BIOLOGY 1030 STUDY OBJECTIVES: Fall 2003
 
Classification.
 
1. Define taxonomy.
 
2. Define species, using the biological and then evolutionary species concepts. Why isn't the biological species concept sufficient? About how many species are currently known? According to the estimate presented in lecture, what % of the total is this?
 
3. List the 8 principal taxonomic levels in their proper sequence. What does it mean when we say biological classification is hierarchical?
 
4. To what does the term binomial refer? What are the 2 parts of a binomial name, and how are they written? In what language are species names and descriptions written, and why?
 
5. Contrast cladistic and traditional approaches to biological classification.
 
6. Define monophyletic, polyphyletic and paraphyletic. Draw phylograms to show: a) a monophyletic group, b) a polyphyletic group, c) a paraphyletic group. What are cladograms, and how are they constructed using shared derived character states?
 
7. Many traits may be used to classify organisms: list those presented in lecture. Name and define 2 nutrition modes, 3 cell structures and 4 biochemical features that are important in classifying some of the organisms discussed in this course.
 
8. What is a life cycle? Define diploid, haploid, syngamy, mitosis, meiosis. Use them in a diagram of a basic life cycle.
 
9. Define and diagram: zygotic meiosis, gametic meiosis and sporic meiosis. Be able to recognize examples of these as seen in the lab manual or text figures.
 
10. Define and contrast the terms gamete and meiospore. Are gametes always made directly by meiosis? When are they, and when are they not?
 
11. What is asexual reproduction? What purpose does it serve? How does that contrast with the purpose of sexual reproduction?
 
Domains Archaea/Bacteria.
 
1. Describe the Domains Archaebacteria and Bacteria. Which group contains the majority of the bacteria?
 
2. Define methanogen, halophile and thermophile. To which of the prokaryote domains do most of these belong?
 
3. What are the general features of prokaryotic cells (contrast them with eukarykotes)?
 
4. What are some of the important roles bacteria play in Earth's life processes?
 
5. How do bacteria negatively affect humans? What are their positive roles?
 
 
Domain Eukarya: Kingdom Protista

1. What are the features common to members of the Domain Eukarya?  What is endosymbiosis, and how does this explain the evolution of members of the Eukarya?

2. Briefly describe the features shared by all members of the Protista (if there are any).  Is this a monophyletic group? Why? Differentiate between unicellular, colonial and multicellular lifestyles.

3. Know the technical phylum name and common name of each protist group covered in lecture.  Be able to describe important classification features mentioned in lecture, and know if a group has relatively many or few species. Know the habitat of those groups for which habitat information is given. If particular genera or species were covered, know these names and why they were mentioned in class.

Listed below are phyla with terms and groups worth knowing:
 
Rhizopoda: pseudopds, Amoeba, Entamoeba, Vampyrella
Actinopoda:
Foraminifera: test, podia, limestone
Pyrrhophyta: zooxanthellae, bioluminescence, bloom, red tide, Pfiesteria
Euglenophyta: pellicle, Euglena
Chrysophyta: chrysolaminarin, diatomaceous earth
Rhodophyta: coralline red agae, agar, carrageenan
Phaeophyta: kelp, alginates
Chlorophyta: Chlamydomonas, Volvox, Ulva, Chlorella
Sarcomastigophora: Trypanosoma, tsetse fly, African sleeping sickness, Leishmania, leishmaniasis, sand fly, Giardia, giardiasis, Trichonympha, termites, gut symbiont
Ciliophora: pellicle, micronucleus, macronucleus, conjugation, Paramecium, Stentor
Apicomplexa: Plasmodium, malaria
Oomycota: mitospore (zoospore), hypha, Phytophthora, late blight of potato
Acrasiomycota:
Myxomycota: plasmodium, Physarum, sporangium (-ia)


Domain Eukarya: Kingdom Fungi.

1. Define, sketch, and recognize: hypha, mycelium, zygosporangium, ascus, ascospore, ascoma, basidium, basidiospore, basidioma.

2. Characterize the fungi in terms of: a) nutrition, b) position and importance in the food chain, c) type of life cycle, d) cell wall composition, e) habitat.

3. Define and relate the terms syngamy, plasmogamy and karyogamy. What is a dikaryotic hypha? A monokaryotic hypha?

4. What are mitospores? meiospores? In fungi, are they haploid or diploid? What are conidia?

5. Distinguish between the Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Imperfect Fungi with respect to: a) sexual reproduction (life cycle differences), b) asexual reproduction, c) coenocytic or septate hyphae, d) role of dikaryotic hyphae in feeding and formation of fruiting body.

6. Which of the groups listed above is not a true phylum? Why? Which of these has the smallest number of species? The greatest?

7. In which fungal group do yeasts belong? What is their economic and medical importance? In which fungal group do morels and truffles belong? What is their use by humans?

8. To what phylum does Armillaria belong? According to lecture, what is Armillaria's major claim to fame? What are smuts and rusts, and to which phylum to they belong? Although some species of wild mushrooms are edible, why should you avoid eating the basidioma of Amanita?

9. What were the important roles of imperfect fungi as mentioned in lecture?

10. What are lichens? What phyla are usually involved? What is the nature of the relationship between the two components of a lichen? In what types of habitats are lichens important ecologically? Give an example. What do we mean when we say some lichens are bioindicators of air pollution?

11. What are mycorrhizae? About what % of plants form them? What is the nature of the relationship between plant and fungus? How are mycorrhizae important for revegetating disturbed areas? What is the difference between endomycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizae?


12. What is biocontrol, and how may fungi be used against human enemies?


Introduction to K. Plantae; Phyla Anthocerophyta, Hepaticophyta, and Bryophyta.

1. Name the features shared by (almost) all land plants. From what phylum did they evolve?

2. Describe the general features of land plants as presented in lecture, including adaptations to prevent water loss, gamete and gametangium specialization, and embryos. How does specialization of gametes into sperms and eggs separate the main functions of gametes?

3. Give the common and technical phylum names for the 3 major groups of bryophytes.  Briefly describe the members of each phylum, including examples that were given in lecture.

4. Explain why bryophytes need moist conditions to grow and reproduce. Some bryophytes are epiphytes: what does this term mean?

5. Distinguish rhizoids from roots in anatomy and function.

6. Draw a life cycle diagram showing the important stages of a moss life cycle: meiospores, gametophyte, gametangia (antheridia and archegonia), swimming sperm, embryo, sporophyte (foot, seta, and capsule). Which structures are haploid, and which are diploid? Why did I say that bryophytes make "deadbeat sporophytes."

7. What is the importance of mosses to ecosystems? To humans? Recall the uses and importance of Sphagum moss (don't forget the bog people).

8. Liverworts can be thallose or leafy. What do we mean by this? Recall the liverwort called Marchantia. What are archegoniophores and antheridiophores? What are gemmae? What is the function of these structures?

9. What do hornworts look like? How are they different from mosses and liverworts?

Seedless vascular plants (SVPs).

1. Name the features that are shared by bryophytes and SVPs, and the features common to SVPs but not bryophytes. Explain the value of the latter features to plants in a terrestrial environment.

2. Distinguish between megaphylls and microphylls. Show by sketches how each type has evolved.

3. Name the phylum(-a) of SVPs in which members have: (a) microphylls, (b) megaphylls, (c) homospory, (d) heterospory, (e) no leaves, (f) no roots. Know the common names of the phyla. Which phylum of SVPs has the most species?

4. How important economically are SVPs? Which phylum is most important for our use of living species? When in Earth's history did SVPs dominate land habitats? What current use do humans make of SVP fossils?

5. Distinguish between homospory and heterospory. Draw a life cycle diagram to show each. Name a homosporous and a heterosporous SVP. Describe the advantages offered by heterospory.

6. Contrast the life cycles of SVPs (represented by ferns) and bryophytes (represented by a moss or liverwort). Which make deadbeat sporophytes? In which is the sporophyte body dominant? In which is the gametophyte body dominant?

7. Which phylum of SVPs contains several southeastern endangered species? What is a sporophyll? What is a strobilus?

8. To what phylum does Equisetum belong? Be able to identify the leaves and branches on a horsetail or scouring rush. What are sporangiophores, and what is a strobilus?

9. In ferns, what are sori and indusia? Where are sporangia typically found on fern leaves? What is the importance of ferns as: horticultural species, primary producers, invasive exotics?



Gymnosperms.

1. Be familiar with the important features of heterospory that represent advantages over homospory for life on land. Use the Selaginella life cycle as an example of heterospory.
Pay particular attention to the types of sporophylls, sporangia, meiospores, and gametophytes made. How does heterospory extend the specialization of gametes (sperm and eggs) back into earlier points of a sporic life cycle?

2. Indicate the time in history when gymnosperms became dominant, and the environmental change that led to their evolutionary radiation.

3. Describe the common features of gymnosperms and differentiate them from other groups of plants.

4. Describe the life cycle of pine. Be sure you define these terms: pollen (male) cone, seed (female) cone, sporophyte, microsporophyll, microsporangium, microspore mother cell, microspore, microgametophyte, pollen grain, pollen tube, spermatogenous cell, ovule, integument, megasorangium, megaspore mother cell, megaspore, megagametophtye, archegonium, egg, pollination, fertilization (syngamy), seed, seed coat, embryo. Why can we say that a pine seed is composed of parts of 3 pine generations?

5. What are the advantages of making pollen grains and seeds for meeting the challenges of life on land?

6. As a test of your understanding, describe the sequence of evolutionary advances that resulted in development of pollen grains and seeds, showing as stages the comparable structures in homosporous SVPs (such as ferns), heterosporous SVPs (such as Selaginella), and gymnosperms (such as pine).

7. Describe the four major features in the life cycle of gymnosperms that are advances over living SVPs (secondary growth, pollen, ovule, seed). Explain how each feature promotes survival on dry land, and how it improves on the comparable structure in SVPs.

8. What is the technical name of the cycad phylum? What are the general features of cycads mentioned in lecture? What do we mean by the term dioecious? What are the 3 stories about cycads discussed in lecture (human use, endangerment, dinosaurs)?

9. What is the technical name of the conifer phylum? Is this the largest group of living gymnosperms? When did the gymnosperms dominate the land? Where do they dominate it still? What are the biological records held by gymnosperms as discussed in lecture? What are 3 economic uses of conifers discussed in lecture? Are pines, junipers, firs, cypresses, redwoods, big trees, Wollemi "pines", and yews all conifers? What are forest decline and acid rain, and their connection with conifer forests?

10. What is the technical name of the phylum containing maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba)? How many species in this phylum are alive today? Why is Ginkgo called a living fossil? What are its distinctive features? What are its economic uses?

11. What is the technical name of the gnetophyte phylum? What is distinctive about them? What 2 genera were discussed in lecture, what is connection of one of them to the drug ephedrine?


Flowering plants and the flower.

1. About how many species of flowering plants have been described by scientists? Are there more yet to be discovered?

2. Describe the four features discussed in lecture that distinguish angiosperms from other plant groups.

Know the summary table below differentiating angiosperms from gymnosperms:

Trait                            Angiosperms                    Gymnosperms
Ovules                    Enclosed in ovary        Enclosed in cone (not sealed)
Integuments                        2                                        1
Fertilization                    Double                                Single
Archegonium                Absent                                Present
Embryo “eats”            Endosperm (sibling)    Megagametophyte (mom)
Pollen grain                    2 cells                        >2 cells (4 in pine)
Pollination is arrival at:     Stigma                Ovule opening (micropyle)
Pollen vector (generally)    Animals                        Wind   

3. In a diagram of a flower, identify peduncle, receptacle, sepal, petal, stamen, anther, filament, pistil, ovule, stigma, style, ovary.

4. Diagram the angiosperm life cycle. If one item has been blanked out in the life cycle diagram covered during lecture, replace the missing item and explain its importance.

5. Show in diagrams where the mega- and microsporangia, mega- and microspores, and mega- and microgametophytes occur in flowers.
 
6. Illustrate the trend toward reduction of the gametophyte phase in plants by comparing the gametophytes of homosporous and heterosporous SVPs, gymnosperms, and angiosperms.

7. How does pollination differ between angiosperms and gymnosperms, both in terms of the vector involved (what carries pollen) and the definition of pollination for each group?

8. Explain why the flower is regarded as a collection of modified leaves. How are carpels, stamens, petals, and sepals each thought to have evolved?

9. Which condition is thought to be ancestral and which derived (modified by evolution from the ancestral condition) in the following traits:
1) parts fused vs. parts free,
2) many parts vs. few parts,
3) spirally arranged parts vs. whorled parts,
4) complete vs. incomplete flowers and perfect vs. imperfect flowers,
5) ovary superior vs. ovary inferior,
6) radial symmetry vs. bilateral symmetry

See handy table below.

Trait                                Ancestral                        Derived                 
# parts                            indefinite, many              definite, few
arrangement of parts            spiral                            whorled
fusion of parts                    none                                yes
ovary position                superior                            inferior
missing parts                complete, perfect        incomplete, imperfect
symmetry                            radial                        bilateral

10. What is an inflorescence? What is a head? In a sunflower, what are ray and disk flowers?

11. Describe how animal pollination of flowers is usually a mutualism. Describe the benefits of insect pollination. Be sure to mention directed pollen dispersal and the selective action of the style as part of your answer.

12. What is a pollination syndrome? What is coevolution?

13. Describe the general features of flowers pollinated by beetles, bees, flies, moths, birds, bats, and wind, and how they take advantage of the differing characteristics of these pollinators.

14. What are landing platforms, nectar guides, sexual mimics? What pollinates the plants that make the largest flowers and the largest inflorescences in the world? Name several examples of flowers that trick insects into visiting them without providing a reward.

15. Into what 2 classes is the Anthophyta divided? How can monocot and dicot flowers be distinguished from each other? What are other differences between these two classes discussed in lecture?

16. What is the value of pollinators to crops grown by humans?


Fruits and seeds of flowering plants.

1. Define the term seed. Describe the origin of the seed coat. List 3 functions that may be performed by the seed coat. What are elaiosomes and what do they do?

2. What is a fruit? Describe the difference between a seed and a fruit. What is the pericarp? Into what 3 layers can a pericarp be subdivided?

3. Describe 3 functions for the pericarp. What is scarification? What are the 3 main seed dispersal mechanisms that involve the pericarp? Why are insects not important seed dispersers (relative to mammals and birds)?

4. What are parthenocarpic fruits? How are plants that make these kinds of fruits propagated?

5. Differentiate between accessory, multiple, aggregate, and simple fruits.  Be familiar with the examples of these types of fruits presented in lecture.

6. Simple fruits can be divided into fleshy and dry fruits. What type of simple fruit is a: pepo, berry, hesperidium, capsule, legume, drupe, pome, nut, grain (caryopsis), achene, follicle, samara?

END of material to be covered on EXAM #1 (9/23)