This document contains 53 questions about genetics and cellular biology. It covers topics such as the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, DNA structure and replication, mitosis and meiosis, Mendelian genetics including alleles, genotypes and phenotypes, blood types, polygenic traits, and an introduction to epigenetics. The questions assess understanding of core concepts in genetics, heredity, and gene expression.

1. 1. What is the difference between a prokaryote and a eukaryote
cell?
2. Draw a eukaryote cell. Label and give the function of its
main parts.
3. What is a somatic cell?
4. What is a sex cell called?
5. What is meant by ‘genome’?
6. What does it mean when we say that every organism’s DNA
is homoplasmic?
7. What structures in DNA turn food molecules into ATP, the
high-energy molecule that powers cells and in turn, powers
every tissue in the body?
8. Why is DNA considered to be the body’s ‘genetic code’ or
the ‘blueprint for life’?
9. What is a chromosome? During which process do
chromosomes appear?
10. In somatic cells chromosomes occur in
homologous pairs
. One is the maternal chromosome and contains the DNA or
genetic information from the mother, the other is the
___________chromosome and contains the DNA from the
_________.
11. Within each chromosome, DNA molecules form a sequence
or code that is a template for the production of a protein, or part
of a protein. Each protein has a specific function, and

2. collectively proteins determine all physical characteristics and
govern the functions of all ________, ________ and organs in
the body.
12. Each protein generating code is a gene. The complete set of
genes is called the ________.
13. Where in a cell is its DNA?
14. “The genetic code, DNA, is universal.” Explain
15. On a separate page:
a.
Draw
a DNA molecule and label the parts
b.
Draw
and label a nucleotide.
16. How does a DNA molecule replicate itself?
Describe and draw
the process.
17. How do somatic cells replicate themselves?
Describe (or draw)
the process.
18. Which cells divide through meiosis?
Describe
(or draw)
the process of meiosis.
19. What is the evolutionary significance of meiosis?

3. 20. What can go wrong during meiosis?
21. Study Figure 3.14.
Which of Gregor Mendel’s laws does it demonstrate?
What does the Punnett Square demonstrate?
Understand figures a and b thoroughly enough to explain it to
the class.
22. ‘Linkage’ is an exception to Mendel’s second law. How
does linkage work?
23. Chromosomes come in pairs. All normal human somatic
cells have 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex
chromosomes. How many pairs are there in all?
24. To function normally each human cell has to have both
members of each chromosome pair, with a total of how many
chromosomes?
25. What can happen if a fetus doesn’t have the correct number
of chromosomes?
26. Offspring inherit one member of each
chromosomal pair
from the father and one from the _______.
27. Are partner chromosomes genetically identical? Explain
28. What is a karyotype?
29. Does the genetic information carried by chromosome
partners govern the same or different traits?

4. 30. How many pairs of chromosomes are there in a somatic cell
(diploid)?
31. How many chromosomes are there in a gamete (sex cell)
(haploid)?
32. What is the female’s gamete called? What is the father’s
gamete called?
33. Every female gamete has an x chromosome. Where does the
zygote get the second pair of that chromosome? What two
possible chromosomes can it get?
34. What would happen if the sex cell was diploid?
35. Two gametes come together to make a __________.
36. How do regulatory genes differ from structural genes?
37. Along every chromosome, specific genes have specific
physical locations, called a ______________.
38. Alleles, the subunits of a gene, are different chemical
structures at the same locus – chemically alternative versions of
the same gene.
39. The two alleles at any one genetic locus can be chemically
identical, or chemically different. They identify the genotype.
What is meant by genotype?
40. Mendel’s 1st Law, the Law of Segregation says that mother
and father contribute equally to an offspring’s genetic makeup.
For each gene the offspring have one allele from the mother and
one from the father. These 2 alleles can be chemically the same
– homozygous - or chemically different - ___________.

5. 41. How many daughter cells – gametes – does meiosis
produce?
42. Each of the daughter cells produced by meiosis has only one
set of chromosomes, not pairs. Is it haploid or diploid?
43. Every gamete, having this one set, can pass on only one
allele for each gene. Say the gamete that the father contributes
has the allele for brown hair (dominant), and the allele from the
mother is for red (recessive), what color hair will the offspring
have? Make a
Punnett Square
to figure this out.
44. Look at Figure 3.21 on page 64. Why are all the first
generation flowers red? Why does the white color reappear in
the second generation?
45. When alleles are heterozygous, the dominant one will be
expressed in the ___________.
The recessive gene will not be expressed. The phenotype is the
visible manifestation of the gene.
People who have the genotype AA or AO have the same
phenotype. What is the phenotype?
46. Sharon’s blood type is A. Do you know what her genotype
is? What two genotypes could she have?
47. What has to be the case for a recessive allele to be
expressed?
48. What is meant by two alleles being codominant? Which
allele is expressed if two alleles are codominant? If someone

6. has type AB blood what is that person’s phenotype and
genotype.
49. Genetics is complex, genes don’t match simply to traits.
Some genes are polygenic.
What is meant by polygenic? What is pleiotropy?
50. In humans, thousands of complex phenotypes, such as birth
weight, height, skin color, head form, tooth size and eye shape,
have multiple genetic components and are influenced by what
other kind of factors?
51. Environmental factors that affect a mother can also affect
her developing fetus. If the fetus is female, the developing ova
may also be affected so that environmental factors operating at
a fixed point in time can affect the health and well-being of
subsequent generations.
52. What is a simple definition of epigenetics?
53. From conception, ‘epigenetic’ mechanisms within cells may
be activated by a variety of behavioral and environmental
factors. What are some of these?