Deck 5: Modern Evolutionary Theory

Question 1

Which of the following is not an outcome of meiosis?

A) In males, sperm are produced.
B) In females, ova are produced.
C) Reproductive cells that carry half the number of chromosomes characteristic of the species.
D) In humans, cells that carry 23 individual chromosomes.
E) In humans, cells that carry 23 pairs of chromosomes.

Answer 1

In humans, cells that carry 23 pairs of chromosomes.

Question 2

If one of Mendel's pea plants produced yellow peas (i.e., was phenotypically a yellow pea plant), but could also pass on the gene for green peas, that plant would be described as

A) homozygous yellow.
B) homozygous green.
C) heterozygous.
D) recessive.
E) mutants.

Answer 2

heterozygous.

Question 3

Gene flow is the process whereby genes pass from one population's gene pool to another through

A) mating and reproduction.
B) mutation and isolation.
C) genetic drift and founder effect.
D) directional selection and survival.
E) migration and balancing selection.

Answer 3

mating and reproduction.

Question 4

Growth, development and maintenance of body tissues would be impossible without

A) meiosis.
B) mitosis.
C) dominant genes.
D) recessive genes.
E) cell nuclei.

Question 5

A particular form of genetic drift that occurs when a small group, recently derived from a larger population, migrates to a relatively isolated location is referred to as

A) gene flow.
B) directional selection.
C) founder effect.
D) generational genetic drift.
E) an evolutionary bottleneck.

Question 6

The variation in gene frequency from one end of the region to the other is called

A) natural selection.
B) gene flow.
C) speciation.
D) genetic drift.
E) a cline.

Question 7

A ribonucleic acid that is used to copy DNA code for the use in protein synthesis is called

A) ribosome.
B) messenger RNA.
C) meiosis.
D) lysine.
E) sugar-phosphate.

Question 8

A "meme" is a unit of

A) time.
B) biological evolution.
C) cultural evolution.
D) gene flow.
E) the "genetic clock"

Question 9

Mutations that are invisible to selection are

A) homozygous.
B) beneficial.
C) polymorphic.
D) neutral.
E) directional.

Question 10

A long, two-stranded molecule shaped like a double helix is the structure of

A) proteins.
B) ribonucleic acid (RNA).
C) uracil and adenine.
D) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
E) cytosine and guanine.

Question 11

HeLa cells are

A) bacterial cells.
B) gametes.
C) plant cells.
D) cancer cells.
E) neural cells.

Question 12

From his plant breeding experiments, Mendel concluded that an organism's genetic make-up, its ________, can differ from the organism's observable appearance, its ________.

A) genotype; phenotype
B) phenotype; genotype
C) genome; mutation
D) gene pool; morphotype
E) gene frequency; gene

Question 13

In biological evolution, variability comes from

A) differential reproductive success and total fecundity.
B) genetic recombination and mutation.
C) gene flow and genetic drift.
D) mitosis and meiosis.
E) chromosomes and alleles.

Question 14

Hybridization is the creation of

A) a new mutation.
B) a clone.
C) viable offspring from two different species.
D) direction selection within several species.
E) an evolutionary dead-end.

Question 15

Meiosis produces daughter cells that

A) are identical to parent cells.
B) contain half the number of chromosomes appropriate for the species.
C) contain the full number of chromosomes appropriate for the species.
D) contain double the number of chromosomes appropriate for the species.
E) do not contain chromosomes.

Question 16

The development of the "modern synthesis" in evolutionary theory during the late 1930s and early 1940s was led by

A) A.R. Wallace, Thomas Huxley and Gregor Mendel.
B) E.B. Tyler, Lewis Henry Morgan and Franz Boas.
C) Niles Eldridge, Stephen Jay Gould and Louis Alvarez.
D) Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr and George Simpson.
E) Francis Galton, Charles B. Davenport and Madison Grant.

Question 17

Behaviour is the result of

A) genes, environment and life history.
B) genes and environment.
C) environment, life history an hybridization.
D) genes, sociobiology, and environment.
E) genetics.

Question 18

Natural selection operates on

A) the phenotype.
B) inherited characteristics.
C) the genotype.
D) recessive traits.
E) neutral mutations.

Question 19

New variation in a species can occur only through

A) mutation.
B) natural selection.
C) segregation.
D) acquired inheritance.
E) mitosis.

Question 20

Biologists interpret expressed, or observable, characteristics as being the result of interactions between

A) sociobiology, genetics and ecology.
B) individual organisms, populations and species.
C) genes, the environment and individual life histories.
D) genetics, population biology and paleontology.
E) natural selection, mutations and sexual reproduction.

Question 21

Genetic drift is a result of population fission.

Question 22

Another cause of the shuffling of parental genes is crossing-over.

Question 23

A chain of amino acids with greater than 100 peptide bonds is referred to as a polypeptide.

Question 24

Which of the following are genetic sources of variation?

A) Mitosis and meiosis.
B) Translation and protein synthesis.
C) Recombination and mutation.
D) Hybridization and speciation.
E) Epigenetics and mutation.

Question 25

An allele is one member of a gene pair or gene group.

Question 26

Gene flow between populations tends to decrease genetic variation between populations.

Question 27

Chromosomes are built of DNA.

Question 28

In individuals with heterozygous genotypes, it is always the dominant alleles that are passed from parents to offspring.

Question 29

How does the idea of punctuated equilibrium contrast with the traditional view on the pace of speciation?

Question 30

How does the founder effect lead to genetic drift?

Question 31

In order to initiate the production of proteins, mRNA must destroy the DNA double helix.

Question 32

Meme is the analagous term to the gene, for the transmission of cultural information.

Question 33

The double-stranded structure of DNA was proposed in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick.

Question 34

When Mendel first transferred pollen from a yellow pea plant to a green pea plant he observed that all of the first generation of plants bore yellow peas.

Question 35

Proteins act as catalysts for sythesizing DNA but not RNA.

Question 36

Natural selection can act on behavioural traits.

Question 37

Just as biologic species are reproductively isolated, human cultures represent closed systems.