BIOL 1108 Principles of Biology

Prof. Joyce Klaus, Ph.D.

Choose the BEST answer to each question.
Please do NOT write on this exam.
For true/false questions: A = true, B = false
No talking and ABSOLUTELY NO CELL PHONES!
1) Which of the following accounts for someone who has had a herpesvirus-mediated cold sore or
genital sore getting flare-ups for the rest of his or her life?
A) re-infection by a closely related herpesvirus of a different strain
B) re-infection by the same herpesvirus strain
C) co-infection with an unrelated virus that causes the same symptoms
D) copies of the herpesvirus genome copied and permanently maintained in host cell nuclei
Answer: D
2) Which of the following is characteristic of the lytic cycle of bacteriophage viruses?
A) Many bacterial cells containing viral DNA are produced.
B) Viral DNA is incorporated into the host genome.
C) The viral genome replicates without destroying the host.
D) A large number of phages are released at a time and the host cell is destroyed.
E) The virus-host relationship usually lasts for generations.
Answer: D
3) Which viruses have single-stranded RNA that acts as a template for DNA synthesis?
A) lytic phages
B) proviruses
C) viroids
D) bacteriophages
E) retroviruses
Answer: E
4) What is the function of reverse transcriptase in retroviruses?
A) It hydrolyzes the host cell's DNA.
B) It uses viral RNA as a template for DNA synthesis.
C) It converts host cell RNA into viral DNA.
D) It translates viral RNA into proteins.
E) It uses viral RNA as a template for making complementary RNA strands.
Answer: B
5) Which of the following describes plant virus infections?
A) They can be controlled by the use of antibiotics.
B) They are spread via the plasmodesmata.
C) They have little effect on plant growth.
D) They are seldom spread by insects.
E) They can never be passed vertically.
Answer: B
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6) Which of the following represents a difference between viruses and viroids?

A) Viruses infect many types of cells, whereas viroids infect only prokaryotic cells.
B) Viruses have capsids composed of protein, whereas viroids have no capsids.
C) Viruses contain introns, whereas viroids have only exons.
D) Viruses always have genomes composed of DNA, whereas viroids always have genomes composed
of RNA.
E) Viruses cannot pass through plasmodesmata, whereas viroids can.
Answer: B
7) The difference between vertical and horizontal transmission of plant viruses is that
A) vertical transmission is transmission of a virus from a parent plant to its progeny, and horizontal
transmission is one plant spreading the virus to another plant.
B) vertical transmission is the spread of viruses from upper leaves to lower leaves of the plant, and
horizontal transmission is the spread of a virus among leaves at the same general level.
C) vertical transmission is the spread of viruses from trees and tall plants to bushes and other smaller
plants, and horizontal transmission is the spread of viruses among plants of similar size.
D) vertical transmission is the transfer of DNA from one type of plant virus to another, and horizontal
transmission is the exchange of DNA between two plant viruses of the same type.
E) vertical transmission is the transfer of DNA from a plant of one species to a plant of a different
species, and horizontal transmission is the spread of viruses among plants of the same species.
Answer: A
8) What are prions?
A) mobile segments of DNA
B) tiny molecules of RNA that infect plants
C) viral DNA that has had to attach itself to the host genome
D) infectious, misfolded versions of normal brain protein
E) viruses that invade bacteria
Answer: D

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Art Questions

9) Which of the three types of viruses shown above would you expect to include glycoproteins?
A) I only
B) II only
C) III only
D) I and II only
E) all three
Answer: D
10) Which of the three types of viruses shown above would you expect to include a capsid(s)?
A) I only
B) II only
C) III only
D) I and II only
E) all three
Answer: E
11) Which of the following characteristics, structures, or processes is common to both bacteria and
viruses?
A) metabolism
B) ribosomes
C) genetic material composed of nucleic acid
D) cell division
E) independent existence
Answer: C
12) Which of the following is the correct sequence of events in the origin of life?
I.
formation of protobionts (i.e. protocell or cell-like things)
II.
synthesis of organic monomers
III.
synthesis of organic polymers
IV.
formation of DNA-based genetic systems
A) I, II, III, IV
B) I, III, II, IV
C) II, III, I, IV
D) II, III, IV, I
Answer: C
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13) Approximately how far back in time does the fossil record extend?
A) 3.5 million years
B) 5.0 million years
C) 3.5 billion years
D) 5.0 billion years
Answer: C
14) An early consequence of the release of oxygen gas by plant and bacterial photosynthesis was to
A) generate intense lightning storms.
B) change the atmosphere from oxidizing to reducing.
C) make it easier to maintain reduced molecules.
D) poison much of existing life of Earth.
E) prevent the formation of an ozone layer.
Answer: D
15) Which of the following statements provides the strongest evidence that prokaryotes evolved before
eukaryotes?
A) Prokaryotic cells lack nuclei.
B) The meteorites that have struck Earth contain fossils only of prokaryotes.
C) Laboratory experiments have produced liposomes abiotically.
D) Liposomes closely resemble prokaryotic cells.
E) The oldest fossilized cells resemble prokaryotes.
Answer: E
16) If it were possible to conduct sophisticated microscopic and chemical analyses of microfossils found
in 3.2-billion-year-old stromatolites, then one should be surprised to observe evidence of which of the
following within such microfossils?
I. double-stranded DNA
II. a nuclear envelope
III. a nucleoid
IV. a nucleolus
V. ribosomes
A) II only
B) III only
C) II and IV
D) II, III, and IV
E) all five of these
Answer: C
The following questions refer to the paragraph below.
A sediment core is removed from the floor of an inland sea. The sea has been in existence, off and on,
throughout the entire time that terrestrial life has existed. Researchers wish to locate and study the
terrestrial organisms fossilized in this core. The core is illustrated as a vertical column, with the top of
the column representing the most recent strata and the bottom representing the time when land was first
colonized by life.

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Figure 25.2
17) If arrows indicate locations in the column where fossils of a particular type (see key above) first
appear, then which core in Figure 25.2 has the most accurate arrangement of fossils?
A) core A
B) core B
C) core C
D) core D
Answer: A
18) Fossilized stromatolites
A) all date from 2.7 billion years ago.
B) formed around deep-sea vents.
C) resemble structures formed by bacterial communities that are found today in some warm, shallow,
salty bays.
D) provide evidence that plants moved onto land in the company of fungi around 500 million years ago.
E) contain the first undisputed fossils of eukaryotes and date from 2.1 billion years ago.
Answer: C
19) The oxygen revolution changed Earth's environment dramatically. Which of the following took
advantage of the presence of free oxygen in the oceans and atmosphere?
A) the evolution of cellular respiration, which used oxygen to help harvest energy from organic
molecules
B) the persistence of some animal groups in anaerobic habitats
C) the evolution of photosynthetic pigments that protected early algae from the corrosive effects of
oxygen
D) the evolution of chloroplasts after early protists incorporated photosynthetic cyanobacteria
E) the evolution of multicellular eukaryotic colonies from communities of prokaryotes
Answer: A
20) Which factor most likely caused animals and plants in India to differ greatly from species in nearby
southeast Asia?
A) The species have become separated by convergent evolution.
B) The climates of the two regions are similar.
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C) India is in the process of separating from the rest of Asia.

D) Life in India was wiped out by ancient volcanic eruptions.
E) India was a separate continent until 45 million years ago.
Answer: E
21) Linnaeus was a "fixist" who believed that species remained fixed in the form in which they had been
created. Linnaeus would have been uncomfortable with
A) classifying organisms using the morphospecies concept.
B) the scientific discipline known as taxonomy.
C) phylogenies.
D) nested, ever-more inclusive categories of organisms.
E) a hierarchical classification scheme.
Answer: C
22) Which of the following is (are) problematic when the goal is to construct phylogenies that accurately
reflect evolutionary history?
A) polyphyletic taxa
B) paraphyletic taxa
C) monophyletic taxa
D) Two of the responses are correct.
Answer: D
23) If, someday, an archaean cell is discovered whose rRNA sequence is more similar to that of humans
than the sequence of mouse rRNA is to that of humans, the best explanation for this apparent
discrepancy would be
A) homology.
B) homoplasy.
C) common ancestry.
D) retro-evolution by humans.
E) coevolution of humans and that archaean.
Answer: B
24) The best classification system is that which most closely
A) unites organisms that possess similar morphologies.
B) conforms to traditional, Linnaean taxonomic practices.
C) reflects evolutionary history.
D) reflects the basic separation of prokaryotes from eukaryotes.
Answer: C
25) Some molecular data place the giant panda in the bear family (Ursidae) but place the lesser panda in
the raccoon family (Procyonidae). Consequently, the morphological similarities of these two species are
probably due to
A) inheritance of acquired characteristics.
B) sexual selection.
C) inheritance of shared derived characters.
D) possession of analogous structures.
E) possession of shared primitive characters.
Answer: D
26) The importance of computers and of computer software to modern cladistics is most closely linked
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to advances in
A) light microscopy.
B) radiometric dating.
C) fossil discovery techniques.
D) Linnaean classification.
E) molecular genetics.
Answer: E
27) The common ancestors of birds and mammals were very early (stem) reptiles, which almost
certainly possessed three-chambered hearts (two atria, one ventricle). Birds and mammals, however, are
alike in having four-chambered hearts (two atria, two ventricles). The four-chambered hearts of birds
and mammals are best described as
A) structural homologies.
B) vestiges.
C) homoplasies.
D) the result of shared ancestry.
E) molecular homologies.
Answer: C
28) Cladograms (a type of phylogenetic tree) constructed from evidence from molecular systematics are
based on similarities in
A) morphology.
B) the pattern of embryological development.
C) biochemical pathways.
D) habitat and lifestyle choices.
E) mutations to homologous genes.
Answer: E
29) Which statement represents the best explanation for the observation that the nuclear DNA of wolves
and domestic dogs has a very high degree of sequence homology (e.g. # of homologous genes)?
A) Dogs and wolves have very similar morphologies.
B) Dogs and wolves belong to the same order.
C) Dogs and wolves are both members of the order Carnivora.
D) Dogs and wolves shared a common ancestor very recently.
Answer: D
30) Which kingdom has been replaced with two domains?
A) Plantae
B) Fungi
C) Animalia
D) Protista
E) Monera
Answer: E
31) Which eukaryotic kingdom is polyphyletic, and therefore unacceptable, based on cladistics?
A) Plantae
B) Fungi
C) Animalia
D) Protista
E) Monera
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Answer: D
Use Figure 26.1 to answer the following questions.

Figure 26.1
32) Which extinct species should be the best candidate to serve as the outgroup for the clade whose
common ancestor occurs at position 2 in Figure 26.1?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
Answer: A
Topic: Concept 26.3
Skill: Application/Analysis
33) If Figure 26.1 is an accurate depiction of relatedness, then which of the following should be correct?
1. The entire tree is based on maximum parsimony.
2. If all species depicted here make up a taxon, this taxon is monophyletic.
3. The last common ancestor of species B and C occurred more recently than the last common
ancestor of species D and E.
4. Species A is the direct ancestor of both species B and species C.
5. The species present at position 3 is ancestral to C, D, and E.
A) 1 and 3
B) 3 and 4
C) 2, 3, and 4
D) 1, 2, and 3
Answer: D
34) Based on this tree, which statement is not correct?

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A) The salamander lineage is a basal taxon.

B) Salamanders are a sister group to the group containing lizards, goats, and humans.
C) Salamanders are as closely related to goats as to humans.
D) Lizards are more closely related to salamanders than to humans.
Answer: D
35) Which statement about bacterial cell walls is false?
A) Bacterial cell walls differ in molecular composition from plant cell walls.
B) Cell walls prevent cells from bursting in hypotonic environments.
C) Cell walls prevent cells from dying in hypertonic conditions.
D) Bacterial cell walls are similar in function to the cell walls of many protists, fungi, and plants.
E) Cell walls provide the cell with a degree of physical protection from the environment.
Answer: C
36) Jams, jellies, preserves, honey, and other foodstuffs with high sugar content hardly ever become
contaminated by bacteria, even when the food containers are left open at room temperature. This is
because bacteria that encounter such an environment
A) undergo death by plasmolysis (process where cells lose H2O in a hypertonic environment.
B) are unable to metabolize the glucose or fructose, and thus starve to death.
C) experience lysis.
D) are obligate anaerobes.
E) are unable to swim through these thick and viscous materials.
Answer: A
37) Which two structures play direct roles in permitting bacteria to adhere to each other, or to other
surfaces?
1. capsules
2. endospores
3. fimbriae
4. plasmids
5. flagella
A) 1 and 2
B) 1 and 3
C) 2 and 3
D) 3 and 4
E) 3 and 5
Answer: B
38) If a bacterium regenerates from an endospore that did not possess any of the plasmids that were
contained in its original parent cell, the regenerated bacterium will probably also
A) lack antibiotic-resistant genes.
B) lack a cell wall.
C) lack a chromosome.
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D) lack water in its cytoplasm.

E) be unable to survive in its normal environment.
Answer: A
39) Regarding prokaryotic genetics, which statement is correct?
A) Crossing over during prophase I introduces some genetic variation.
B) Prokaryotes feature the union of haploid gametes, as do eukaryotes.
C) Prokaryotes exchange some of their genes by conjugation, the union of haploid gametes, and
transduction.
D) Mutation is a primary source of variation in prokaryote populations.
E) Prokaryotes skip sexual life cycles because their life cycle is too short.
Answer: D
40) Match the numbered terms to the description that follows. Choose all appropriate terms.
1. autotroph
2. heterotroph
3. phototroph
4. chemotroph
a prokaryote that obtains both energy and carbon as it decomposes dead organisms
A) 1 only
B) 4 only
C) 1 and 3
D) 2 and 4
E) 1, 3, and 4
Answer: D
41) Which of the following traits do archaeans and bacteria share?
1. composition of the cell wall
2. presence of plasma membrane
3. lack of a nuclear envelope
4. identical rRNA sequences
A) 1 only
B) 3 only
C) 1 and 3
D) 2 and 3
E) 2 and 4
Answer: D
42) The thermoacidophile, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, lacks peptidoglycan, but still possesses a cell
wall. What is likely to be true of this species?
1. It is a bacterium.
2. It is an archaean.
3. The optimal pH of its enzymes will lie above pH 7.
4. The optimal pH of its enzymes will lie below pH 7.
5. It could inhabit certain hydrothermal springs.
6. It could inhabit alkaline hot springs.
A) 1, 3, and 6
B) 2, 4, and 6
C) 2, 4, and 5
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D) 1, 3, and 5
E) 1, 4, and 5
Answer: C
43) In a hypothetical situation, a bacterium lives on the surface of a leaf, where it obtains nutrition from
the leaf's nonliving, waxy covering while inhibiting the growth of other microbes that are plant
pathogens. If this bacterium gains access to the inside of a leaf, however, it causes a fatal disease in the
plant. Once the plant dies, the bacterium and its offspring decompose the plant. What is the correct
sequence of ecological roles played by the bacterium in the situation described here? Use only those that
apply.
1. nutrient recycler
2. mutualist
3. commensal
4. parasite
5. primary producer
A) 1, 3, 4
B) 2, 3, 4
C) 2, 4, 1
D) 1, 2, 5
E) 1, 2, 3
Answer: C
44) Foods can be preserved in many ways by slowing or preventing bacterial growth. Which of these
methods should be least effective at inhibiting bacterial growth?
A) Refrigeration: slows bacterial metabolism and growth.
B) Closing previously opened containers: prevents more bacteria from entering, and excludes O2.
C) Pickling: creates a pH at which most bacterial enzymes cannot function.
D) Canning in heavy sugar syrup: creates osmotic conditions that remove water from most bacterial
cells.
E) Irradiation: kills bacteria by mutating their DNA to such an extent that their DNA-repair enzymes are
overwhelmed.
Answer: B
45) Given that the enzymes that catalyze nitrogen fixation are inhibited by oxygen, what are two
"strategies" that nitrogen-fixing prokaryotes might use to protect these enzymes from oxygen?
1. couple them with photosystem II (the photosystem that splits water molecules)
2. package them in membranes that are impermeable to all gases
3. be obligate anaerobes
4. be strict aerobes
5. package these enzymes in specialized cells or compartments that inhibit oxygen entry
A) 1 and 4
B) 2 and 4
C) 2 and 5
D) 3 and 4
E) 3 and 5
Answer: E
46) Genetic variation in bacterial populations cannot result from
A) transduction.
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B) transformation
C) conjugation
D) mutation.
E) meiosis.
Answer: E
47) All protists are
A) unicellular.
B) eukaryotic.
C) symbionts.
D) monophyletic.
E) mixotrophic.
Answer: B
48) According to the endosymbiotic theory of the origin of eukaryotic cells, how did mitochondria
originate?
A) from infoldings of the plasma membrane, coupled with mutations of genes for proteins in energytransfer reactions
B) from engulfed, originally free-living proteobacteria
C) by secondary endosymbiosis
D) from the nuclear envelope folding outward and forming mitochondrial membranes
E) when a protoeukaryote engaged in a symbiotic relationship with a protocell
Answer: B
49) Which of the following was derived from an ancestral cyanobacterium?
A) chloroplast
B) mitochondrion
C) hydrogenosome
D) mitosome
E) Two of the responses above are correct.
Answer: A
50) Which two genera have members that can evade the human immune system by frequently changing
their surface proteins?
A) Trichomonas
B) Paramecium
C) Trypanosoma
D) Entamoeba
Answer: C
51) Which of the following pairs of protists and their characteristics is mismatched?
A) apicomplexansinternal parasites
B) golden algaeplanktonic producers
C) euglenozoansunicellular flagellates
D) ciliatesred tide organisms
E) entamoebasingestive heterotrophs
Answer: D
52) Which of the following statements about dinoflagellates is true?
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A) They possess two flagella.

B) All known varieties are autotrophic.
C) Their walls are usually composed of silica plates.
D) Many types lack mitochondria.
E) Their dead cells accumulate on the seafloor, and are mined to serve as a filtering material.
Answer: A
53) A large seaweed that floats freely on the surface of deep bodies of water would be expected to lack
which of the following?
A) thalli
B) bladders
C) holdfasts
D) gel-forming polysaccharides
Answer: C
54) Reinforced, threadlike pseudopods that can perform phagocytosis are generally characteristic of
which group?
A) radiolarians and forams
B) gymnamoebas
C) entamoebas
D) amoeboid stage of cellular slime molds
E) oomycetes
Answer: A
55) A snail-like, coiled, porous test (shell) of calcium carbonate is characteristic of which group?
A) diatoms
B) foraminiferans
C) radiolarians
D) gymnamoebas
Answer: B
56) The chloroplasts of land plants are thought to have been derived according to which evolutionary
sequence?
A) cyanobacteria green algae land plants
B) cyanobacteria green algae fungi land plants
C) red algae brown algae green algae land plants
D) cyanobacteria red algae green algae land plants
Answer: A
57) If the Archaeplastidae are eventually designated a kingdom, and if land plants are excluded from this
kingdom, then what will be true of this new kingdom?
A) It will be monophyletic.
B) It will more accurately depict evolutionary relationships than does the current taxonomy.
C) It will be paraphyletic.
D) It will be a true clade.
E) It will be polyphyletic.
Answer: C
58) Which of the following is correctly described as a primary producer?
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A) oomycete
B) kinetoplastid
C) apicomplexan
D) diatom
E) radiolarian
Answer: D
59) Similar to most amoebozoans, the forams and the radiolarians also have pseudopods, as do some of
the white blood cells of animals (monocytes). If one were to erect a taxon that included all organisms
that have cells with pseudopods, what would be true of such a taxon?
A) It would be polyphyletic.
B) It would be paraphyletic.
C) It would be monophyletic.
D) It would include all eukaryotes.
Answer: A
60) Which of the following are actual mutualistic partnerships that involve a protist and a host
organism?
A) cellulose-digesting gut protists & wood-eating termites
B) dinoflagellates & reef-building coral animals
C) Trichomonas & humans
D) algae & certain foraminiferans
E) all except that involving humans
Answer: E
61) Living diatoms contain brownish plastids. If global warming causes blooms of diatoms in the
surface waters of Earth's oceans, how might this be harmful to the animals that build coral reefs?
A) The coral animals, which capture planktonic organisms, may be outcompeted by the diatoms.
B) The coral animals' endosymbiotic dinoflagellates may get "shaded out" by the diatoms.
C) The coral animals may die from overeating the plentiful diatoms, with their cases of silica.
D) The diatoms' photosynthetic output may over-oxygenate the water.
Answer: B
62) Biologists suspect that endosymbiosis gave rise to mitochondria before plastids partly because
A) the products of photosynthesis could not be metabolized without mitochondrial enzymes.
B) all eukaryotes have mitochondria (or their remnants), whereas many eukaryotes do not have plastids.
C) mitochondrial DNA is less similar to prokaryotic DNA than is plastid DNA.
D) without mitochondrial CO2 production, photosynthesis could not occur.
E) mitochondrial proteins are synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes, whereas plastids utilize their own
ribosomes.
Answer: B
63) Which protists are in the same eukaryotic supergroup as land plants?
A) green algae
B) dinoflagellates
C) red algae
D) brown algae
E) both green algae and red algae
Answer: E
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64) In life cycles with an alternation of generations, multicellular haploid forms alternate with
A) unicellular haploid forms.
B) unicellular diploid forms.
C) multicellular haploid forms.
D) multicellular diploid forms.
E) multicellular polyploid forms.
Answer: D
EXTRA CREDIT
Use the following information to answer the few questions.
The herpes viruses are very important enveloped DNA viruses that cause disease in all vertebrate species
and in some invertebrates such as oysters. Some of the human ones are herpes simplex (HSV) I and II,
causing facial and genital lesions, and the varicella-zoster (VSV), causing chicken pox and shingles.
Each of these three actively infect nervous tissue. Primary infections are fairly mild, but the virus is not
then cleared from the host; rather, viral genomes are maintained in cells in a latent phase. The virus can
then reactivate, replicate again, and be infectious to others.
00) If scientists are trying to use what they know about HSV to devise a means of protecting other
people from being infected, which of the following would have the best chance of lowering the number
of new cases of infection?
A) vaccination of all persons with preexisting cases
B) interference with new viral replication in preexisting cases
C) treatment of the HSV lesions to shorten the breakout
D) medication that destroys surface HSV before it gets to neurons
Answer: B
00) In electron micrographs of HSV infection, it can be seen that the intact virus initially reacts with cell
surface proteoglycans, then with specific receptors. This is later followed by viral capsids docking with
nuclear pores. Afterward, the capsids go from being full to being "empty." Which of the following best
fits these observations?
A) Viral capsids are needed for the cell to become infected; only the capsids enter the nucleus.
B) The viral envelope is not required for infectivity, since the envelope does not enter the nucleus.
C) Only the genetic material of the virus is involved in the cell's infectivity, and is injected like the
genome of a phage.
D) The viral envelope mediates entry into the cell, the capsid entry into the nuclear membrane, and the
genome is all that enters the nucleus.
E) The viral capsid mediates entry into the cell, and only the genomic DNA enters the nucleus, where it
may or may not replicate.
Answer: D
00) In order to be able to remain latent (i.e. dormant) in an infected live cell, HSV must be able to shut
down what process?
A) DNA replication
B) transcription of viral genes
C) apoptosis (cell lysing) of a virally infected cell
D) all immune responses
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E) interaction with histones

Answer: C

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