Deck 8: Biodiversity 1: Microscopic Organisms

Question 1

If you looked at unknown cells under a microscope,what could lead you to correctly conclude that they are prokaryotic cells?

A) They appear to have a cell wall.
B) They lack a nucleus.
C) They are oblong in shape.
D) They form a colony.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which organisms are called extremophiles and flourish mostly in extreme conditions?

A) Protozoans
B) Archaea
C) Bacteria
D) Fungi

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Halophiles are a type of ________.

A) Bacteria
B) Archaea
C) Eukarya
D) Plants

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What does the term biogenesis mean?

A) Formation of life from other sources of life
B) Formation of life from nonliving materials
C) Formation of polymers from organic monomers
D) Formation of self-replicating molecules

Question 5

Where would you expect to find methanogens?

A) Near a volcano
B) In the surf along the beach
C) On the surface of plants
D) In the digestive tract of cows

Question 6

Food poisoning is often caused by a bacterium called ________.

A) Salmonella
B) Staph
C) MRSA
D) Bacillus anthracis

Question 7

The practice of using bacteria to remove pollutants from the environment is called ________.

A) nitrogen fixation
B) bioremediaton
C) bioelimination
D) transduction

Question 8

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen (N₂ gas)into ammonium (NH₄).Why is this conversion important for life on Earth?

A) Ammonium is an important cleaning agent.
B) Nitrogen gas is toxic.
C) Ammonium is a very important plant nutrient.
D) Nitrogen gas leads to global warming.

Question 9

Which protective structure forms to protect certain bacteria during periods of harsh conditions?

A) Flagella
B) Biofilm
C) Endospore
D) Capsule

Question 10

Which of the following is a way in which bacteria help the environment?

A) They are used to water in sewage treatment facilities.
B) They break down dead organisms in the soil and recycle nutrients.
C) They remove pollutants from the environment.
D) All of the above are ways in which bacteria help the environment.

Question 11

By what means do prokaryotes typically divide?

A) Binary fission
B) Mitosis
C) Meiosis
D) Regeneration

Question 12

What are the main steps of biogenesis,in the correct order?

A) Polymers, monomers, self-replicating molecules, first cells
B) Self-replicating molecules, monomers, polymers, first cells
C) Monomers, self-replicating molecules, polymers, first cells
D) Monomers, Polymers, self-replicating molecules, first cells

Question 13

What do scientists believe was the original genetic material able to copy itself without assistance?

A) DNA
B) RNA
C) Proteins
D) Enzymes

Question 14

Bacteria that have a spherical shape are called ________.

A) coccus
B) bacillus
C) spirillum
D) spheroid

Question 15

Many of the organic molecules associated with life can be created spontaneously under certain conditions.What do these conditions resemble?

A) Earth's core
B) Primordial Earth
C) The sun
D) A comet

Question 16

How many domains contain prokaryotic organisms?

A) One
B) Two
C) Three
D) Four

Question 17

The main hypothesis about the origin of the first living organisms is called ________.

A) chemo-evolution
B) novel design
C) biogenesis
D) cytosynthesis

Question 18

Which statement is true regarding bacteria?

A) All bacteria are pathogens and harmful to humans.
B) Some bacteria are pathogens and harmful to humans, whereas lots of bacteria are helpful to humans.
C) All bacteria are helpful to humans.
D) All bacteria are pathogens, but some harm humans more than others.

Question 19

Which organisms contain the smallest,least complex cell types?

A) Animal cells
B) Bacteria cells
C) Plant cells
D) Fungal cells

Question 20

Where do you expect to find thermophiles?

A) In anoxic environments
B) In salty environments
C) In dry environments
D) In hot environments

Question 21

Which protist group includes members with plantlike traits such as chloroplasts and multicellularity?

A) Slime molds
B) Algae
C) Amoebas
D) None of the protists have chloroplasts.

Question 22

Based on the endosymbiosis theory that highlights where chloroplasts come from,how would you expect chloroplasts to divide when a plant cell divides?

A) Via mitosis
B) Via meiosis
C) Via binary fission
D) Via endosymbiosis

Question 23

Which was first on the planet,prokaryotes or eukaryotes?

A) Eukaryotes
B) Prokaryotes
C) They both appear in the fossil record at about the same time.
D) It is unknown.

Question 24

Pathogen is ________.

A) a name given to all bacteria
B) a name given only to bacteria that cause serious illnesses in humans
C) a name given to all archaea
D) a name given only to helpful bacteria

Question 25

Bacteria reproduce asexually via binary fission.This process generates ________.

A) Genetically different bacteria
B) Genetically identical bacteria

Question 26

What are plasmids?

A) Small, circular DNA molecules that contain just a few genes and that can be passed on to other bacteria
B) Small, circular RNA molecules that contain just a few genes and that can be passed on to other bacteria
C) Small, circular DNA molecules that contain just a few genes but that cannot be passed on to other bacteria
D) Small, circular RNA molecules that contain many genes but that cannot be passed on to other bacteria

Question 27

When did the first eukaryotic cell form?

A) 2.1 thousand years ago
B) 2.1 million years ago
C) 2.1 billion years ago
D) 3.7 billion years ago

Question 28

Which is not a method bacteria use to generate new combinations of genes?

A) Transformation
B) Transduction
C) Binary fission
D) Conjugation

Question 29

Viruses that infect bacteria are called ________.

A) phages
B) plasmids
C) viroids
D) vectors

Question 30

How did mitochondria and chloroplasts arise in eukaryotic cells?

A) Via endosymbiosis, where mitochondria and chloroplasts were independent prokaryotic organisms that were engulfed by a larger cell
B) Via binary fission, where bacteria divided to create mitochondria and chloroplasts
C) Via the endomembrane system that engulfed mitochondria and chloroplasts
D) Via the endomembrane system that enfolded in such a way as to create mitochondria and chloroplasts

Question 31

Which method of bacterial DNA transfer involves a physical connection between the two bacterial cells?

A) Transformation
B) Transduction
C) Binary fission
D) Conjugation

Question 32

An organism is considered truly eukaryotic when ________.

A) its cells cannot survive on their own
B) its cells form colonies
C) its cells specialize in various tasks
D) each cell can carry out all of life's functions

Question 33

All protists are unicellular organisms.

Question 34

Which of the following statements is true of bacteria on this planet?

A) There are more helpful than harmful bacteria.
B) There are more harmful than helpful bacteria.
C) There are about as many helpful as harmful bacteria.
D) Bacteria have neither a positive nor a negative impact on human society.

Question 35

Approximately when did the earth's crust solidify?

A) 8 billion years ago
B) 4 billion years ago
C) 2 billion years ago
D) 1 billion years ago

Question 36

By what means do amoebas move?

A) Flagella
B) Cilia
C) Pseudopodia
D) Amoebas do not move; they are anchored to the substrate.

Question 37

What are the steps toward multicellularity,in the correct order?

A) Some cells become gametes, then a colony forms, and finally some cells start to specialize.
B) First a colony of protists forms, then some become gametes, and finally others specialize in various tasks.
C) Some protists start to specialize for specific tasks, then they form a colony with specialists, and finally some specialists become gametes.
D) First a colony of protists forms, then some protists start to specialize in specific tasks, and finally some cells become gametes.

Question 38

What is the leading scientific hypothesis explaining how the endomembrane system of eukaryotic cells originated?

A) From the inward folding of the plasma membrane
B) From engulfing prokaryotic cells
C) From engulfing eukaryotic cells
D) From the spontaneous coalescence of phospholipids

Question 39

How long did it take in the history of life on Earth to go from the first prokaryotic cells to the first eukaryotic cells?

A) 1,000 years
B) 100,000 years
C) 1 million years
D) Over a billion years

Question 40

What might be the advantage to a cell if it assimilated a photosynthetic bacterium rather than digesting it?

A) It could now utilize hydrogen sulfide as an energy source.
B) It could now use sunlight to make its food.
C) It could now live in an oxygen-free environment.
D) It could now use glucose as an energy source.

Question 41

Which of the following infects only plants?

A) Virus
B) Prion
C) Viroid
D) Capsid

Question 42

Which of the following do not get infected by viruses?

A) Animals
B) Plants
C) Bacteria
D) All of these can be infected by viruses.

Question 43

Describe all the possible forms of nucleic acids found in viruses.

Question 44

Which viral life cycle would result in a quicker death for an infected cell?

A) Lytic cycle
B) Prophage cycle
C) Retroviral cycle
D) Lysogenic cycle

Question 45

The protists are grouped together simply for convenience.Why are they not considered to be in a specific taxon such as a kingdom or a phylum?

Question 46

How does azidothymidine (AZT)fight AIDS?

A) It blocks the virus from entering the cell.
B) It targets the virus for destruction.
C) It blocks the enzyme that converts viral RNA to DNA.
D) It blocks the enzyme that assembles all of the parts into new viruses.

Question 47

Although most biologists do not consider viruses to be alive,viruses do share some characteristics with living things.Which of the following is the requirement for life that viruses lack?

A) The ability to reproduce on their own
B) The ability to move
C) Having genetic material
D) Having highly ordered structure

Question 48

Where would you find the double-stranded HIV DNA in an infected cell?

A) Incorporated directly into the host cell's chromosome
B) As a separate plasmid in the host cell's nucleus
C) In a vesicle in the cytoplasm
D) There is no HIV form of DNA. It exists only as RNA, which makes viral proteins directly.

Question 49

HIV has an RNA genome that is converted to DNA when infecting a human immune cell.This type of virus is called a ________.

A) bacteriophage
B) prion
C) retrovirus
D) reverse transcriptase

Question 50

Which specific cells are infected by the HIV virus?

A) Killer B cells
B) Helper T cells
C) Red blood cells
D) NK cells

Question 51

How do viruses make copies of themselves?

A) By taking the nutrients of the host cell they infected
B) By using the cellular machinery of the host cell they infected
C) By digesting the host cell they infected
D) By targeting their host cell they infected for cell death

Question 52

A degenerative brain disorder transmitted by cannibalism is called ________.

A) kuru
B) scrapie
C) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
D) herpes

Question 53

Why is there no cure for prion-related diseases?

Question 54

Why could prokaryotes survive without eukaryotes but eukaryotes could not survive without prokaryotes?

Question 55

An infectious circular piece of RNA that can infect plants is called a ________.

A) virus
B) prion
C) viroid
D) capsid

Question 56

Which began first?

A) Multicellular life in the ocean
B) Multicellular life in fresh water
C) Plants colonizing the land
D) Animals colonizing the land

Question 57

The misshapen version of a protein that causes properly folded proteins to misfold is the ________.

A) virus
B) prion
C) viroid
D) capsid

Question 58

HIV,the virus that causes AIDS in humans,does not infect other animals,but only certain cells in the human body.Why?