ASU BIO 340 UPDATED ACTUAL
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
●● Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Answer: Amateur botanist who published an explanation of hereditary
transmission in plants in 1866. Known for his pea-plant experiments and
commonly referred to as the "father of genetics"
●● modern genetics
Answer: the study of heredity and the variation of inherited
characteristics
●● bacterial transforming principle
Answer: an experiment proposed by Frederick Griffith in 1928 which
suggested that a "transforming principle" from a heat-killed virulent
Pneumococcus strain can transform a non-virulent strain into a
pathogenic one.
●● Avery, McCarty, MacLeod (1944)
Answer: biological researchers who identified DNA as the likely
transforming principle in Griffith's experiment.
,●● Hershey and Chase (1952)
Answer: concluded that the genetic material of the bacteriophage was
DNA, not protein.
●● Edwin Chargaff
Answer: Austrian biochemist who discovered that identical quantities of
A and T, C and G were present in DNA (developed the complementary
base-pairing rule for DNA).
●● Frederick Griffith (1928)
Answer: British bacteriologist; the first person to show that hereditary
information could be transferred from one cell to another horizontally
rather than vertically
●● genome
Answer: the complete set of genetic information carried by a species
●● vertical transmission
Answer: gene transmission between organisms without parental
reproduction
●● horizontal transmission
Answer: gene transmission from parents to their offspring through
reproduction (aka person-to-person)
,●● DNA replication
Answer: the process in which DNA makes a duplicate copy of itself.
●● transcription
Answer: synthesis of an RNA molecule from a DNA template
●● mRNA (messenger RNA)
Answer: a single-stranded RNA molecule that encodes the information
to make a protein
●● hereditary material
Answer: the information which is passed from one cellular generation to
the next (encoded in DNA in humans).
●● Pauling and Corey (1951)
Answer: biological researchers who provided the basis for research on
DNA structure (proposed an alpha helix model as a structure for nucleic
acid)
●● Watson and Crick (1953)
Answer: the two scientists who discovered the structure and shape of
DNA
, ●● nucleotide
Answer: a building block of DNA, consisting of a five-carbon sugar
covalently bonded to a nitrogenous base and a phosphate group.
●● genes
Answer: DNA segments that serve as the key functional units in
hereditary transmission.
●● chromosomes
Answer: a threadlike structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the
nucleus of most living cells, carrying genetic information in the form of
genes.
●● nucleoid
Answer: a dense region of DNA in a prokaryotic cell.
●● diploid
Answer: containing two complete sets of chromosomes, one from each
parent (2n)
●● haploid
Answer: an organism or cell having only one complete set of
chromosomes (n)
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
●● Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Answer: Amateur botanist who published an explanation of hereditary
transmission in plants in 1866. Known for his pea-plant experiments and
commonly referred to as the "father of genetics"
●● modern genetics
Answer: the study of heredity and the variation of inherited
characteristics
●● bacterial transforming principle
Answer: an experiment proposed by Frederick Griffith in 1928 which
suggested that a "transforming principle" from a heat-killed virulent
Pneumococcus strain can transform a non-virulent strain into a
pathogenic one.
●● Avery, McCarty, MacLeod (1944)
Answer: biological researchers who identified DNA as the likely
transforming principle in Griffith's experiment.
,●● Hershey and Chase (1952)
Answer: concluded that the genetic material of the bacteriophage was
DNA, not protein.
●● Edwin Chargaff
Answer: Austrian biochemist who discovered that identical quantities of
A and T, C and G were present in DNA (developed the complementary
base-pairing rule for DNA).
●● Frederick Griffith (1928)
Answer: British bacteriologist; the first person to show that hereditary
information could be transferred from one cell to another horizontally
rather than vertically
●● genome
Answer: the complete set of genetic information carried by a species
●● vertical transmission
Answer: gene transmission between organisms without parental
reproduction
●● horizontal transmission
Answer: gene transmission from parents to their offspring through
reproduction (aka person-to-person)
,●● DNA replication
Answer: the process in which DNA makes a duplicate copy of itself.
●● transcription
Answer: synthesis of an RNA molecule from a DNA template
●● mRNA (messenger RNA)
Answer: a single-stranded RNA molecule that encodes the information
to make a protein
●● hereditary material
Answer: the information which is passed from one cellular generation to
the next (encoded in DNA in humans).
●● Pauling and Corey (1951)
Answer: biological researchers who provided the basis for research on
DNA structure (proposed an alpha helix model as a structure for nucleic
acid)
●● Watson and Crick (1953)
Answer: the two scientists who discovered the structure and shape of
DNA
, ●● nucleotide
Answer: a building block of DNA, consisting of a five-carbon sugar
covalently bonded to a nitrogenous base and a phosphate group.
●● genes
Answer: DNA segments that serve as the key functional units in
hereditary transmission.
●● chromosomes
Answer: a threadlike structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the
nucleus of most living cells, carrying genetic information in the form of
genes.
●● nucleoid
Answer: a dense region of DNA in a prokaryotic cell.
●● diploid
Answer: containing two complete sets of chromosomes, one from each
parent (2n)
●● haploid
Answer: an organism or cell having only one complete set of
chromosomes (n)
