Final exam (Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, 8-10am, TLS 301)

Angiosperms (lectures 24, 25, 26)

Terms you should know related to angiosperm inflorescences, fruits, and pollination:

  • pedicel
  • receptacle
  • gynoecium (carpels)
  • hypanthium
  • ovary
  • placenta
  • unicarpellate gynoecium
  • syncarpous gynoecium
  • apocarpous gynoecium
  • superior ovary
  • inferior ovary
  • epigynous flower
  • hypogenyous flower
  • perigynous flower
  • actinomorphic flower
  • zygomorphic flower
  • hypanthium
  • endosperm
  • racemose inflorescence
  • raceme
  • umbel
  • spike
  • panicle
  • solitary
  • head
  • cymose inflorescence
  • cyme
  • compound cyme
  • helicoid (=scorpioid) cyme
  • dehiscent fruit
  • follicle (example?)
  • legume (example?)
  • capsule (example?)
  • indehiscent fruits
  • nut (example?)
  • achene (example?)
  • samara (example?)
  • grain (example?)
  • fleshy fruit
  • berry (example?)
  • drupe (example?)
  • pome (example?)
  • aggregate fruit (example?)
  • multiple fruit (example?)
  • “bee” flowers
  • “moth” flowers
  • “butterfly” flowers
  • “beetle” flowers
  • “bird” flowers
  • “fly” flowers
  • “bat” flowers
  • “wind” flowers
  • “water” flowers
  • yucca moth relationship to yucca plants
  • sphinx moth relationship to Darwin’s orchid
  • fig wasps relationship to figs

Fungi, lichens, and slime molds (lectures 27 and 28)

Terms you should know related to fungi

  • basidium
  • basidiocarp
  • basidiospore
  • ascus
  • ascocarp
  • ascospore
  • hypha
  • mycelium
  • mycology
  • dikaryotic hyphae
  • monokaryotic hyphae
  • conidium
  • arbuscule
  • ectomycorrhizae
  • endomycorrhizae
  • lichen
  • heterotrophic
  • autotrophic
  • chitin
  • opisthokont
  • fermentation
  • yeast
  • penicillium
  • powdery mildew
  • chestnut blight
  • hymenium
  • soredia
  • plasmogamy
  • karyogamy
  • cleistothecium
  • apothecium
  • perithecium
  • plasmodial slime mold
  • cellular slime mold
  • crustose lichen
  • foliose lichen
  • fruticose lichen

Also, you should understand figure 21.13 in the textbook and should be able to explain why organisms carry out fermentation.

Tropisms, hormones, and photoperiodism (lectures 29, 30, and 31)

  • coleoptile
  • amyloplasts
  • phototropism
  • gravitropism
  • thigmotropism
  • nastic response
  • auxin (IAA)
  • cytokinins
  • abscisic acid (ABA)
  • ethylene
  • gibberellic acid (GA)
  • apical dominance
  • adventitious roots
  • callus
  • leaf miner
  • crown gall
  • opine
  • Agrobacterium tumefaciens
  • aleurone layer
  • what is wheat germ?
  • what is wheat bran
  • photoperiodism
  • critical photoperiod
  • phytochrome
  • red vs far red light
  • Pfr vs Pr

You should also understand

  • the experiments related to phototropism carried out by Charles and Francis Darwin, Frits Went, and Winslow Briggs
  • the various roles played by the major hormones

Mendelian genetics (lectures 32 and 33)

Terms you should know related to genetics

  • recombination fraction
  • discrete trait
  • quantitative trait
  • linked vs unlinked loci
  • allele vs gene vs locus
  • haplotype vs genotype
  • genotype vs phenotype
  • monohybrid vs dihybrid cross
  • recombination fraction
  • dominance vs codominance
  • heterozygous vs homozygous
  • strongly vs weakly linked
  • purpose of a test cross
  • linkage maps
  • additive genetic variation

Population genetics and natural selection (lectures 34 and 35)

Things you should know

  • Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE)
  • Hardy-Weinberg genotype proportions
  • relationship between genetic drift and population size
  • how nonrandom mating takes a population out of HWE
  • how migration takes a population out of HWE
  • how mutation takes a population out of HWE
  • how natural selection takes a population out of HWE
  • relationship between self-fertilization and observed heterozygosity
  • what does it mean to “fix” an allele?
  • does natural selection always involve directional change in allele frequency?
  • four main modes of natural selection
  • what is mean by Darwinian fitness?
  • how can a phylogeny help diagnose cases of convergent evolution?
  • does natural selection move a population to some global optimum or only to a local optimum?
  • which type of natural selection is represented by heterostyly?
  • which type of natural selection is usually in force at 2nd codon positions?
  • what about 3rd codon positions?
  • why are 3rd codon positions usually more variable than 1st or 2nd?

Speciation (lecture 36)

Things you should know

  • the two main modes of speciation
  • difference between allopatry and sympatry
  • which mode of speciation is associated with vicariance events?
  • which mode of speciation is often initiated by hybridization between different species?
  • which mode of speciation is associated with dispersal events?
  • does speciation always require genetic changes at many loci?
  • what is “reinforcement” in the context of speciation?

Nutrient cycles (lectures 37 and first part of 38)

Things you should know

  • what are the three most common elements found in plant bodies?
  • what elements are common in fertilizer?
  • why is S (sulfur) important to plants?
  • why is Mg (magnesium) important to plants?
  • why is N (nitrogen) important to plants?
  • why is P (phosphorus) important to plants?
  • are bacteria an important component of the P cycle?
  • are bacteria an important component of the N cycle?
  • what are the four main processes involved in the N cycle?
  • why do rice farmers grow the aquatic fern Azolla in their fields?
  • what is the relationship between plants in the legume family and Rhizobium bacteria?
  • why do carnivorous plants have such interesting adaptations for catching insects?
  • which process returns nitrogen to the atmosphere?
  • which group of bacteria carry out nitrogen fixation in the soil?
  • which group of bacteria are essential for converting ammonium to nitrate?
  • which process is carried out by fungi and bacteria acting as decomposers?
  • why is carbon dioxide elevated in the winter months according to the Mona Loa Observatory data?
  • would carbon dioxide in the atmosphere be increasing or decreasing if there was no fires or fossil fuel burning?

Angiosperm diversity (second part of lecture 38)

Things you should know

  • what are two plants you can easily find growing in Connecticut that are paleodicots?
  • how are paleodicot flowers different from eudicot flowers?
  • a plant with pollen that has 3 pores/furrows is a member of which major angiosperm clade?
  • a plant with pollen having just 1 pore/furrow has a single cotyledon: what major angiosperm clade is it in?
  • a plant with heads of flowers comprising ray and disc flowers is in which family?
  • a plant with square stems and a schizocarp type fruit of four nutless is in which family?
  • a plant with a hypnthium and interesting stipules is in which family?
  • a plant with no showy petals or sepals and whose flowers are enclosed in bracts is in which family?
  • a plant with showy flowers, microscopic seeds, flower parts in threes, and pollen in pollinia is in which family?
  • a plant with flowers in heads and whose showy parts are the stamen filaments is in which family?
  • a plant with fused sepals but 3 separate, showy petals, 10 stamens 9 of which are fused, and a legume fruit is in which family?
  • a eudicot that is a fleshy-fruit-bearing tree is probably in which clade: rosid or asterid?