Final Exam Concept Review Sheet

LAB CONCEPTS
Pipetting / Choosing & Setting a P20, P200, P1000
Enzymes / How to test enzyme activity
Spec20 & Absorbance
Genetic Engineering / Transformation & Plasmids
DNA Ligase and Restriction Enzymes (role in genetic engineering)
Selection of cells that have plasmid (Transformation Table)
Operons and Regulation of a gene on a plasmid
Restriction Digests / Restriction enzymes, Mapping a Plasmid
Loading Dye
Gel Electrophoresis / Loading Dye
Purpose of TAE Buffer in gel box
Ethidium Bromide/Gel Red
Agarose and how DNA Travels
Measuring lengths against a size standard
Gel errors -> analyzing problems
Restriction Analysis / Using gel results to determine where restriction sites are
PCR / How it works
Why use Taq polymerase?
What might be a reason that a PCR reaction doesn't work?
How do you see the product of a PCR reaction (gel electrophoresis)
Primer Design
GENERAL CONCEPTS
Chemistry & Biomolecules / Interactions between Atoms - Ionic, Covalent (polar and nonpolar), and Hydrogen Bonds; Van der Waals Forces
Reading molecular diagrams - how many carbons, where are the hydrogens?
Exergonic vs. Endergonic Reactions (activation energies)
pH scale
Properties of Water
Identifying Biomolecules based on pictures (classifying as either nucleic acid, protein, carbohydrate, or lipid)
Dehydration (Condensation) vs. Hydrolysis Reactions
Structure - Function Relationships in Biomolecules (how is a specific structure related to its specific function)
Carbohydrates - basic monosaccharides & disaccharides, polysaccharides (starch, glycogen, chitin, cellulose)
Lipids - saturated vs. unsaturated, basic properties, steroids, phospholipids and cell membrane properties & types of transport across a membrane
Nucleic Acids - labeling carbon numbers, knowing 5' and 3' ends, bases, DNA vs. RNA
Proteins - 4 degrees of structure, amino acid properties & how these affect protein structure
Enzymes / How they affect chemical reaction energetics
Interactions with substrates (molecular level)
Enzyme Control Mechanisms - including types of inhibition
Protein Synthesis / Transcription - how it starts/ends; RNA Polymerase, RNA Processing
Translation - how it starts/ends; ribosomes
Mutations
Control mechanisms - both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, including operons, transcription factors, enhancers, activators, RNAi
Genetics / Standard Genetic Crosses
Dihybrid Crosses
Dominant, recessive, incomplete dominance, and codominance
Sex-linked traits, sex-limited traits, polygenic inheritance, epistasis, etc (complex inheritance)
Using/reading a pedigree
RFLP Analysis - DNA probes
Mitosis/Meiosis (cell division) / Main stages of cell cycle (G1, S, G2, M, G0)
Purposes of mitosis & meiosis
Determining stages and identification of stages of meiosis and mitosis
Identifying a dividing plant cell or animal cell
Centriole, sister chromatid, diploid, haploid, spindle fibers
Recombination frequency
Linked genes
Control of the cell cycle (checkpoints, cyclins)
Meiosis errors, nondisjunction, polyploidy, aneuploidy, monosomic, trisomic, translocation, etc.
DNA Replication / Semiconservative Model
Main Enzymes involved- Helicase, DNA Polymerase III and I, Gyrase, Ligase, Primase
Okazaki Fragments & 5-3', leading and lagging strands
Proofreading, DNA repair, telomeres, telomerase, p53 & cancer
Ecology / Biomes
Net and Gross Primary Productivity
Food webs and energetics
Population studies & r/k reproductive strategies, population biology concepts
Primary and secondary succession
Population Genetics / How to calculate Allelic and Genotype Frequencies
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (equations, conditions)
Viruses / Lytic versus Lysogenic Cycles
Steps of virus infection (human and bacteriophage)
Bacteriophages
Components of a virus