NPB 110A Exam 1 (Lectures 1-9)
questions well answered to pass
single-cell prokaryotes - correct answer ✔✔- Bacteria
- Archaea
□ Similar to bacteria, but with significant molecular differences most notably in their
membrane structure and ribosomal RNA
□ Ex: Thermophiles
single-cell eukaryotes - correct answer ✔✔- Protozoa
- Unicellular algae
- Unicellular fungi
(usually classified as) protozoa - correct answer ✔✔- Unicellular organisms that share
characteristics of animals
- Include ciliates, amoeba and flagellates
origins of multicellularity - correct answer ✔✔○ For most of the history of life on Earth there
were only single-celled organisms
○ Now there is an incredible diversity of fungi, algae, plants and animals that are made up of
cells working together
○ Unicellular protist --> colony --> early multicellular organism with specialized, interdependent
cells --> later organism that produces gametes
○ Multicellularity has actually evolved independently in many different lineages of organisms
(Metazoa, Fungi, Embryophyta, etc.)
For cells to work together they must be able to: - correct answer ✔✔○ Adhere to one another
,○ Communicate with one another
○ Cooperate with one another
□ Ex: Share nutrients across cells
What same basic challenges does all organisms face? - correct answer ✔✔1. Find and digest
food
2. Find a mate and reproduce
3. Avoid being eaten while you are doing number 1 and number 2 or while sleeping
4. Maintain a balance between the fluids in the body and the salts dissolved in them
(osmotically stable environment)
5. Circulate nutrients from one part of the body to the other
6. Remove waste products generated by metabolism (especially nitrogen compounds)
7. ???
motile organisms - correct answer ✔✔Organisms that can move towards a food source
sessile organisms - correct answer ✔✔Organisms that can't move toward a food source so:
□ They don't need complicated structures like legs or wings in order to move about and look for
food
□ But they are limited to food that happens to float by
Ex: sea anemones
Ensuring that food reaches their subcellular target... - correct answer ✔✔○ If you remain small,
you rely on simple diffusion to absorb nutrients from the environment and excrete wastes
○ Increasing size brings increasing control over your environment, and allows for greater
complexity
□ But larger and thicker organisms can no longer rely on diffusion
, As organisms become larger, their volume (V) (increases/decreases) much more rapidly than
their surface area. Cells become farther removed from the outside at a very (fast/slow) rate. -
correct answer ✔✔increases; fast
As a spherical creature gets bigger, more and more V (V = 4/3 pi r^3) is covered by less and less
SA (SA = 4 pi r^2) - correct answer ✔✔So to grow in size, organisms needed to be made of
several small units and grow by adding units, but there are still problems
Organisms have solved this problem of size and diffusion in several ways: - correct answer ✔✔○
Folding the respiratory, digestive, and other surfaces to increase the amount of surface area in a
limited space
○ Being very thin or very flat
○ Developing vascular systems--Plants and animals have solved this problem in a basically
similar way
○ Developing coelomic systems
coelomic system(s) - correct answer ✔✔○ Fluid-filled cavities that can be used to circulate
materials and hold the internal organs, along with a variety of other useful functions
○ fr. Greek koiloma = cavity
vascular system - correct answer ✔✔○ A network of tubes that runs throughout the body of the
organism
○ Plants and animals rely on a vascular system to solve the problem of size and diffusion
Tinbergen's four questions - correct answer ✔✔○ Named after Nikolaas Tinbergen, these are
complementary categories of explanation for behavior
○ It suggests that an integrative understanding of behavior must include both a proximate and
ultimate analysis of behavior, as well as an understanding of both phylogenetic history
(evolution of species) and ontogenetic history (development of an individual)
questions well answered to pass
single-cell prokaryotes - correct answer ✔✔- Bacteria
- Archaea
□ Similar to bacteria, but with significant molecular differences most notably in their
membrane structure and ribosomal RNA
□ Ex: Thermophiles
single-cell eukaryotes - correct answer ✔✔- Protozoa
- Unicellular algae
- Unicellular fungi
(usually classified as) protozoa - correct answer ✔✔- Unicellular organisms that share
characteristics of animals
- Include ciliates, amoeba and flagellates
origins of multicellularity - correct answer ✔✔○ For most of the history of life on Earth there
were only single-celled organisms
○ Now there is an incredible diversity of fungi, algae, plants and animals that are made up of
cells working together
○ Unicellular protist --> colony --> early multicellular organism with specialized, interdependent
cells --> later organism that produces gametes
○ Multicellularity has actually evolved independently in many different lineages of organisms
(Metazoa, Fungi, Embryophyta, etc.)
For cells to work together they must be able to: - correct answer ✔✔○ Adhere to one another
,○ Communicate with one another
○ Cooperate with one another
□ Ex: Share nutrients across cells
What same basic challenges does all organisms face? - correct answer ✔✔1. Find and digest
food
2. Find a mate and reproduce
3. Avoid being eaten while you are doing number 1 and number 2 or while sleeping
4. Maintain a balance between the fluids in the body and the salts dissolved in them
(osmotically stable environment)
5. Circulate nutrients from one part of the body to the other
6. Remove waste products generated by metabolism (especially nitrogen compounds)
7. ???
motile organisms - correct answer ✔✔Organisms that can move towards a food source
sessile organisms - correct answer ✔✔Organisms that can't move toward a food source so:
□ They don't need complicated structures like legs or wings in order to move about and look for
food
□ But they are limited to food that happens to float by
Ex: sea anemones
Ensuring that food reaches their subcellular target... - correct answer ✔✔○ If you remain small,
you rely on simple diffusion to absorb nutrients from the environment and excrete wastes
○ Increasing size brings increasing control over your environment, and allows for greater
complexity
□ But larger and thicker organisms can no longer rely on diffusion
, As organisms become larger, their volume (V) (increases/decreases) much more rapidly than
their surface area. Cells become farther removed from the outside at a very (fast/slow) rate. -
correct answer ✔✔increases; fast
As a spherical creature gets bigger, more and more V (V = 4/3 pi r^3) is covered by less and less
SA (SA = 4 pi r^2) - correct answer ✔✔So to grow in size, organisms needed to be made of
several small units and grow by adding units, but there are still problems
Organisms have solved this problem of size and diffusion in several ways: - correct answer ✔✔○
Folding the respiratory, digestive, and other surfaces to increase the amount of surface area in a
limited space
○ Being very thin or very flat
○ Developing vascular systems--Plants and animals have solved this problem in a basically
similar way
○ Developing coelomic systems
coelomic system(s) - correct answer ✔✔○ Fluid-filled cavities that can be used to circulate
materials and hold the internal organs, along with a variety of other useful functions
○ fr. Greek koiloma = cavity
vascular system - correct answer ✔✔○ A network of tubes that runs throughout the body of the
organism
○ Plants and animals rely on a vascular system to solve the problem of size and diffusion
Tinbergen's four questions - correct answer ✔✔○ Named after Nikolaas Tinbergen, these are
complementary categories of explanation for behavior
○ It suggests that an integrative understanding of behavior must include both a proximate and
ultimate analysis of behavior, as well as an understanding of both phylogenetic history
(evolution of species) and ontogenetic history (development of an individual)
