AP Biology Test Review: Areas of Expertise

Ashley Stockton Eli Henke Period 6 5/7/2009

5. Cellular respiration is the most prevalent and efficient catabolic pathway in which oxygen is consumed as a reactant along with organic fuel. Cellular respiration occurs in four stages glycolysis, the oxidation of pyruvate, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. Glycolysis occurs in the cytosol and begins the degradation by breaking glucose down into two molecules of a compound called pyruvate. Glycolysis produces a net gain of 2 ATP and 2 NADH, an energy-carrying molecule. Water is also released in this reaction. The oxidation of pyruvate is powered by the redox reactions that transfer electrons from food to oxygen. This energy is stored in a form the mitochondrion can use to make ATP. This produces 1 NADH per pyruvate, for a total of 2 NADH per glucose. Carbon dioxide is also released in this reaction. The Krebs cycle takes place within the mitochondrial matrix and decomposes a derivative of pyruvate to carbon dioxide. The Electron transport chain is a series of molecules embedded in the inner membrane of the mitochondria. 10 NADH molecules and 2 FADH2 are converted to 32 ATP molecules. Oxygen is consumed and water is produced. The metabolism of glucose has several pathways used to complete the oxidation. The first pathway is glycolysis. Glycolysis is the decomposition of glucose to pyruvate. Nine products are than formed. Glycolysis takes 1 glucose and urns it into 2 pyruvate, 2 NADH, and a net of 2 ATP. The reaction in glycolysis, than produces Pyruvate which has two different aerobic reactions depending on the availability of oxygen. The first one is exhibited when you work out and than feel sore after. This is due to the fact that you run out of oxygen when you work out. The oxygen is needed to continue the oxidation of pyruvate to CO2 and H2O in the pathways. So pyruvate and NADH build up in your muscles. You need ATP to keep running so you have to keep glycolysis going, but the

oxidizing agent used in glycolysis (NAD+) is converted to NADH. Unlike oxygen, which you constantly breath in, you only have a limited "pool" of NAD+ in your cells. To regenerate it you need to take NADH and reoxidize it back to NAD+. This occurs as whatever oxidizes the NADH is reduced. To get NAD+ regenerated in the absence of oxygen, the enyzme lactate dehydrogenase reduces pyruvate to lactate. So in a nut shell lactate acid builds causing you to feel sore. The other is like a marathon in which 4 more CO2 molecules to produce to fully convert all of the C atoms in Glucose to CO2. Kreb Cycle is the 2 pathway and it is described above. Than the 3rd pathway is the electron transport chain is the system which regenerates NAD+ during aeroboic conditions. This pathway occurs in the mitochondria of the cells. NADH passes two electrons through a series of membrane protein catalyst to a series of small electron carriers which accept more and more electrons. The process of electron transport is coupled to the synthesis of ATP from ADP and Pi, catalyzed by the membrane protein ATPase. So in the process of reforming NAD+, we make lots of ATP which can be used to power unfavored reactions such as DNA synthesis. The pea lab exhibited how cellular respiration works under different conditions. In the pea lab the rates of respiration were examined 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. The experiment concluded that room temperature is optimum for cellular respiration and that germinating peas do consume more oxygen. It also came to the conclusion that the more time the peas germinated for the more oxygen would be needed resulting in a need for bigger glass containers such as beakers.

8. Mendel conducted an experiment in which he crossed two true breeding (when they self pollinate and all there offspring are of the same variety) pea plants, one with white flowers and the other with purple flowers. This monohybrid cross ( a cross that tracks a single inheritance) reveled two key principles: the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment. Mendels Law of Segregation sates that allele pairs separate during gamete formation and randomly re-form pairs during the fusion of gametes at fertilization. Mendels second law, the Law of Independent Assortment states that each allele pair segregates independently during gamete formation; applies when genes for two traits are located on different pairs of homologous chromosomes. Dihybrid cross is the mating of parental varieties differing in to characteristics. Mendel than designed an experiment to see what would result from a dihybrid. His experiment resulted in the F2 generation containing parental types and recombinant types. The segregation behavior concluded to be the same as in a monohybrid cross. Sex-linked or Autosomal traits can be determined by looking at the males from the F1 and the reciprocal F1 crosses. If a trait is sex-linked, then the males from the F1 crosses will always have the phenotype of their homozyous mothers. Therefore the results of the reciprocal F1 crosses will be different. Males may or may not resemble their sisters depending on dominance. If the males from the reciprocal F1 crosses look the same and they look like their sisters then the trait is autosomal.

16. Monocots and dicots differ in many ways. Monocots contain: one cotyledon, usually parallel veins, vascular bundles which are usually complexly arranged, fibrous root system, and floral plants in multiples of threes. While dicots contain: two cotyledons, usually netlike veins, vascular bundles which are usually arranged in a ring, taproot usually present and floral plants in multiples of fours or fives. Taproots which are usually found in dicots consist of one large ventricle root which has smaller lateral roots coming out of its sides. Taproots serve as a firm anchor which keeps the plant from being pulled up easily. Some taproots have adapted to arid climates by taping into water sources below the ground. While others store large amounts of food and than use these reserves flower which is why crops are harvested before they flower. Monocots on the other hand have fibrous root systems which have a mat of threadlike roots. This root system gives monocots significant water exposure. However they are not as well rooted in the ground as taproots making them more vulnerable to being pulled out. These plants hold the top layer and help prevent erosion, perhaps the reason behind why grass is so popular in yards. In both monocots and dicots the absorption of water and minerals occurs near the root tips which have root hairs (extensions of individual epidermal cells on the root surface). Stems (an alternating system of nodes, the points at which leaves are attached and internodes, the stem segments between nodes) are either complexly arranged like in a monocot or ring shaped like in a dicot. The differences between monocots and dicots occur in the structure of the epidermis, ground tissue and vascular tissue within a cell. Besides that they are basically the same. In a monocots epidermis the trichomes which is present in the dicot is absent. They do however both contain a cuticle in there epidermis.

The dicots ground tissue is differentiated into a cortex, epidermis, pericycle, medullary rays and pith. Whereas the monocots round tissue is undifferentiated. Vascular tissue in a monocot is numerous, irregularly scattered, with a present bundle sheath and an absent bundle cap. While a dicots vascular tissue contains eight, in the form of a ring, with a present bundle cap and an absent bundle sheath. Leaves or the main photosynthetic organ of the plant differ in there arrangement of there veins when referring to monocots and dicots. Monocots have parallel veins which run the length of the leaf blade while dicots have a multi-branched network of veins. The transportation of water/minerals and sugar in plants occurs in three steps. First the uptake and release of water and minerals from the soil by roots and root hairs, second the short distances transport of substances from one cell to another, third the long distances transport of sap within xylem and phloem at the level of the whole plant. Root pressure begins the transfer by providing a slight push once the minerals and water have been absorbed by the root hairs.

20. The excretory system disposes of metabolic waste and responds to imbalances in the body by taking corrective measures such as adding the lacking substance or decreasing the surplus of certain ions. Excretory systems for the most part produce urine thru two means: filtration and refinement. In filtration fluids are exposed to a filtering system made of selective permeable membranes of transport epithelia. These membranes are able to retain large molecules such as protein while forcing out water and other small solutes like amino acids, salt, sugar, and nitrogenous waste. The aqueous solution than present in the excretory system is called the filtrate. Urine is than formed by the filtrate by one of two methods. Both methods utilize active transport and the first method called reabsorption selectively transports water and other solutes such as salts and glucose back into the body fluids. Secretion the other hand removes solutes from the body fluids and adds them to the filtrate. This process can be thought of as someone cleaning out there old closet. First they remove all the small items than return anything useful and than they move on to the big items and discard anything that is unwanted or not needed. Kidneys function in both excretion and osmoregulation and are bean-shaped organs. Blood enters the kidneys thru the renal artery and leave thru the renal vein. They receive 20% of the blood with each heartbeat however they only account for 1% of the total human bodys weight. Urine than exits the kidney thru the ureter which drains into a common urinary bladder and than leaves the body thru a tube known as the urethra. The kidneys divide into two regions the otter renal cortex and the inner renal medulla. Both

regions are packed with excretory tubules called nephrons (which consist of a single long tubule and a ball of capillaries called glomerulus and are the functional unit of the kidney), and collecting ducts. The other end of the nephrons tubule forms a cup shaped swelling called Bowmans capsule.

21. In excitable cell such as neuron and muscle cells depolarizing stimulus is graded with stimulus only up to up to a certain level of intensity know as the threshold potential. When a threshold potential is reached in these cells an action potential reaction is triggered. The threshold potential is usually in-between 15 to 20 mV which is more positive than resting potential. The action potential is a nerve impulse. This nerve impulse can be prevented by a hyperpolarization due to the fact that they make it more difficult. The nerve impulse is an all or nothing occurrence. The size of the action potential is completely independent of the depolarizing strength from which it was produced. Once triggered the membrane goes thru a series of changes these occur in about 2-3 msec. During this process the permeability to sodium increases rapidly and then decreases back to normal. This change is responsible for the rapid depolarization of the cell as sodium rushes in down its electrochemical gradient.