be graded. The take-home part must be your own work; no collaborating or assisting is allowed except from lab assistants or the learning center tutors.  Write the honor pledge on your summary form.

Because we have only 50 minutes to take this test, the content will be spotty.  This means that your coverage must be thorough unless you are incredibly lucky. 

old tests

1. 2002 (Jurassic chicken) test with answers

2. 2001 test with answers

3. mostly evolution & DNA tech tests

   • 2000 test

   • 1999 test

   • 1998 test

Other helps

• DNA technology (chapters 16-17) 
• Tool list
• News with tools
• Fly genetics [lab 7 ]
• Evolution [chapters 21, 22, 23, 24]
• evolution news
• molecular analysis of evolution
• Behavior and behavior research news[chapter 47 

Most Important Concepts to REVIEW for TEST 3.

• Science involves the careful use of inductive and deductive logic in the formulation of hypotheses and the testing of predictions by observation. To be useful, hypotheses must be testable and falsifiable. [Demonstrate with  experiment summaries]
• Evolution, one of the great unifying concepts of biology, explains how organisms are related and how they adapt to changes in the environment. [How does it unify? Examples of what's been explained & how?] Evolution is a genetic change in a population (not just an individual). [CNXN: DNA, RNA, proteins, adaptations, gene pools, gene flow, genetic drift, gene frequency distributions,  natural selection,  speciation, non-coding DNA,etc?] 
• Adaptations are phenotypes which increase the probability of success in the particular habitat where individuals compete to reproduce, to avoid predators and to capture prey,  maybe to migrate etc.  These adaptations are the focus of most news stories on natural selection.  To understand natural selection well,  you must try to imagine that the "selective agents" or factors in a particular habitat would tend to "weed out" individuals with noncompetitive phenotypes, controlled by genes which affect camouflage, speed, visual acuity, agility, intelligence, metabolism, number and sizes of eggs in a clutch, sizes of seeds and hardness of their coats, beak size of seed-eating birds, anti-herbivore toxins in leaves, sexy smells, hairiness, hair color....  The alleles of the most competitive individuals become more frequent in the next generation.  In other words, the population becomes better adapted. 
• A species is a group of more or less distinct organisms sharing a gene pool. Speciation requires evolution and  gene pool isolation. [list types and examples of each]    
• During cell division, chromosomes are distributed to the resulting cells in orderly fashion. Chromosomes are made of DNA and special proteins. Since genes' loci are on chromosomes, genes are generally inherited in the same manner as are the chromosomes to which they belong.  Meiosis produces four haploid daughter cells, each containing genetically different combinations, one chromosome from each homologous parental pair, and the homologs may have been recombined during crossing-over. [Explain cnxn to sex, speciation, hybrid infertility, nondisjunction, inheritance, mapping....]
• Modern biology's central focus is DNA. Organisms consist of cells; DNA is the basis of the mechanisms which make cells grow, move, reproduce and inherit characteristics, carry on self-regulated metabolism, respond to stimuli, and adapt to environmental changes. [write a book tracing....List CNXNs; how does DNA control enzymes & metabolism? ontogeny? phenotype? adaptations?  natural selection? reproductive isolation? behavior?] 
• Central Dogma:
  • fig.   13.1
  • Information Flow segment of CD Activity 13.2     
  • pp. 252-3
• [DNA--->RNA--->protein] The information needed to construct each protein is stored in nucleic acids, usually DNA, a double-helix-shaped macromolecule composed of a specific sequence of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide contains a sugar, a phosphate, and a base--adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymidine (or uracil in RNA). [how does this structure store information?]
• Transcription is the synthesis of RNA, using DNA as a template. [how?]  Transcripts are "hybridized" on chips to analyze gene expression and how it changes with location, age, and disease.
• Translation is the synthesis of protein, using ribosomes, rRNA, mRNA, & tRNA. [how?  mucho details required, of course].  Phenotypes result from the proteins' actions.  
• Genes are the segments of DNA which serve as templates to transcribe mRNA, the molecule which specifies the sequence of amino acids in proteins. Each three-base sequence (genetic codon) "translates" into one amino acid in a protein. [connect to protein structure/function, mutation, natural selection, adaptation, behavior]
• Genetic engineering is the deliberate manipulation of genes to construct different phenotypic characteristics. [What challenges does the real world face as a result? How might your future be affected by DNA technology like DNA sequencing or RFLPs or SNPs or DNAchips or probe hybridization or DNA fingerprints or genetic screening?] Biologists do not create genes from scratch; they modify existing genes and sometimes incorporate them into different species. [How? explain restriction enzyme, PCR, DNA polymerase, primer, plasmid]  Genetic engineering is faster than selective breeding and produces gene combinations which are highly unlikely to occur naturally. [so....] Nature seems to create genes by transposing segments from "junk" DNA. [explain!!!!]
• Proteins are macromolecules consisting of specific sequences of linked amino acid units. The sequence of the amino acids determines the shape and, thereby, the function of the protein. Some proteins are enzymes which regulate the body's chemical metabolism. [How does a mutated codon change the shape of a protein? or a behavior?]