Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Read through the following passage on the structure of prokaryotic cells, then write on the
dotted lines the most appropriate word or words to complete the account.
Bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, are prokaryotic organisms. One of the main
differences between prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells is that in a prokaryotic cell,
and ................................................. and they may also contain one or more small circular
2. The photograph below shows a section through a mitochondrion as seen using an electron
microscope.
C B
Prof. R. Bellairs/Wellcome Photo Library
A ................................................................................................................................
B ................................................................................................................................
C ................................................................................................................................
(3)
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(2)
(Total 5 marks)
3. The diagram below shows the structure of a chromosome as it might appear at the end of
prophase of mitosis.
A
B
A .................................................................................................................................
B .................................................................................................................................
(2)
(b) During metaphase of mitosis, the chromosomes become attached to the equator of the
spindle. Name the stage of mitosis that follows metaphase and describe the events that
occur in this stage.
Stage ...........................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................
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(3)
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(1)
(d) Mitosis forms part of the cell cycle. Name one other stage of the cell cycle and state what
occurs in the stage that you have named.
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(2)
(Total 8 marks)
4. The table below refers to three organelles commonly found in eukaryotic cells. Complete the
table by writing the name of the organelle, its description or one function, as appropriate, in
each of the five boxes provided.
Golgi apparatus
Rod-shaped structures
with a double membrane,
the inner one folded to
form cristae
(Total 5 marks)
(b) The graph below illustrates the change in DNA content during the cell cycle
M ass o f D N A /
a rb itra ry u n its
6
C D
5
3 A B
2
G 1
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
T im e / h o u rs
Answer...................................................................
(3)
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(2)
(Total 9 marks)
Describe three ways in which this leaf is adapted to reduce water loss.
1............................................................................................................................................
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2............................................................................................................................................
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(Total 6 marks)
7. A freshwater stream was sampled over a distance of 4.0 km to determine the abundance of an
aquatic invertebrate. The oxygen concentration of the water was measured over the same
distance. The results are shown in the graphs below.
100
N u m b e r o f o rg a n is m s fo u n d
a t e a c h s a m p lin g s ta tio n 50
0
0 1 .0 2 .0 3 .0 4 .0
D is ta n c e / k m
O x y g e n c o n c e n tr a tio n
0 1 .0 2 .0 3 .0 4 .0
D is ta n c e / k m
(a) Name one aquatic invertebrate that might show this distribution along the stream.
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(1)
1...................................................................................................................................
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2...................................................................................................................................
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(4)
(Total 5 marks)
8. The table below refers to features of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. If the feature is usually
present, place a tick ( ) in the appropriate box and if the feature is absent, place a cross (X) in
the appropriate box.
Plasmids
Ribosomes
Mitochondria
(Total 4 marks)
(a) Give two features that help to identify this as an animal cell.
1 .................................................................................................................................
2 .................................................................................................................................
(2)
A ................................................................................................................................
B ................................................................................................................................
(2)
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(1)
Answer ...........................................................
(2)
(Total 7 marks)
10. A procedure was carried out to separate the major organelles within liver cells. This involved
breaking up (homogenising) liver tissue in an ice-cold salt solution which had the same water
potential as the cell cytoplasm.
L iv e r tis s u e b ro k e n u p
in ic e -c o ld s a lt s o lu tio n
C e n trifu g e d a t lo w sp e e d fo r
P e lle t A
1 0 m in u te s
S u p e rn a ta n t c e n trifu g e d a t m e d iu m
s p e e d fo r 2 0 m in u te s P e lle t B
S u p e rn a ta n t c e n tr if u g e d a t h ig h
s p e e d fo r 3 0 m in u te s P e lle t C
F in a l s u p e rn a ta n t
(a) Suggest why it was necessary for the salt solution to have the same water potential as the
cell cytoplasm.
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(2)
Pellet Organelle
(2)
(c) Suggest two components of the cell, other than water, that might be present in the final
supernatant.
1 .................................................................................................................................
2 .................................................................................................................................
(2)
(d) In the space below, draw and label a diagram to show the structure of a mitochondrion.
(4)
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(2)
(Total 12 marks)
11. The diagram below shows the structure of a bacterium, a typical prokaryotic cell.
B
C
A ...............................................................................................................................
B ...............................................................................................................................
C ...............................................................................................................................
(3)
(3)
(Total 6 marks)
12. The diagram below shows cells from a root tip, prepared by the root tip squash method.
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(4)
1. ……………………………………………………………………………………..
2. ……………………………………………………………………………………..
(2)
(Total 8 marks)
A ...............................................................................................................................
B ...............................................................................................................................
(2)
(b) Describe the roles of the two male nuclei during fertilisation.
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(4)
30
G e rm in a tio n
ra te (% ) 25
20 B . p u rp u re a
15 C . ja p o n ic a
10
0
0 10 20 30 40
S u c r o s e c o n c e n tr a tio n ( % )
(i) What is the optimum concentration of sucrose for the germination of pollen grains
from both species?
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(1)
(ii) Compare the germination rate of these two species as the concentration of sucrose
increases from 20%.
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(3)
(Total 10 marks)
1 cm
Describe two ways in which invertebrates such as Chironomus are adapted to live in water with
a low concentration of dissolved oxygen.
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(Total 4 marks)
15. The diagram below shows part of a section at low magnification through the root of a
dicotyledonous plant.
A ...............................................................................................................................
B ...............................................................................................................................
C ...............................................................................................................................
D ...............................................................................................................................
(2)
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(4)
(c) A root takes up mineral ions in addition to water. An investigation was carried out into
–
the effects of aeration on the uptake of nitrate ions (NO 3 ) by plant roots.
Sections of root, including the root hairs, were immersed in a culture solution containing
6.3 mmol per dM3 of nitrate ions. The solution was aerated (air was bubbled through it).
After nine hours the root sections were removed and the concentration of nitrate ions in
the root cells was determined.
C o n c e n tr a tio n o f n itr a te io n s / m m o l d m –3
(i) Suggest an explanation for the difference between the results with and without
aeration when the root hairs were present.
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(4)
(ii) Suggest reasons for the results obtained when no root hairs were present.
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(2)
(Total 12 marks)
B .............................................................................................................................….
C .............................................................................................................................….
(2)
(b) (i) Give the letter of one cell with the haploid (n) number of
chromosomes.
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(1)
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(4)
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(2)
(Total 9 marks)
17. Some bacteria were grown in a culture with radioactive amino acids. They used the
labelled amino acids to synthesise proteins which were incorporated into their cells.
The bacteria were then washed thoroughly and mixed with some white blood cells. The
amount of radioactivity taken up by the white blood cells was measured at intervals of
two hours for 24 hours.
The white blood cells were phagocytic and engulfed (took up) the bacteria by a process
called phagocytosis. Phagocytosis is a form of endocytosis. This process is illustrated in
the diagram below.
M e m b r a n e e x te n s io n s P hag osom e
B a c te r iu m (p h a g o c y tic v a c u o le )
N u c le u s
W h ite b lo o d c e ll
The table below shows the level of radioactivity found inside and outside the white blood cells
during the 24 hour period.
Time after mixing cells Radioactivity inside white Radioactivity outside white
together/hours blood cells/arbitrary units blood cells/arbitrary units
0 0 80
2 16 64
4 48 32
6 61 19
8 70 10
10 72 8
12 72 8
14 71 9
16 43 37
18 21 59
20 10 70
22 8 72
24 5 75
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(2)
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(2)
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(3)
(c) Suggest what is happening to the bacteria inside the phagosomes between 10 and
14 hours.
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(d) Explain why the amount of radioactivity increases outside the white blood cells
after 14 hours.
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(2)
(e) Suggest why the white blood cells did not take up all the radioactivity.
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(1)
(Total 11 marks)
19. (a) The flow diagram below shows the sequence in spermatogenesis leading to the
formation of spermatozoa.
C e ll A
P rim a ry s p e r m a to c y te
S e c o n d a ry s p e rm a to c y te
S p e r m a tid
S p e rm a to z o o n
……….……………………………….………………………………………
(1)
(ii) On the flow diagram, write the letter M to indicate where the second division of
meiosis occurs.
(1)
A …………………………………………….………………………………………
B …………………………………………….………………………………………
C …………………………………………….………………………………………
(2)
(c) Describe how the spermatozoa are transferred into the female.
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(5)
(Total 9 marks)
S p e r m a to g o n iu m
C e ll A
S e c o n d a ry s p e r m a to c y te
C e ll B
S p e rm a to z o o n
................................................................................................................................
(1)
Cell A .....................................................................................................................
Cell B .....................................................................................................................
(2)
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(3)
(Total 6 marks)
21. The diagrams below show two invertebrates found in freshwater habitats. Rat-tailed maggots
are found in stagnant or slow moving water. Stonefly nymphs live in fast flowing streams.
1 cm
1 cm
R a t-ta ile d m a g g o t
S to n e fly n y m p h
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(4)
(b) Suggest what adaptations stonefly nymphs might have for living in fast flowing water.
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(2)
(Total 6 marks)
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(Total 2 marks)
A B
C D
(a) (i) Write the letters of the stages in the sequence in which they occur
during mitosis.
.................................................................................................................................
(1)
Q u a n t i t y o f D N A
/ a r b i t r a r y u n i t s
3
0
0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5
T i m e / h o u r s
(i) Explain the changes in the quantity of DNA that take place:
between 10 to 15 hours
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at 20 hours
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(2)
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(1)
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(1)
(Total 6 marks)
24. The photograph below-shows part of an animal cell, as seen using an electron microscope. The
magnification is ×5000.
A............................................................................................................................................
B............................................................................................................................................
(2)
(c) Describe how proteins synthesised on the rough endoplasmic reticulum are processed and
transported out of the cell.
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(5)
(Total 10 marks)
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(2)
S p e r m
O v u m
A d u l t Z y g o t e
E m b r y o
i) Sperm ………...........................................................................................................
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(5)
(Total 10 marks)
Suggest how each of the following features helps a cactus to survive in desert conditions.
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(2)
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(2)
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(3)
(Total 7 marks)
This development would involve the permanent siting of the buildings for the main sewage
treatment plant, an underground pipeline and a marine discharge pipe. A strip of land 10 metres
wide would need to be removed during the laying of the underground pipeline. The land would
be returned to its previous condition after the work is completed.
An ecological assessment must be carried out before any development can go ahead. The
assessment compares the possible effects of the development on the terrestrial areas of the two
sites. The first stage is to assign each area to a particular ecological category, using the criteria
in Figure 2.
Criteria
Very high species diversity and Very low species diversity and
highest number of different
habitats or rare habitats
——— ► lowest number of different
habitats or rare habitats
Ecological category
5 ———► 1
The second stage is to calculate the impact of the proposed development within each area using
the following formula:
2
area (m ) × ecological category = units of damage
Figure 3 – A comparison of the results of the ecological assessment survey for Site 1 and Site 2
Site 1
Site 2
(a) Suggest why some damage is considered to be reversible and some damage is considered
to be irreversible.
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(2)
(c) Using the data in Figure 3, compare the ecological effect that the development of the
sewage treatment works would have at Site 1 and Site 2.
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(3)
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(1)
1 ………………………………………………………………………………………...
2 ………………………………………………………………………………………...
3 ………………………………………………………………………………………...
(3)
(f) Suggest why an accidental discharge of raw sewage from the treatment works might lead
to an increase in the numbers of carnivorous fish around the discharge pipe.
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(4)
(Total 16 marks)
(a) (i) Give one piece of evidence that this is a eukaryotic cell.
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(1)
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(1)
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(1)
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(1)
B ..................................................................................................................................
C ..................................................................................................................................
(2)
(Total 6 marks)
29. (a) Describe two features of a human sperm cell and explain how they allow it to carry
out Leave its role in fertilisation. blank
Feature 1 ......................................................................................................................
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Explanation..................................................................................................................
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Feature 2 ......................................................................................................................
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Explanation..................................................................................................................
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(4)
(b) Name the type of nuclear division by which sperm cells are produced, and which
introduces variation through random assortment.
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(1)
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(2)
(Total 7 marks)
30. Plant cells have a cell wall made of cellulose, whereas animal cells do not have a cell wall.
(a) State three other structural features found in plant cells but not in animal cells.
1 ..................................................................................................................................
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2 ..................................................................................................................................
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3 ..................................................................................................................................
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(3)
P ........................................................................................................................
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(2)
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(Total 11 marks)
1.
Rough endoplasmic
reticulum
2.
1.
Site of
photosynthesis
Chloroplast
2.
(Total 6 marks)
T r e a t p l a n t m a t e r i a l w i t h h y d r o c h l o r
P l a c e i n s t a i n a n d w a r m
B r e a k o p e n p l a n t m a t e r i a l
M o u n t o n s l i d e
S q u a s h g e n t l y
(a) Name a suitable part of a plant to use, giving a reason for your choice.
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(2)
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(1)
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(1)
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(1)
(Total 5 marks)
33. The table below refers to some features of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
Complete the table by writing a tick if the feature is present or a cross if the feature is absent.
Do not leave any boxes empty. The first line has been done for you.
Ribosomes present
bonds.
....................................... bonds.
(Total 7 marks)
35. (a) Describe how the structure of a xylem vessel helps it to carry out the function of
water transport in plants.
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(2)
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(4)
(c) Mineral ions are carried in the transpiration stream. State the importance of each of the
following ions for plant growth.
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(Total 9 marks)
N e w s k i n
c e l l
A
A n i m a l
c e l l
B
G a m e t e
A ..................................................................................................................................
B ..................................................................................................................................
(2)
G a m e t e
G a m e t e
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
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(1)
X Y Z
X ..................................................................................................................................
Y ..................................................................................................................................
Z ..................................................................................................................................
(3)
(Total 7 marks)
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(1)
(i) Describe how you would demonstrate that this disc contained an antibacterial
substance.
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(1)
(Total 9 marks)
These zoos have an overall population of around 150 tigers, and the animals are regularly
moved between zoos for breeding. It is estimated that one new pair of tigers will need to be
introduced to the programme every seven years in order to maintain 90% of the genetic
diversity of the tiger population in these zoos.
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(2)
(b) Suggest why it is necessary to introduce new tigers to the breeding programme.
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(3)
(c) Explain the importance of maintaining at least 90% of the genetic diversity in the zoo
population for the successful reintroduction of tigers into the wild.
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(4)
(Total 9 marks)
chromatids, lined up along the equator of the cell. Spindle fibres extend from the poles
apart.
(Total 5 marks)
40. The diagram below shows the structure of a bacterial cell as seen using an electron
microscope.
C e l l w a l lS t o r a g e g r a n Bu l e
X Y
A ............................................................................................................................
B ............................................................................................................................
(2)
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(1)
(iii) Describe how the cell wall in this bacterial cell differs from that in a plant cell.
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(1)
(b) The diagram has been magnified 6000 times. Calculate the actual length of the
bacterial cell between X and Y. Show your working, and give your answer in
micrometres.
Answer ............................. µm
(3)
(Total 7 marks)
41. Eukaryotic cells contain organelles, many of which are bound by a membrane. Some organelles
have a double membrane, often called an envelope.
(a) (i) Describe two structural differences between the double membrane
surrounding a mitochondrion and the double membrane surrounding a nucleus.
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(2)
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(1)
(b) Centrioles are an example of organelles that are not membrane-bound. Describe the
structure and function of centrioles.
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(3)
(Total 6 marks)
P r o p h a s e I
M e t a p h a s e I
A n a p h a s e I
T e l o p h a s e I
P r o p h a s e I I
M e t a p h a s e I I
A n a p h a s e I I
T e l o p h a s e I I
(a) Describe what is happening to the chromosomes during the following stages.
(i) Prophase I
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(2)
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(2)
(iii) Anaphase II
................................................................................................................................
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................................................................................................................................
(2)
(b) Meiosis in humans results in the production of gametes. Name the type of cell produced
by each of the following stages.
................................................................................................................................
(1)
................................................................................................................................
(1)
(Total 8 marks)
(a) Suggest one function of the tissue labelled A, giving an explanation for your answer.
Function ........................................................................................................................
Explanation ...................................................................................................................
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(3)
(b) Suggest two functions of the large air spaces in this leaf.
1 ...................................................................................................................................
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2 ...................................................................................................................................
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(2)
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(2)
(Total 7 marks)
44. The biodiversity of tropical rainforests in the Central American country of Honduras is being
investigated, and changes in the use of land are being recorded.
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
(2)
(b) Describe two ways in which a taxonomy of living organisms is of benefit to the process
of measuring biodiversity.
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.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
(2)
2
Year Area of cover / km
1992 56250
1994 55660
1996 55080
1998 54480
2000 53820
Calculate the percentage change in forest cover between 1992 and 2000. Show your
working.
Answer ............................
(2)
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(5)
(Total 11 marks)
45. Agrostis tenuis is a grass that grows near old copper mines in North Wales. Copper is usually
very toxic to plants, but some Agrostis plants can tolerate copper in the soil and grow on the
waste tips from the copper mines.
(a) Suggest a method for measuring tolerance to copper in a sample of Agrostis plants.
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
(2)
U p - w i n d s C i t oe p p e r m i n e Dw oa ws t en - t wi p i n d s i t e
N o c o p p e r p r C e os e p n p t e i r n p s r oe si N l e on t c i o n p s p o e i r l p r e s e n t i
S i t e A S i t e B S i t e C
M a i n w i n d d i r e c t i o n
H i g h
T o l e r a n c e
t o
C o p p e r
L o w
S i t e A S i t e B
Suggest an explanation for the difference in tolerance between plants in the up-wind site
(A) and plants in the down-wind site (C).
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.....................................................................................................................................
(3)
T r a y 1 T r a y 2 T r a y 3
A l l t o l e r a n t p M l a i n x t es d t o l e r a n A t la l n n d o n - t o l e r a n t
n o n - t o l e r a n t p l a pn l t as n t s
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(4)
(d) Suggest and explain how the abundance of copper-tolerant Agrostis plants would be
likely to change if the copper were removed from the soil on the mine waste tip (Site B).
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
46. The diagrams below show the structures of a leaf palisade cell and a bacterial cell, as seen
using an electron microscope.
A ...................................................................................................................................
B ...................................................................................................................................
C ...................................................................................................................................
(3)
(b) Give one difference between the cell wall of a leaf palisade cell and the cell wall of a
bacterial cell.
......................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................
(1)
......................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................
(2)
(Total 6 marks)
47. An investigation was performed to determine the length of time that a cell in an onion root tip
spends in each stage of mitosis.
A growing root from an onion was selected and a root tip squash was made. This was examined
under a light microscope and the percentage of cells in each stage of mitosis was determined.
.......................................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................................
(4)
(b) The percentage of cells in a stage of mitosis is proportional to the duration of that stage.
Use this information to compare the duration of each stage of mitosis in these root tip
cells.
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(3)
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(2)
(Total 9 marks)
48. (a) Draw and label a diagram to show the structure of the Golgi apparatus as seen
using an electron microscope.
(3)
The cells were incubated with radioactive amino acids for 30 minutes. The cells were
then removed and washed thoroughly to remove any radioactive amino acids on the cell
surfaces.
The washed cells were then incubated with non-radioactive amino acids for 120 minutes.
Every 20 minutes a sample of cells was removed and the level of radioactivity in the
rough endoplasmic reticulum and in the secretory vesicles was determined.
The graph below shows the levels of radioactivity in the rough endoplasmic reticulum
and the secretory vesicles.
8 0
7 0 S e c r e t o r y
v e s i c l e s
6 0
L e v e l5 0o f
r a d i o a c t i v i t y
/ a r b i 4t r 0 a r y
u n i t s
3 0
2 0 R o u g h
e n d o p l a s m i c
r e t i c u l u m
1 0
0
0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 0 1 0 0 1 2 0
I n c u b a t i o n t i m e / m i n
(i) Describe and explain the changes in the level of radioactivity in the rough
endoplasmic reticulum during the first 40 minutes of the incubation period.
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(2)
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(3)
(Total 8 marks)
49. The diagram below shows a stage in the division of a cell from the male part of a flower.
The diploid number of chromosomes for this plant is 14.
(a) State the exact location of such a cell in the male part of a flower.
......................................................................................................................................
(1)
......................................................................................................................................
(2)
50. (a) The diagram below shows some of the stages during the development of a human
ovum.
...............................................................................................................................
(1)
(iii) After ovulation, structure Q develops to form a corpus luteum. Name two
hormones that are secreted by the corpus luteum.
1 .............................................................................................................................
2 .............................................................................................................................
(2)
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(3)
(Total 7 marks)
(a) State the type of cell division which has occurred to produce cell B, and give a reason for
your answer.
Reason ..........................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................
(2)
(b) Explain what happened during this cell division which resulted in the different
appearance of chromosome P.
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(3)
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(1)
(Total 6 marks)
Marks will be awarded for scientific content, coverage of the topic, and the quality of written
communication. You should include in your answers any relevant information from the whole
of your course. You may include diagrams if you wish, but make sure that they are relevant to
your essay and add extra information to it.
(Total 15 marks)
53. The table below lists some features of a typical plant cell and a typical animal cell.
Complete the table with a tick ( ) if you would expect the feature to be usually present or a
cross ( ) if you would expect it to be absent.
Do not leave any boxes empty.
The first line has been done for you.
A B C D E
(a) Give the correct order in which the five stages take place by using the letters A–E.
(b) (i) Name the part of a garlic plant which is used to prepare a slide
showing the stages of mitosis.
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
(ii) Name a stain which is used to make the chromosomes easy to see.
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
(c) Name the process which must occur in the genetic material before the chromosomes
become visible.
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
(Total 6 marks)
55. Complete the following by filling in the spaces with the most appropriate word or words.
Plant cell walls are largely made up of cellulose. Cellulose molecules consist of
long row of cells dies and the end walls of the cells break down. As well as
containing cellulose the walls of xylem vessels contain lignin, which makes them
56. The diagrams below show some cells in different stages of mitosis.
A
B
A .................................................................................................................................
B .................................................................................................................................
C .................................................................................................................................
(3)
(b) Describe the events that occur in the stage of mitosis shown by cell D.
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(2)
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(1)
(Total 6 marks)
If the statement is correct, place a tick ( ) in the appropriate box and if the statement is
incorrect, place a cross ( ) in the appropriate box.
Independent assortment of
chromosomes occurs.
(Total 4 marks)
58. The diagram below shows a mayfly nymph, an invertebrate which lives in freshwater streams.
1 ..................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
2 ..................................................................................................................................
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.....................................................................................................................................
(4)
(b) Freshwater streams may be polluted with organic effluents. One of the effects of an
organic effluent is to reduce the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water.
The graph below shows the distribution of larvae of Chironomus, a freshwater
invertebrate, at increasing distances downstream from the source of an organic effluent.
P o i n t a t w h i c h e f f l u e n t
e n t e r s t h e s t r e a m
N mu b e r s o f
C h i r o n o m u s
l a r v a e
D i s t a n c e d o w n s t r e a m f r o m e f f l u e n t
1 ........................................................................................................................
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2 ........................................................................................................................
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(4)
(ii) Immediately after the point at which the effluent enters the stream, numbers of
Chironomus larvae decrease and then increase.
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(2)
(Total 10 marks)
(a) Describe two activities of zoos which can be used to justify keeping animals in captivity.
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(4)
(b) The small numbers of animals typically found in zoos can be a problem for maintaining
populations of healthy captive animals over several generations.
Describe and explain steps taken to avoid such problems.
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(2)
(Total 6 marks)
(Total 4 marks)
61. The photograph below shows a chloroplast as seen using an electron microscope. It has been
magnified 5000 times.
Magnification × 5000
A ..................................................................................................................................
B ..................................................................................................................................
C ..................................................................................................................................
(3)
(b) The magnification of this chloroplast is ×5000. Measure the width of the chloroplast
between points X and Y on the photograph.
Answer ............................. µ m
(3)
(c) Name two types of cells which contain chloroplasts and are found in a leaf.
1 ...................................................................................................................................
2 ...................................................................................................................................
(2)
(Total 8 marks)
C y t o k i n e s i s
T e l o p h a s e I n t e r p h a s e
A n a p h a s e
M e t a p h a s e
P r o p h a s e
(a) The cell had 2 arbitrary units of DNA at the start of interphase. State the number of
arbitrary units of DNA in this cell in each of the following stages.
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
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(1)
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(5)
O n i o n b u l b
R o o t s
W a t e r S o l u t i o n o f
v i n c r i s t i n e
Vincristine is a drug used in the treatment of cancer. It prevents spindle formation during
mitosis. The result of a root tip squash on the roots grown in a solution of vincristine
showed an increase in the percentage of cells found in one of the phases compared with
roots grown in water.
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(1)
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(2)
(Total 10 marks)
63. The photograph below shows four germinating pollen grains, as seen using a light microscope.
Maginification ×100
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(1)
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(4)
(c) An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of sucrose concentration on the
germination of pollen grains from Camellia flowers. The results graph below.
P e r c e 3n 0t a g e
g e r m i n a t i o n
o f p o l2l e5 n
g r a i n s ( % )
2 0
1 5
1 0
0
0 5 1 0 1
S u c r o s e c o n c e n t r a t
……………………… %
(1)
(ii) Describe the relationship between the percentage germination and the sucrose
concentration, as shown in the graph.
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(2)
(Total 8 marks)
64. The photograph below shows a cell from an insect testis, undergoing meiosis.
Magnification ×1000
Reason ........................................................................................................................
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(3)
(b) In a species of butterfly, the diploid (2n) number of chromosomes is 360. State the
number of chromosomes present in each of the following cells.
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(2)
(Total 7 marks)
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(1)
(b) Write the letters in the correct order to show the sequence of stages in meiosis I.
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(2)
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(4)
3
(d) Semen contains about 100 million sperm per cm . Suggest why the chances of
3
fertilisation are significantly reduced if this number falls below about 30 million per cm .
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(2)
(Total 9 marks)
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(2)
(b) Marfan’s Syndrome is a rare genetic disease which affects the eyes, heart and bones. The
family tree below shows how this disease was inherited through three generations of a
family.
A B
C D E F
J K
u n a f f e c t e d f e m a l e
u n a f f e c t e d m a l e
f e m a l e w i t h M a r f a
S y n d r o m e
m a l e w i t h M a r f a n
S y n d r o m e
...........................................................................................................................
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(2)
(ii) Using the symbols of D for dominant allele and d for recessive allele, show the
genotype for the following individuals.
B ......................................................
F ......................................................
J ......................................................
(2)
(3)
(c) A genetic disease can suddenly appear in a family with no previous history of the disease.
Suggest how this could be possible.
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(2)
(Total 11 marks)
Starch Cellulose
Molecule with branches
attached by 1-6 linkages
Molecules always long
and straight
Formed from α glucose
molecules
Form microfibrils by
hydrogen bonding
Major component of
plant cell walls
Stored in amyloplasts
(Total 5 marks)
68. Read through the following account relating to sexual reproduction. Write on each dotted line
the most appropriate word to complete the account.
In this type of division the chromosome number of the normal body cell is
A sperm can only fertilise an egg by penetrating the jelly surrounding the egg
membrane. The head of the sperm releases .................................... which allow the
sperm to reach the egg membrane. This process is called the ....................................
(b) Describe the structure of pits in plant cells and explain their function.
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(2)
(c) Give two ways in which the structure of a prokaryotic cell differs from a eukaryotic cell.
1 ..................................................................................................................................
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2 ..................................................................................................................................
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(2)
(Total 9 marks)
A student investigated the strength of plant fibres to find out if they could be made into cloth.
Step 2. Place stems in buckets and cover with water. Leave for ten days
(a) Suggest and explain the changes that take place in the nettle stems during Step 2.
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(2)
(b) Describe a reliable method for measuring the strength of these plant fibres.
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(4)
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(2)
(Total 8 marks)
Scientists hope to be able to find a drug to turn this gene back on. This could provide a
means of treating ovarian cancer in humans.
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(4)
(ii) William Withering carried out trials of the digitalis soup which he used to treat
patients. Explain why his methods could not be used as part of a modern clinical
trial.
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(2)
State whether you are for or against the use of stem cells to treat ovarian cancer.
Present an argument to explain why you hold this point of view (for or against) using
your biological knowledge of stem cell research and the ethical issues connected with it.
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(3)
(Total 9 marks)
72. A study of mammals in West Africa has found that populations have decreased by up to 76% in
41 different species. Some species have become extinct in the area, reducing the biodiversity.
I s l a n d o f A g a d i r
M A U R I T A N I A
A t l a n t i c
O c e a n
Source: www.news.bbc.co.uk
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(2)
(b) It is thought that this loss of biodiversity is an indirect result of European legislation
which limits fishing in European waters. Rather than lose their way of life, European
fishermen now fish off the West African coast, and this has reduced fish stocks
dramatically. The highest density of human populations in West Africa is along the coast.
(i) Suggest one reason why fish stocks are important for the human population in
West Africa.
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
(ii) Suggest reasons why changes in European legislation have had an effect on the
wild mammal populations of West Africa.
...........................................................................................................................
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...........................................................................................................................
(2)
(c) With reference to the information given, describe the importance of considering cultural
issues when using legislation for conservation of organisms.
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(2)
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(3)
(Total 10 marks)
73. The table below describes some structures found in eukaryotic cells.
Complete the table below by writing the name of the structure in the box next to its description.
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(3)
(b) An experiment was carried out to determine the effect of two enzymes, enzyme A and
enzyme B, on the yield of apple juice.
An apple was cut into small pieces and blended in a food processor to produce apple
pulp.
Four samples of apple pulp of equal mass were mixed with various combinations of
enzyme A, enzyme B and water, as detailed in the table below. Both enzyme solutions
were at the same concentration.
Each sample was then placed in a separate filter funnel and the apple juice collected into
a measuring cylinder. The volumes of the apple juice collected from each sample are
shown in the bar chart below.
4 0
3
V o lu m e o f a p p le ju ic e c o lle c te d / c m
3 0
2 0
1 0
0
1 2 3
S a m p l e n u m b e r
(i) Suggest why the apple pulp incubated with water only (sample 4) yielded some
apple juice.
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(1)
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(2)
(iii) Suggest how these enzymes increase the yield of apple juice.
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(4)
(Total 10 marks)
76. The diagram below shows some of the organelles found in a eukaryotic cell.
R i b o s o m e s A
B
G o l g i
a p p a r a t u s
N u c l e a r
m e m b r a n e
A ........................................................................
B ........................................................................
(2)
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(3)
(Total 5 marks)
77. The tips of three onion roots were cut off and each was used to make a root tip squash.
(a) Name a suitable stain that can be used to show chromosomes in a root tip squash.
.....................................................................................................................................
(1)
The number of cells observed in a phase is directly proportional to the length of that
phase. Using these results, put the phases in order starting with the longest phase and
ending with the shortest phase.
.....................................................................................................................................
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.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
(1)
(c) The appearance of the chromosomes from part of a root tip squash is shown below.
P 2 P 1
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(3)
(ii) Write the letter A on the illustration to label a cell that is undergoing anaphase.
(1)
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(2)
(Total 8 marks)
S p e r m a t o g o n i a
P r i m a r y
s p e r m a t o c y t e s
S e c o n d a r y
s p e r m a t o c y t e s
C e l l s A
S p e r m a t o z o a
...........................................................................................................................
(1)
(ii) State which of the cells named in the diagram are diploid (2n).
...........................................................................................................................
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(2)
4 n
D N A
c o n t e2 nn t
p e r c e l l
T i m e
Name the type of nuclear division shown by the graph and explain why it is important to
reduce the DNA content from diploid (2n) to haploid (n), during the formation of
spermatozoa.
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(3)
(Total 6 marks)
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(1)
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(4)
(Total 5 marks)
An experiment was carried out to study the effect of garlic extracts on the growth of
Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria.
The 100% extract was obtained by crushing the garlic. This extract was diluted with
water to give 4 different concentrations (80%, 60%, 40% and 20%). Small discs of filter
paper were then soaked in the 100% extract and the diluted extracts, removed and dried.
A suspension of Gram negative bacteria was spread evenly over a solid medium in a petri
dish. One disc from each dilution of the garlic extract was placed on the surface of the
medium. The culture was incubated for 48 hours.
The appearance of the cultures after 48 hours is shown below. The numbers show the
percentage concentration of garlic extract used.
D i s c s s o a k e d i n
g a r l i c e x t r a c t
Z o n e o f n o
G r a m n e g a t bi v a e c tc e u r l i t a u l r gGe r r o a w m t h p o s i t i v e c u l t u r
a f t e r 4 8 h o u r s a f t e r 4 8 h o u r s
1 2
1 0
D ia m e te r o f z o n e o f n o b a c te ria l g ro w th / m m
E f f e c t o f g a r l i c e x t
G r a m n e g a t i v e b a c
2 E f f e c t o f g a r l i c e x t
G r a m p o s i t i v e b a c
0
0 2 0 4 0 6 0
C o n c e n t r a t i o n o f g a r l i c e x t r a c t ( % )
Describe the effect of diluting the garlic extract on the growth of Gram negative bacteria.
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(2)
(i) The chemicals in the garlic extract do not interfere with the cell wall.
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(1)
(ii) The cell wall of Gram negative bacteria is more permeable to the chemicals
contained in the garlic extract than the cell wall of Gram positive bacteria.
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(1)
(Total 4 marks)
Marks will be awarded for scientific content, coverage of the topic, and the quality of written
communication. You should include in your answer any relevant information from the whole of
your course. You may include diagrams if you wish, but make sure that they are relevant to your
essay and add extra information to it.
(Total 15 marks)
83. This question is about the preparation of a microscope slide that would enable you to see the
stages of mitosis.
(a) Name a suitable organism and tissue which could be used to study mitosis.
(b) Name a stain you might use to make the chromosomes visible.
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(1)
(c) Explain why the cells are warmed in acid during the preparation of the slide.
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(1)
A B
A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(2)
(Total 6 marks)
S t e p 1 f e r t i l i s a t i o n
S t e p 2 ‘ s p a r e ’ e m b r y o
S t e p 3 g r o w n t o f o r m b l a s t o c y s t
s t e m c e l l s i s o l a t e d , r e m a i n s
S t e p 4
o f b l a s t o c y s t d i s c a r d e d
S t e p 5 s t e m c e l l s c u l t u r e d
S t e p 6 c e l l d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n
h u m a n t i s s u e s f o r
S t e p 7
t r a n s p l a n t a t i o n
(a) (i) Describe how scientists might obtain a supply of ‘spare embryos’
(Step 2) to produce tissues.
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(1)
totipotent ..........................................................................................................
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pluripotent .......................................................................................................
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(2)
(b) Explain why the following are important in producing tissues from stem cells.
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(2)
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(2)
For or against?.............................................
Use your knowledge of stem cell research issues to justify your view.
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(4)
(Total 11 marks)
85. The tolerance of plants to copper ions in the soil is under genetic control. The frequency of an
allele, which causes a plant to be more tolerant of copper, was measured at two different sites A
and B.
The table below shows the percentage frequencies of the tolerance and non-tolerance alleles in
plant populations at the two sites.
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(2)
(b) Describe how natural selection could have brought about the different allele frequencies
at the two sites.
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(4)
(c) Suggest why bacteria often adapt to changing conditions much more quickly than plants.
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(2)
(Total 8 marks)
You are expected to answer in continuous prose. You should use examples from the biology
course you have studied but need not restrict yourself to the course content.
You should spend approximately 45 minutes answering this question including planning time.
Balance: Have you answered the question asked; for example have you recognised the
advantages and disadvantages or benefits and risks (up to 6 marks)
Some people claim that many medical problems, such as the shortage of suitable organs needed
for transplant surgery, may become a thing of the past. The use of stem cells, which may have
had a specific gene or genes inserted, could give rise to many new treatments.
Write an essay on: ‘Manipulating stem cells: a miracle cure or a dangerous development?’
(Total 20 marks)
87. (a) The cell cycle includes interphase and mitosis. Mitosis has four phases: prophase,
metaphase, anaphase and telophase. The photograph below shows plant root cells at
various stages of the cell cycle.
(i) Draw a line to indicate a cell in the photograph that is undergoing anaphase and
label this line A.
(1)
(ii) Draw a line to indicate a cell in the photograph that is undergoing telophase and
label this line T.
(1)
(iii) How many of the cells shown in the photograph are in telophase?
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(1)
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(5)
(Total 8 marks)
(4)
(b) The photograph below shows a group of mitochondria in a liver cell, as seen using an
electron microscope. The magnification is ×50 000.
(ii) Suggest one other structure that might be visible in the cytoplasm of this liver cell
if the magnification used was higher.
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(1)
(iii) Suggest one reason why the double membrane is not clearly visible all around the
mitochondrion labelled A.
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(1)
(Total 9 marks)
(i) Describe and explain two ways in which invertebrates are adapted to living in fresh
water with a low concentration of dissolved oxygen.
1 ........................................................................................................................
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2 ........................................................................................................................
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(4)
(ii) Suggest and explain one way in which an invertebrate might be adapted to living in
fast-flowing water.
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(2)
Temperature / °C –3
Concentration of dissolved oxygen / mg dm
5 12.8
10 11.3
15 10.2
20 9.2
25 8.2
30 7.5
Describe the relationship between temperature and the concentration of dissolved oxygen,
as shown by the data.
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(2)
(Total 8 marks)
A B
D E
Write the letters in the correct order to show the sequence of stages in meiosis I.
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(2)
(b) The diploid number of chromosomes in a human cell is 46. State the number of
chromosomes present in each of the following.
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(4)
(Total 8 marks)
Centriole
(2)
1.
Lysosome
2.
(2)
P l a n t A
6
D N A c o n te n t in e a c h
c e ll / a rb itra ry u n its
0 2 4 6 8 1 0 1 2 1 4 1 6 1 8 2 0 2 2 2 4 2 6 2 8 3 0 3 2 3 4 3 6
T i m e / h o u r s
P l a n t B
6
D N A c o n te n t in e a c h
c e ll / a rb itra ry u n its
0 2 4 6 8 1 0 1 2 1 4 1 6 1 8 2 0 2 2 2 4 2 6 2 8 3 0 3 2 3 4 3 6
T i m e / h o u r s
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(3)
(b) The DNA content of the cells of plant A doubles between 4 and 8 hours. Give an
explanation for this change in DNA content.
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(2)
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(2)
(Total 7 marks)
93. The photograph below shows a transverse section through part of a leaf of Ammophila, as seen
using a light microscope. Ammophila is a plant which is adapted to living in a dry environment.
Magnification ×100
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2 ..................................................................................................................................
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3 ..................................................................................................................................
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(6)
(b) Suggest one way in which the structure of a leaf of a hydrophyte might differ from the
structure of a leaf of Ammophila.
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(1)
(Total 7 marks)
Marks will be awarded for scientific content, coverage of the topic, and the quality of written
communication. You should include in your answer any relevant information from the whole of
your course. You may include diagrams if you wish, but make sure that they are relevant to your
essay and add extra information to it.
(Total 15 marks)
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(Total 5 marks)
97. Cellulose and starch are both polysaccharides, made up of glucose molecules condensed
together.
(a) Describe how the molecular structure of a cellulose molecule differs from that of a starch
molecule.
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(3)
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(2)
(c) Xylem vessels are tubes formed when columns of cells die. Their walls are made of
cellulose strengthened with other substances, such as lignin. In addition to providing
support, xylem vessels also transport water from the roots to the leaves with the help of
cohesion. Explain what is meant by cohesion.
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(2)
(Total 7 marks)
98. (a) Mammalian gametes are formed by meiosis and have the ability to fuse to form a
zygote. Explain why it is important that gametes are produced by meiosis.
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(2)
(c) (i) Calculate the number of cells that will be present in the embryo after
the first four mitotic divisions of the zygote.
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(1)
(ii) Suggest why, during the first four mitotic divisions, the embryo does not increase
in volume even though the total number of cells increases.
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(Total 9 marks)
99. (a) A single stem cell can give rise to many genetically identical cells of different
types.
There are, for example, adult stem cells in the human brain which are capable of
producing the different types of brain cells including nerve cells (neurones).
Scientists are trying to find ways of growing such adult brain stem cells in the laboratory.
(i) Name the type of cell division by which a stem cell can give rise to many
genetically identical cells.
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(1)
(ii) Explain how cells produced from stem cells can have the same genes yet be of
different types.
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(2)
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(2)
(b) Much research remains to be done and so it will be some time before adult stem cell
treatments will be available to those who might benefit from them. However, research
using embryonic stem cells is much further advanced.
(i) Suggest why research with embryonic stem cells is further advanced than research
with adult stem cells.
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(2)
Using your scientific knowledge and your understanding of the ethical issues
associated with embryonic stem cell research, explain why you hold this view.
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(4)
(Total 11 marks)
It’s probably not a good idea to take too personal an interest in your microbes. Louis Pasteur,
the great French chemist and bacteriologist, became so preoccupied with his that he took to
peering critically at every dish placed before him with a magnifying glass, a habit that
presumably did not win him many repeat invitations to dinner.
In fact, there is no point in trying to hide from your bacteria, for they are on and around you
always, in numbers you can’t conceive of. If you are in good health and averagely diligent about
hygiene, you will have a herd of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains – about
a hundred thousand of them on every square centimetre of skin. They are there to dine off the
ten billion or so flakes of skin you shed every day, plus all the tasty oils and fortifying minerals
that seep out from every pore and tissue. You are for them the ultimate buffet, with the
convenience of warmth and constant mobility thrown in. By way of thanks, they give you B.O.
Because we humans are big and clever enough to produce and use antibiotics and disinfectants,
it is easy to convince ourselves that we have banished bacteria to the fringes of existence. Don’t
you believe it. Bacteria may not build cities or have interesting social lives, but they will be here
when the Sun explodes. This is their planet, and we are on it only because they allow us to be.
Bacteria, never forget, got along for billions of years without us. We couldn’t survive a day
without them. They process our wastes and make them usable again; without their diligent
munching nothing would rot. They purify our water and keep our soils productive. Bacteria
synthesize vitamins in our gut, convert the things we eat into useful sugars and polysaccharides,
and go to war on alien microbes that slip down our gullet.
We depend totally on bacteria to pluck nitrogen from the air and convert it into useful
nucleotides and amino acids for us. It is a prodigious and gratifying feat. As Margulis and Sagan
note, to do the same thing industrially (as when making fertilizers) manufacturers must heat the
source materials to 500 degrees Celsius and squeeze them to 300 times normal pressures.
Bacteria do the same thing all the time without fuss, and thank goodness, for no larger organism
could survive without the nitrogen they pass on. Above all, microbes continue to provide us
with the air we breathe and to keep the atmosphere stable. Microbes, including the modern
versions of cyanobacteria, supply the greater part of the planet’s breathable oxygen. Algae and
other tiny organisms bubbling away in the sea blow out about 150 billion kilograms of the stuff
every year.
About once every million divisions, they produce a mutant. Usually this is bad luck for the
mutant – for an organism, change is always risky – but just occasionally the new bacterium is
endowed with some accidental advantage, such as the ability to elude or shrug off an attack of
antibiotics. With this ability to evolve rapidly goes another, even scarier advantage. Bacteria
share information. Any bacterium can take pieces of genetic coding from any other. Essentially,
as Margulis and Sagan put it, all bacteria swim in a single gene pool. Any adaptive change that
occurs in one area of the bacterial universe can spread to any other. It’s rather as if a human
could go to an insect to get the necessary genetic coding to sprout wings or walk on ceilings. It
means that from a genetic point of view bacteria have become a single super-organism – tiny,
dispersed, but invincible.
They will live and thrive on almost anything you spill, dribble or shake loose. Just give them a
little moisture – as when you run a damp cloth over a counter – and they will bloom as if
created from nothing. They will eat wood, the glue in wallpaper, the metals in hardened paint.
Scientists in Australia found microbes known as Thiobacillus concretivorans which lived in –
indeed, could not live without – concentrations of sulphuric acid strong enough to dissolve
metal. A species called Micrococcus radiophilus was found living happily in the waste tanks of
nuclear reactors, gorging itself on plutonium and whatever else was there. Some bacteria break
down chemical materials from which, as far as we can tell, they gain no benefit at all.
They have been found living in boiling mud pots and lakes of caustic soda, deep inside rocks, at
the bottom of the sea, in hidden pools of icy water in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica,
and 11 kilometres down in the Pacific Ocean where pressures are more than a thousand times
greater than at the surface, or equivalent to being squashed beneath fifty jumbo jets. Some of
them seem to be practically indestructible. Deinococcus radiodurans is, according to The
Economist, ‘almost immune to radioactivity’. Blast its DNA with radiation and the pieces
immediately re-form ‘like the scuttling limbs of an undead creature from a horror movie’.
Perhaps the most extraordinary survival yet found was that of a Streptococcus bacterium that
was recovered from the sealed lens of a camera that had stood on the Moon for two years. In
short, there are few environments in which bacteria aren’t prepared to live. ‘They are finding
now that when they push probes into ocean vents so hot that the probes actually start to melt,
there are bacteria even there’, Victoria Bennett told me.
Some scientists now think that there could be as much as 100 trillion tonnes of bacteria living
beneath our feet in what are known as subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystems –
SLiME for short. Thomas Gold of Cornell University has estimated that if you took all the
bacteria out of the Earth’s interior and dumped them on the surface, they would cover the planet
to a depth of 15 metres – the height of a four-storey building. If the estimates are correct, there
could be more life under the Earth than on top of it.
At depth, microbes shrink in size and become extremely sluggish. The liveliest of them may
divide no more than once a century, some no more than perhaps once in five hundred years. As
The Economist has put it: ‘The key to long life, it seems, is not to do too much.’ When things
are really tough, bacteria are prepared to shut down all systems and wait for better times. In
1997 scientists successfully activated some anthrax spores that had lain dormant for eighty years
in a museum display in Trondheim, Norway. Other microorganisms have leaped back to life
after being released from a 118-year-old can of meat and a 166-year-old bottle of beer. In 1996,
scientists at the Russian Academy of Science claimed to have revived bacteria frozen in
Siberian permafrost for three million years. But the record claim for durability so far is one
made by Russell Vreeland and colleagues at West Chester University in Pennsylvania in 2000,
when they announced that they had resuscitated 250 million-year-old bacteria called Bacillus
permians that had been trapped in salt deposits 600 metres underground in Carlsbad, New
Mexico. If so, this microbe is older than the continents.
The report met with some understandable dubiousness. Many biochemists maintained that over
such a span the microbe’s components would have become uselessly degraded unless the
bacterium roused itself from time to time. However, if the bacterium did stir occasionally, there
was no plausible internal source of energy that could have lasted so long. The more doubtful
scientists suggested that the sample might have been contaminated, if not during its retrieval
then perhaps while still buried. In 2001, a team from Tel Aviv University argued that B.
permians was almost identical to a strain of modern bacteria, Bacillus marismortui, found in the
Dead Sea. Only two of its genetic sequences differed, and then only slightly.
‘Are we to believe’, the Israeli researchers wrote, ‘that in 250 million years B. permians has
accumulated the same amount of genetic differences that could be achieved in just 3–7 days in
the laboratory?’ In reply, Vreeland suggested that ‘bacteria evolve faster in the lab than they do
in the wild.’
Maybe.
Many organisms in the visible world were also poorly served by the traditional division. Fungi,
the group that includes mushrooms, moulds, mildews, yeasts and puffballs, were nearly always
treated as botanical objects, though in fact almost nothing about them – how they reproduce and
respire, how they build themselves – matches anything in the plant world. Structurally, they
have more in common with animals in that they build their cells from chitin, a material that
gives them their distinctive texture. The same substance is used to make the shells of insects and
the claws of mammals, though it isn’t nearly so tasty in a stag beetle as in a Portobello
mushroom. Above all, unlike all plants, fungi don’t photosynthesize, so they have no
chlorophyll and thus are not green. Instead they grow directly on their food source, which can
be almost anything. Fungi will eat the sulphur off a concrete wall or the decaying matter
between your toes – two things no plant will do. Almost the only plant-like quality they have is
that they root.
Even less comfortably susceptible to categorization was the peculiar group of organisms
formally called myxomycetes but more commonly known as slime moulds. The name no doubt
has much to do with their obscurity. An appellation that sounded a little more dynamic –
‘ambulant self-activating protoplasm’, say – and less like the stuff you find when you reach
deep into a clogged drain would almost certainly have earned these extraordinary entities a
more immediate share of the attention they deserve, for slime moulds are, make no mistake,
among the most interesting organisms in nature. When times are good, they exist as one-celled
individuals, much like amoebas. But when conditions grow tough, they crawl to a central
gathering place and become, almost miraculously, a slug. The slug is not a thing of beauty and it
doesn’t go terribly far – usually just from the bottom of a pile of leaf litter to the top, where it is
in a slightly more exposed position – but for millions of years this may well have been the
niftiest trick in the universe.
And it doesn’t stop there. Having hauled itself up to a more favourable locale, the slime mould
transforms itself yet again, taking on the form of a plant. By some curious orderly process the
cells reconfigure, like the members of a tiny marching band, to make a stalk atop of which
forms a bulb known as a fruiting body. Inside the fruiting body are millions of spores which, at
the appropriate moment, are released to the wind to blow away to become single-celled
organisms that can start the process again.
Though Whittaker’s new scheme was a great improvement, Protista remained ill defined. Some
taxonomists reserved the term for large unicellular organisms – the eukaryotes – but others
treated it as the kind of odd-sock drawer of biology, putting into it anything that didn’t fit
anywhere else. It included (depending on which text you consulted) slime moulds, amoebas,
even seaweed, among much else. By one calculation it contained as many as two hundred
thousand different species of organism all told. That’s a lot of odd socks.
Ironically, just as Whittaker’s five-kingdom classification was beginning to find its way into
textbooks, an unassuming academic at the University of Illinois was groping his way towards a
discovery that would challenge everything. His name was Carl Woese (rhymes with rose) and
since the mid-1960s – or about as early as it was possible to do so – he had been quietly
studying genetic sequences in bacteria. In the early days, this was an exceedingly painstaking
process. Work on a single bacterium could easily consume a year. At that time, according to
Woese, only about five hundred species of bacteria were known, which is fewer than the
number of species you have in your mouth. Today the number is about ten times that, though
that is still far short of the 26,900 species of algae, 70,000 of fungi, and 30,800 of amoebas and
related organisms whose biographies fill the annals of biology.
Genes, however, allowed Woese to approach micro organisms from another angle. As he
worked, Woese realized that there were more fundamental divisions in the microbial world than
anyone suspected. A lot of little organisms that looked like bacteria and behaved like bacteria
were actually something else altogether – something that had branched off from bacteria a long
time ago. Woese called these organisms archaebacteria, later shortened to archaea.
It has to be said that the attributes that distinguish archaea from bacteria are not the sort that
would quicken the pulse of any but a biologist. They are mostly differences in their lipids and
an absence of something called peptidoglycan. But in practice they make a world of difference.
Archaea are more different from bacteria than you and I are from a crab or spider.
Singlehandedly, Woese had discovered an unsuspected division of life, so fundamental that it
stood above the level of kingdom at the apogee of the Universal Tree of Life, as it is rather
reverentially known.
In 1976 he startled the world – or at least the little bit of it that was paying attention – by
redrawing the Tree of Life to incorporate not five main divisions, but twenty-three. These he
grouped under three new principal categories – Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya (sometimes
spelled Eucarya) – which he called domains. The new arrangement was as follows:
‘These folks were brought up to classify in terms of gross morphological similarities and
differences,’ Woese told an interviewer in 1996. ‘The idea of doing so in terms of molecular
sequence is a bit hard for many of them to swallow.’ In short, if they couldn’t see a difference
with their own eyes, they didn’t like it. And so they persisted with the more conventional five-
kingdom division – an arrangement that Woese called ‘not very useful’ in his milder moments
and ‘positively misleading’ much of the rest of the time. ‘Biology, like physics before it,’
Woese wrote, ‘has moved to a level where the objects of interest and their interactions often
cannot be perceived through direct observation.’
In 1998 the great and ancient Harvard zoologist Ernst Mayr (who then was in his ninety-fourth
year and at the time of my writing is nearing one hundred and still going strong) stirred the pot
further by declaring that there should be just two prime divisions of life – ‘empires’ he called
them. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Mayr said
that Woese’s findings were interesting but ultimately misguided, noting that ‘Woese was not
trained as a biologist and quite naturally does not have an extensive familiarity with the
principles of classification,’ which is perhaps as close as one distinguished scientist can come to
saying of another that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.
The specifics of Mayr’s criticisms are highly technical – they involve issues of meiotic
sexuality, Hennigian cladification and controversial interpretations of the genome of
Methanobacterium thermoautrophicum, among rather a lot else – but essentially he argues that
Woese’s arrangement unbalances the Tree of Life. The bacterial realm, Mayr notes, consists of
no more than a few thousand species while the archaean has a mere 175 named specimens, with
perhaps a few thousand more to be found – ‘but hardly more than that’. By contrast, the
eukaryotic realm – that is, the complicated organisms with nucleated cells, like us – numbers
already in the millions of species. For the sake of ‘the principle of balance’, Mayr argues for
combining the simple bacterial organisms in a single category, Prokaryota, while placing the
more complex and ‘highly evolved’ remainder in the empire Eukaryota, which would stand
alongside as an equal. Put another way, he argues for keeping things much as they were before.
This division between simple cells and complex cells ‘is where the great break is in the living
world’.
So why, you are bound to ask at some point in your life, do microbes so often want to hurt us?
What possible satisfaction could there be to a microbe in having us grow feverish or chilled, or
disfigured with sores, or above all deceased? A dead host, after all, is hardly going to provide
long-term hospitality.
To begin with, it is worth remembering that most micro organisms are neutral or even beneficial
to human well-being. The most rampantly infectious organism on Earth, a bacterium called
Wolbachia, doesn’t hurt humans at all – or, come to that, any other vertebrates – but if you are a
shrimp or worm or fruit fly, it can make you wish you had never been born. Altogether, only
about one microbe in a thousand is a pathogen for humans, according to the National
Geographic – though, knowing what some of them can do, we could be forgiven for thinking
that that is quite enough. Even if most of them are benign, microbes are still the number three
killer in the Western world – and even many that don’t kill us make us deeply rue their
existence.
Making a host unwell has certain benefits for the microbe. The symptoms of an illness often
help to spread the disease. Vomiting, sneezing and diarrhoea are excellent methods of getting
out of one host and into position for boarding another. The most effective strategy of all is to
enlist the help of a mobile third party. Infectious organisms love mosquitoes because the
mosquito’s sting delivers them directly into a bloodstream where they can get straight to work
before the victim’s defence mechanisms can figure out what’s hit them. This is why so many
grade A diseases – malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis and a hundred or so other
less celebrated but often rapacious maladies – begin with a mosquito bite. It is a fortunate fluke
for us that HIV, the AIDS agent, isn’t among them – at least not yet. Any HIV the mosquito
sucks up on its travels is dissolved by the mosquito’s own metabolism. When the day comes
that the virus mutates its way around this, we may be in real trouble.
A great deal of sickness arises not because of what the organism has done to you but because of
what your body is trying to do to the organism. In its quest to rid the body of pathogens, the
immune system sometimes destroys cells or damages critical tissues, so often when you are
unwell what you are feeling is not the pathogens but your own immune responses. Anyway,
getting sick is a sensible response to infection. Sick people retire to their beds and thus are less
of a threat to the wider community.
Because there are so many things out there with the potential to hurt you, your body holds lots
of different varieties of defensive white blood cells – some ten million types in all, each
designed to identify and destroy a particular sort of invader. It would be impossibly inefficient
to maintain ten million separate standing armies, so each variety of white blood cell keeps only
a few scouts on active duty.
When an infectious agent – what’s known as an antigen – invades, relevant scouts identify the
attacker and put out a call for reinforcements of the right type. While your body is
manufacturing these forces, you are likely to feel wretched. The onset of recovery begins when
the troops finally swing into action.
White cells are merciless and will hunt down and kill every last pathogen they can find. To
avoid extinction, attackers have evolved two elemental strategies. Either they strike quickly and
move on to a new host, as with common infectious illnesses like flu, or they disguise themselves
so that the white cells fail to spot them, as with HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, which can
sit harmlessly and unnoticed in the nuclei of cells for years before springing into action.
The scariest, most out-of-control bacterial disorder of the moment is a disease called necrotizing
fasciitis in which bacteria essentially eat the victim from the inside out, devouring internal tissue
and leaving behind a pulpy, noxious residue. Patients often come in with comparatively mild
complaints – a skin rash and fever, typically – but then dramatically deteriorate. When they are
opened up it is often found that they are simply being consumed. The only treatment is what is
known as ‘radical excisional surgery’ – cutting out every bit of infected area. Seventy per cent
of victims die; many of the rest are left terribly disfigured. The source of the infection is a
mundane family of bacteria called Group A Streptococcus, which normally do no more than
cause strep throat. Very occasionally, for reasons unknown, some of these bacteria get through
the lining of the throat and into the body proper, where they wreak the most devastating havoc.
They are completely resistant to antibiotics. About a thousand cases a year occur in the United
States and no-one can say that it won’t get worse.
Precisely the same thing happens with meningitis. At least 10 per cent of young adults, and
perhaps 30 per cent of teenagers, carry the deadly meningococcal bacterium, but it lives quite
harmlessly in the throat. Just occasionally – in about one young person in a hundred thousand –
it gets into the bloodstream and makes them very ill indeed. In the worst cases, death can come
in twelve hours. That’s shockingly quick. ‘You can have a person who’s in perfect health at
breakfast and dead by evening,’ says Marsh.
In 1952, penicillin was fully effective against all strains of staphylococcus bacteria, to such an
extent that by the early 1960s the US surgeon-general, William Stewart, felt confident enough
to declare: ‘The time has come to close the book on infectious diseases. We have basically
wiped out infection in the United States.’ Even as he spoke, however, some 90 per cent of those
strains were in the process of developing immunity to penicillin. Soon one of these new strains,
called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, began to show up in hospitals. Only one type
of antibiotic, vanomycin, remained effective against it, but in 1997 a hospital in Tokyo reported
the appearance of a strain that could resist even that. Within months it had spread to six other
Japanese hospitals. All over, the microbes are beginning to win the war again: in US hospitals
alone, some fourteen thousand people a year die from infections they pick up there. As James
Surowiecki noted in a New Yorker article, given a choice between developing antibiotics that
people will take every day for two weeks and antidepressants that people will take every day for
ever, drug companies not surprisingly opt for the latter. Although a few antibiotics have been
toughened up a bit, the pharmaceutical industry hasn’t given us an entirely new antibiotic since
the 1970s.
Our carelessness is all the more alarming since the discovery that many other ailments may be
bacterial in origin. The process of discovery began in 1983 when Barry Marshall, a doctor in
Perth, Western Australia, found that many stomach cancers and most stomach ulcers are caused
by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. Even though his findings were easily tested, the
notion was so radical that more than a decade would pass before they were generally accepted.
America’s National Institutes of Health, for instance, didn’t officially endorse the idea until
1994. ‘Hundreds, even thousands of people must have died from ulcers who wouldn’t have,’
Marshall told a reporter from Forbes in 1999.
Since then, further research has shown that there is or may well be a bacterial component in all
kinds of other disorders – heart disease, asthma, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, several types of
mental disorders, many cancers, even, it has been suggested (in Science no less), obesity. The
day may not be far off when we desperately require an effective antibiotic and haven’t got one
to call on.
It may come as a slight comfort to know that bacteria can themselves get sick. They are
sometimes infected by bacteriophages (or simply phages), a type of virus. A virus is a strange
and unlovely entity – ‘a piece of nucleic acid surrounded by bad news’ in the memorable phrase
of the Nobel laureate Peter Medawar. Smaller and simpler than bacteria, viruses aren’t
themselves alive. In isolation they are inert and harmless. But introduce them into a suitable
host and they burst into busyness – into life. About five thousand types of virus are known, and
between them they afflict us with many hundreds of diseases, ranging from the flu and common
cold to those that are most invidious to human well-being: smallpox, rabies, yellow fever,
Ebola, polio and AIDS.
They also have an unnerving capacity to burst upon the world in some new and startling form
and then to vanish again as quickly as they came. In 1916, in one such case, people in Europe
and America began to come down with a strange sleeping sickness, which became known as
encephalitis lethargica. Victims would go to sleep and not wake up. They could be roused
without great difficulty to take food or go to the lavatory, and would answer questions sensibly
– they knew who and where they were – though their manner was always apathetic. However,
the moment they were permitted to rest, they would at once sink back into deepest slumber and
remain in that state for as long as they were left. Some went on in this manner for months before
dying. A very few survived and regained consciousness but not their former liveliness. They
existed in a state of profound apathy, ‘like extinct volcanoes’, in the words of one doctor. In ten
years the disease killed some five million people and then quietly went away. It didn’t get much
lasting attention because in the meantime an even worse epidemic – indeed, the worst in history
– swept across the world.
It is sometimes called the Great Swine Flu epidemic and sometimes the Great Spanish Flu
epidemic, but in either case it was ferocious. The First World War killed 21 million people in
four years; swine flu did the same in its first four months. Almost 80 per cent of American
casualties in the First World War came not from enemy fire, but from flu. In some units the
mortality rate was as high as 80 per cent.
Swine flu arose as a normal, non-lethal flu in the spring of 1918, but somehow, over the
following months – no-one knows how or where – it mutated into something more severe. A
fifth of victims suffered only mild symptoms, but the rest became gravely ill and many died.
Some succumbed within hours; others held on for a few days.
In the United States, the first deaths were recorded among sailors in Boston in late August 1918,
but the epidemic quickly spread to all parts of the country. Schools closed, public
entertainments were shut down, people everywhere wore masks. It did little good. Between
autumn 1918 and spring the following year, 548,452 people died of the flu in America. The toll
in Britain was 220,000, with similar numbers in France and Germany. No-one knows the global
toll, as records in the third world were often poor, but it was not less than twenty million and
probably more like fifty million. Some estimates have put the global total as high as a hundred
million.
Out of – somewhat amazingly – three hundred men who volunteered, the doctors chose sixty-
two for the tests. None contracted the flu – not one. The only person who did grow ill was the
ward doctor, who swiftly died. The probable explanation for this is that the epidemic had passed
through the prison a few weeks earlier and the volunteers, all of whom had survived that
visitation, had a natural immunity.
Much about the 1918 flu epidemic is understood poorly or not at all. One mystery is how it
erupted suddenly, all over, in places separated by oceans, mountain ranges and other earthly
impediments. A virus can survive for no more than a few hours outside a host body, so how
could it appear in Madrid, Bombay and Philadelphia all in the same week?
The probable answer is that it was incubated and spread by people who had only slight
symptoms or none at all. Even in normal outbreaks, about 10 per cent of people in any given
population have the flu but are unaware of it because they experience no ill effects. And because
they remain in circulation they tend to be the great spreaders of the disease.
That would account for the 1918 outbreak’s widespread distribution, but it still doesn’t explain
how it managed to lie low for several months before erupting so explosively at more or less the
same time all over. Even more mysterious is that it was most devastating to people in the prime
of life. Flu normally is hardest on infants and the elderly, but in the 1918 outbreak deaths were
overwhelmingly among people in their twenties and thirties. Older people may have benefited
from resistance gained from an earlier exposure to the same strain, but why the very young were
similarly spared is unknown. The greatest mystery of all is why the 1918 flu was so ferociously
deadly when most flus are not. We still have no idea.
And if it doesn’t, others well might. New and frightening viruses crop up all the time. Ebola,
Lassa and Marburg fevers all have tended to flare up and die down again, but no-one can say
that they aren’t quietly mutating away somewhere, or simply awaiting the right opportunity to
burst forth in a catastrophic manner. It is now apparent that AIDS has been among us much
longer than anyone originally suspected. Researchers at the Manchester Royal Infirmary
discovered that a sailor who had died of mysterious, untreatable causes in 1959 in fact had
AIDS. Yet, for whatever reasons, the disease remained generally quiescent for another twenty
years.
The miracle is that other such diseases haven’t gone rampant. Lassa fever, which wasn’t first
detected until 1969 in West Africa, is extremely virulent and little understood. In 1969, a doctor
at a Yale University lab in New Haven, Connecticut, who was studying Lassa fever came down
with it. He survived, but, more alarmingly, a technician in a nearby lab, with no direct exposure,
also contracted the disease and died.
Happily the outbreak stopped there, but we can’t count on always being so fortunate. Our
lifestyles invite epidemics. Air travel makes it possible to spread infectious agents across the
planet with amazing ease. An Ebola virus could begin the day in, say, Benin, and finish it in
New York or Hamburg or Nairobi, or all three. It means also that medical authorities
increasingly need to be acquainted with pretty much every malady that exists everywhere, but of
course they are not. In 1990, a Nigerian living in Chicago was exposed to Lassa fever on a visit
to his homeland, but didn’t develop symptoms until he had returned to the United States. He
died in a Chicago hospital without diagnosis and without anyone taking any special precautions
in treating him, unaware that he had one of the most lethal and infectious diseases on the planet.
Miraculously, no-one else was infected. We may not be so lucky next time.
And on that sobering note, it’s time to return to the world of the visibly living.
© Bill Bryson, published by Black Swan, a division of Transworld Publishers. All rights reserved. Reprinted by
permission of Random House Group Ltd.
(a) With reference to evidence in the article, explain why it can be argued that bacteria
represent the most dominant group of organisms in the world.
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(b) (i) Outline the principles underlying Woese’s three domain system of
taxonomy: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya.
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(c) Give two key differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
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(d) Explain what Margulis and Sagan meant by ‘all bacteria swim in a single gene pool’.
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(Total 20 marks)
Figure 2. Calanus is a herbivorous small animal which makes up most of the zooplankton
of the North Sea and feeds on phytoplankton. Calanus appears in the North Sea
in March and starts to breed, but its numbers do not reach a maximum until
July. Between late August to early October they leave the North Sea and return
to the deep waters of the North Atlantic Ocean to spend the winter. Calanus are
the main food source of many small fish as well as the young of larger fish such
as herring and cod.
3 5
3 0
–2
P rim a ry p ro d u c tiv ity / g C m
2 5
m o n th ly to ta l
2 0
1 5
1 0
0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
M o n t h
2 0
1 8
1 6
M e a n m o n th ly s e a te m p e ra tu re
1 4
1 2
d e g re e s C
1 0
0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
M o n t h
Figure 6. Breeding stock biomass of two species of fish in the North Sea. Herring stocks
fell so low that from 1978 until 1982, fishing for this species in the North Sea
was banned. In 2000 the EU negotiated a reduction in fishing for cod but
scientists believed that the ‘fishing quotas’ agreed by the EU were too high to
allow cod to recover to a sustainable level.
2 , 5 0 0 C o d
H e r r i n g
2 , 0 0 0
b io m a s s / to n n e s
T o ta l b re e d in g
1 , 5 0 0
1 , 0 0 0
5 0 0
0
1 9 61 39 6 1 99 7 1 5 9 81 19 8 1 7 9 91 39 9 2 90 0 5
Y e a r
ay
rw
No
N o r t h
S e a
U K
Acknowledgements
Based on data in ‘Phytoplankton, biomass and production in the southern North Sea’.
Joint, I. and Pomroy, A. (1993) Marine Ecology Progress Series. 99: 169–182.
Based on Zhihong Li, Holt M. and Osborne, J. (2000) ‘A baroclinic model of the NW European
shelf seas’. http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-
8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-16,GGLG:en&q=north+sea+temperature+annual+cycle
http://www.aslo.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1007&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=367
(a) (i) Construct an appropriate food web diagram to show the feeding
relationships between the organisms referred to in the data booklet and which
shows the trophic levels each organism occupies.
(3)
(ii) Explain why the total biomass of cod in the North Sea is normally much less than
the total biomass of sand eels.
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(c) (i) In Figure 4, the units used to express primary productivity are
abbreviated as
gCm–2. Given that ‘C’ stands for organic carbon and the other letters are common
–2
metric units, suggest what gCm stands for by writing it out in full.
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(1)
(ii) With reference to Figures 4 and 5, discuss the extent to which mean sea surface
temperature controls the primary productivity of phytoplankton.
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(d) The numbers of Calanus in the North Sea have been decreasing since 1960 and there is
some evidence that this may be due to climate change. The distribution of Calanus
finmarchicus, one of the most abundant species, seems to be shifting northwards,
becoming more common off the coast of Norway. Suggest why Calanus may not succeed
so well in warmer water.
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(ii) Nets used by fishermen in the North Sea are required to have a mesh size which
catches larger fish but allows the smaller (younger) fish to escape. This acts as a
selection pressure on the cod population. Explain the effects this selection pressure
might have on the phenotypes of these cod in future generations.
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(Total 20 marks)
(i) Which cell is undergoing mitosis? Put a cross in the correct box.
A B
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(Total 7 marks)
103. (a) Independent assortment and crossing over both result in genetic variation.
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1 7 3
1 7 2
M e a n h e i g h t
o f m e n 1a 7g 1e d 2 0
/ c m
1 7 0
1 6 9
1 6 8
1 6 7
1 6 6
1 6 5
1 6 4
1 6 3
1 9 4 5 1 9 5 0 1 9 5 5 1 9 6 0
Y e a r
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R e la tiv e p r o p o r tio n o f d ie ta r y c o m p o n e n t /
8 0
7 0
6 0
5 0
c a r b o h y d r a t e
4 0 f a t
3 0 a n i m a l p r o t e i n
a r b itr a r y u n its
2 0
1 0
0
1 9 5 0 1 9 6 0 1 9 7 0 1 9 8 0
Y e a r
The evidence from both graphs suggests that a combination of genetic and environmental
factors influence the height of men in Japan. Give an explanation for this.
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(Total 10 marks)
104. (a) The diagram below shows a view through a typical animal cell.
The table below lists three organelles. Put a cross in the box to match each organelle with
the correct letter shown on the diagram.
Organelle A B C D E
Mitochondrion
Golgi apparatus
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(c) In an experiment to investigate the role of organelles in protein transport, cells were given
radioactively-labelled amino acids for a fixed period of time. The percentage of the
radioactivity found in four different organelles was then measured at different time
intervals. The table below shows the results.
(i) The data provide evidence that the Golgi apparatus is a separate organelle.
Suggest an explanation for this.
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(iii) Suggest one reason for the presence of some radioactivity detected in the
mitochondria.
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(Total 13 marks)
105. (a) Three structures found in mammalian sperm cells are described in the table below.
Give the name of each structure being described.
Description Structure
Releases digestive enzymes to penetrate egg
Allows the sperm to swim to the egg cell
Provides the energy required for swimming
(3)
(b) Give the term that describes the ability of a stem cell from an embryo to produce all cell
types.
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(d) Embryos have been produced from human egg cells which have not been fertilised by
sperm. These embryos never survive past a few days. This is because some of the genes
needed for development are only active in chromosomes from the sperm.
It has been suggested that there will be less opposition to the medical use of stem cells
from these embryos than from normal embryos. Suggest reasons for this.
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(Total 10 marks)
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(b) The table below shows the classification of the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
together with some of the classification of the fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus.
Complete the table by suggesting appropriate names for the class, order and family of the
fin whale.
B – multicellular
(d) Suggest reasons for the classification of the blue whale and the fin whale within the same
genus, Balaenoptera, but as different species.
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(Total 7 marks)
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1 7 . 5
1 7 . 0
1 6 . 5
S p ec ie s r ic h n ess
1 6 . 0
1 5 . 5
1 5 . 0
1 4 . 5
1 4 . 0
1 9 9 0
R o a d s i d e v e r g e s
1 4 . 5
1 4 . 0
1 3 . 5
S p ecie s r ich n ess
1 3 . 0
1 2 . 5
1 2 . 0
1 1 . 5
1 9 9 0
H e d g e r o w s
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(c) Other information would be needed, in addition to species richness, to measure the
biodiversity of the vegetation in the two types of habitat. Give an explanation for this.
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Write a short briefing, intended for a government committee, describing how seed banks
work and why their funding should be continued.
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(Total 12 marks)
After extraction of the fibres, the waste leaf material can be used in the production of organic
fertiliser.
The four countries that produce most of the world’s sisal are Brazil, Kenya, Tanzania and
Madagascar. The table below shows the annual harvest of freshly-cut Agave sisalana leaves
together with the total annual production of sisal.
(a) (i) Complete the table to show the total annual production of sisal.
(1)
(ii) Calculate the total percentage of sisal produced from freshly-cut leaves. Show your
working.
Answer ..................... %
(2)
1 ..................................................................................................................................
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2 ..................................................................................................................................
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(2)
(c) (i) Explain what is meant by the term tensile strength of a fibre.
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(1)
(ii) Suggest how you could carry out a practical investigation to compare the tensile
strength of sisal and nylon fibres.
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(4)
1 ..................................................................................................................................
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2 ..................................................................................................................................
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(2)
(Total 12 marks)
109. (a) Below are four cell structures A, B, C and D. Place a cross in the box next to each
structure found only in plant cells.
A plasmodesmata
B ribosome
C tonoplast
D chromosome
(2)
(b) The list below shows some organelles found in eukaryotic cells.
Complete the table by choosing the correct organelle to match each description.
Organelle Description
Has a smooth outer membrane and a
folded inner membrane
Contains a starch granule enclosed by a
membrane
Spherical sac formed from a single
membrane and containing enzymes
(3)
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(4)
(Total 9 marks)