Deck 19: Developmental Genetics

Question 1

What characteristics below are NOT desirable in a model organism to study development?

A) short generation time
B) small size
C) large oocytes
D) produces many offspring
E) short life span

Answer 1

short life span

Question 2

You want to determine the function of a vertebrate gene by creating a mutant strain. What model organism would be most suitable?

A) C. elegans
B) Arabidopsis
C) sea urchin
D) Brachydanio rerio
E) Drosophila melanogaster

Answer 2

Drosophila melanogaster

Question 3

Which of the following model organisms is/are LEAST suited to study the timing of morphological changes during embryonic development?

A) Mus musculus
B) Gallus gallus
C) Brachydanio rerio
D) Drosophila melanogaster
E) Mus musculus and Gallus gallus

Answer 3

Mus musculus

Question 4

Animal bodies are organized along the ____________ axes.

A) dorsoventral, anteroposterior, and left-right
B) dorsoventral, cranioposterior, and right-left
C) dorsoventral, anteroposterior, and segmented
D) dorsoventral, cranioposterior, and segmented
E) apicalventral, anteroposterior, and right-left

Question 5

The body pattern of plants

A) is determined by the orientation of the first zygotic cell division.
B) is determined by sunlight.
C) is determined by three axes.
D) develops in segments.

Question 6

Which of the following lists gives the cellular processes for limb formation in correct order from first to last?

A) cell division, cell migration, cell differentiation, cell death
B) cell migration, cell differentiation, cell division, cell death
C) cell migration, cell division, cell differentiation, cell death
D) cell division, cell differentiation, cell migration, cell death
E) cell differentiation, cell migration, cell division, cell death

Question 7

Organisms develop a normal morphology because cells can receive and interpret

A) extracellular positional information.
B) intracellular positional information.
C) both extracellular and intracellular positional information.
D) signals from other developing organisms.
E) all of the signals described in the choices.

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a morphogen?

A) A morphogen will only elicit effects in areas where it is at a high enough concentration.
B) Morphogens are distributed asymmetrically throughout the cell.
C) Morphogens can be secreted to act on neighboring cells.
D) Morphogens can cause cell death.
E) None of these choices are incorrect, they are all characteristics of morphogens.

Question 9

An unusual red sponge is discovered near a deep-sea vent. You want to determine if this is a new species of sponge, so you separate the cells for further study. A new lab assistant accidentally adds cells from a blue sponge to your preparation while you are at lunch. When you return, you find that the sponge cells have reaggregated into a multicellular organism. What do you see if the red and blue sponges are the same species?

A) one sponge with a red side and a blue side
B) one blue sponge and one red sponge
C) one sponge with blue and red randomly distributed
D) one purple sponge (mix of red and blue colors)
E) one sponge with alternating red and blue layers of cells

Question 10

The axis that determines the pattern of your hand in the direction from your thumb to little finger is the __________ axis.

A) dorso-ventral
B) antero-posterior
C) right-left
D) digital
E) radial

Question 11

The organization phases of development are regulated by

A) transcription factors.
B) morphogens.
C) segmentation genes.
D) morphogens and transcription factors only.
E) morphogens, transcription factors, and segmentation genes.

Question 12

Stages of Drosophila development are listed here. Which of the following choices lists these stages of Drosophila development in the correct order?
A - the three germ cell layers form
B - metamorphosis
C - the larva hatches
D - the syncytial blastoderm forms
E - the body is divided into segments
F - the pupa forms
G - the cellular blastoderm forms

A) D,G,A,E,C,F,B
B) G,D,E,A,C,F,B
C) D,G,A,E,F,C,B
D) D,G,A,E,B,C,F
E) G,D,A,E,F,C,B

Question 13

A particular segment formed during normal Drosophila development

A) will always form the same structures in adult flies.
B) can form different structures, depending on positional information received by the segment during early development.
C) is only important to early developmental stages.
D) will express different transcription factors in different individuals.
E) will become ectoderm, endoderm, or mesoderm.

Question 14

In Drosophila, a mutation in a gene for a bicoid transporter gene could result in which of the following?

A) offspring with no head
B) offspring with no spiracles
C) offspring with two heads and no spiracles
D) offspring with the location of the head and spiracles reversed
E) offspring with no head and two spiracles

Question 15

Nurse cells

A) transcribe bicoid mRNA and then transport it to the embryo.
B) translate bicoid mRNA into protein.
C) induce the embryo to transcribe and translate bicoid mRNA.
D) transport Bicoid protein to the embryo.
E) translate bicoid mRNA into protein and transport the protein to the embryo.

Question 16

The majority of Drosophila embryo segments will become part of the ________ in an adult fly.

A) abdomen
B) thorax
C) head
D) head or thorax
E) bithorax complex

Question 17

In your fly laboratory, you find a larva that is missing segments Lb, T1, T2, and T3. This larva probably has a mutation in a ___________ gene.

A) pair-rule
B) gap
C) maternal effect
D) segment-polarity
E) gap or segment-polarity

Question 18

Which of the following relationships is INCORRECT?

A) Maternal effect genes activate gap genes.
B) Gap genes activate pair-rule genes.
C) Pair-rule genes activate segment polarity genes.
D) These relationships are all correct.
E) Segment polarity genes activate pair-rule genes.

Question 19

A mutation of a segmentation gene can result in

A) duplication of body parts.
B) missing body regions.
C) replacement of one body part with another.
D) altered expression of homeotic genes.
E) A segmentation gene mutation can cause all of these changes.

Question 20

The colinearity rule describes

A) the spatial arrangement of homeotic genes along the chromosome.
B) the timing of expression of homeotic genes.
C) the long stretches of DNA between homeotic gene complexes.
D) the parallel arrangement of homeotic genes between different chromosomes.
E) the spatial arrangement of alpha helices in proteins encoded by homeotic genes.

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT true concerning homeotic genes?

A) They encode transcription factors.
B) They are the only types of genes that contain a region of DNA called the homeobox.
C) They are found in clusters called complexes.
D) A portion of the proteins they encode can bind DNA.
E) They activate developmental genes.

Question 22

Which of the following phrases INCORRECTLY completes the following statement? The Hox complexes of vertebrates

A) encode the same genes as those found in the Antennedepia and bithorax complexes.
B) follow the colinearity rule.
C) are arranged in groups of four complexes in all organisms that possess them.
D) determine the anteroposterior axis.
E) suggest there is a basic body plan that is followed by all multicellular organisms.

Question 23

Future kidney cells and heart cells can differentiate into their respective specialized cell types because

A) they express a different set of genes during development.
B) they possess different genes.
C) they arise from different embryonic stem cells.
D) they express different transcription factors.
E) they express different genes and different transcription factors during development.

Question 24

Which of the following phrases INCORRECTLY finishes this statement? Stem cells

A) can undergo mitosis.
B) can differentiate into more than one type of specialized cell.
C) vary in their potency.
D) are only found in embryos.
E) can sometimes only differentiate into one cell type.

Question 25

Which of the following types of cells is matched with the wrong stem cell category?

A) embryonic stem cells, pluripotent
B) embryonic germ cells, pluripotent
C) hematopoetic stem cells, multipotent
D) lymphoid progenitor, unipotent
E) zygote, totipotent

Question 26

Place the following cell types in the correct order during the differentiation of a hematopoetic stem cell (HSC) into a macrophage. Some may be used once or not at all.
I. megakaryocyte
II. lymphoid progenitor
III. macrophage
IV. hematopoetic progenitor
V. myeloid progenitor
VI. monocyte
VII. hematopoetic stem cell

A) VII, IV, V, VI, III
B) IV, VII, V, VI, III
C) IV, VII, II, VI, III
D) VII, IV, V, II, III
E) VII, IV, II, IV, III

Question 27

Davis, Weintraub, and Lasser found three genes that are involved in muscle differentiation by

A) eliminating all the gene candidates that were expressed in both muscle and nonmuscle cells.
B) finding all the genes that were expressed in common between two different muscle cell lines.
C) cloning all the genes that were expressed in muscle cell lines to determine if any of these genes . could cause nonmuscle cells to differentiate into muscle cells.
D) mutating genes expressed only in muscle cells to see if differentiation could be prevented.

Question 28

Fibroblast cells that uptake cloned MyoD DNA

A) do not contain DNA with muscle-cell-specific enhancer sequences.
B) produce myosin and bHLH protein, but do not produce protein E.
C) probably produce protein E and therefore will not differentiate into muscle cells.
D) produce protein I, myosin, and myogenic bHLH protein.
E) produce protein E, myosin, and myogenic bHLH protein.

Question 29

Fibroblast cells are a good model system for studying muscle differentiation because

A) they are totipotent.
B) they never differentiate into muscle cells in a normally developing animal.
C) they can differentiate into muscle cells in a normally developing animal.
D) they express a limited number of genes.
E) they have a small genome.

Question 30

The morphology of plants is determined

A) by cell division at the tip of the shoots and cell elongation at the tip of the roots.
B) by cell division at the tip of the roots and cell elongation at the tip of the shoots.
C) by cell elongation at both the tip of the shoots and the roots.
D) by cell death (apoptosis) along the radial axis.
E) by cell division at both the tip of the shoots and the roots.

Question 31

The ________________ can differentiate into stems, leaves, or flowers.

A) suspensor
B) shoot meristem
C) basal region
D) central region
E) apical meristem

Question 32

Apical-basal patterning genes are expressed in

A) the basal region.
B) the apical region.
C) the central region.
D) the apical, basal, and central regions.
E) the apical and basal regions only.

Question 33

Which of the following are incorrectly matched?

A) gene A, sepal formation, whorl 1
B) gene B, petal formation, whorl 2
C) gene E petal formation, whorl 2
D) gene C stamen formation, whorl 3
E) gene B carpel formation, whorl 4

Question 34

You find an Arabidopsis plant in your greenhouse that lacks stamens and carpels, and has two rows of petals and sepals. What happened to cause this abnormal flower development?

A) a deleterious mutation of gene C
B) an overexpression of gene B
C) a deleterious mutation of gene A
D) a deleterious mutation of C and overexpression of E
E) a deleterious mutation of C and overexpression of A

Question 35

If an Arabidopsis plant does not express homeotic genes during flower development

A) the plant will die.
B) the plant will only develop to the heart stage.
C) the plant will not develop cotyledons.
D) the plant will develop leaves instead of flowers.
E) the plant will develop flowers instead of leaves.

Question 36

Some breeds of dogs that are specialized to retrieve objects from bodies of water have webbing between their toes. A change in what cellular response to positional information during digit formation could account for this morphological feature?

A) Signals that cause differentiation to toes are not received by cells that become webbing.
B) Signals to cause apoptosis are not received by cells that become webbing.
C) Cells between the future digits migrate, but do not divide once they are in the region that will become toes.
D) Cells between the future digits divide, but do not migrate to the region that will become toes.
E) Cells between the future digits do not divide before migrating to the region that will become toes.

Question 37

Which of the following phrases INCORRECTLY finishes the following statement regarding morphogen distribution? Morphogen distribution inside the cell

A) is homogeneous.
B) can be established prior to fertilization of the oocyte.
C) can arise due to localized secretion by neighboring cells.
D) is dependent on CAMs.
E) is neither homogeneous nor dependent on CAMs.

Question 38

At least some of the cells of a mammalian heart in the final phase of development would most likely be

A) undergoing apoptosis.
B) dividing rapidly.
C) expressing segmentation genes.
D) expressing cardiac-specific transcription factors.
E) either undergoing apoptosis or expressing cardiac-specific transcription factors.

Question 39

Place these genes in their temporal order of expression from earliest to latest during Drosophila development.

A) Bicoid, Gap, Homeotic
B) Homeotic, Gap, Bicoid
C) Homeotic, Bicoid,Gap
D) These genes are not expressed at different times during development. They are expressed at the same time, but in a different spatial order.
E) Kruppel, gooseberry, even-skipped

Question 40

You find a mutant Drosophila larva that is lacking anterior structures. You know that this embryo had normal amounts of Bicoid protein. What other type of mutation could cause this result?

A) A hunchback mutation that inhibits Hunchback production.
B) A hunchback mutation that causes Hunchback overproduction.
C) A maternal effect gene mutation that inhibits the production of a maternal gene product.
D) A segmentation gene mutation that inhibits production of a segmentation gene product.
E) A segmentation gene mutation that causes the overproduction of a segmentation gene product.

Question 41

Most transcription factors active in early development are morphogens. Answer True

Question 42

Adult stem cells are always unipotent.

Question 43

The shoot meristem is totipotent.

Question 44

A cell's fate is determined while the cell is differentiating.

Question 45

The molecular structure of invertebrate homeotic genes differs significantly from that of mammals.

Question 46

The bicoid gene is a homeotic gene that encodes a transcription factor.

Question 47

Both embryonic stem cells and embryonic germ cells are pluripotent.

Question 48

A myeloid progenitor cell can differentiate into immune cells of the blood and lymph systems.

Question 49

Davis, Weintraub, and Lasser demonstrated that MyoA, MyoD, and MyoH could transform undifferentiated fibroblast cells into muscle cells.

Question 50

There are no federal government funds currently available for stem cell research.