STUDY GUIDE FOR EXAM 2, BIOCORE(BCOR) 12 SECTION A, SPRING 2011

March 16 edition

Dave Barrington

The idea of this study guide is to focus your attention on the material you need to learn for the exam. The study guide does not mention all of the information covered in lecture, nor will the exam necessarily include questions from all of the topic areas listed in the study guide (it probably will). Remember that the exam covers the material from lecture: assigned reading that is not also in lecture material will not be on the exam.

V. The History of Life on Earth (Chapters 27)
   The three-domain concept of life:  Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. 
   The recently distinguished Archea share features with both other domains; they share synapomorphies with the Eukarya.
         These procaryotes are notable for their tolerance of extreme envrionments, especially very hot environments.
   The oldest fossils are procaryotes in stromatolites.
   Photosynthetic prokaryotes (cyanobacteria) are the source of atmospheric oxygen.
   Chemical constituents of living systems are present in non-biological, even extraterrestrial, materials.  
   Eurayka are complex cells that incorporated at least two major kinds of proccaryotes, aerobic procaryotes and photosynthetic procaryotes

VI. Seedless Plants (Chapter 29)
   General approach: a comparison of reproductive biologies
       alternation of meiosis and syngamy(fertilization); spores and sproophytes, gametes from gametophytes not from meiosis
       the length of the diploid and haploid phases changes through plant evolution --- with the sporophyte becoming more and more prominent
   Charophytes, ismilar to land plant ancestors, have only one diploid cell.
   Land plants' key innovations: cuticle, delayed meiosis, protection of the embryonic sporophyte
   Bryophytes: non-vascular, prominent male and female gametophytes with shoot, dispersed spores and sperm
   Ferns: vascular, prominent sporophyte with shoot, one kind of gametophyte, dispersed spores and sperm
   Horsetails and clubmosses are examples of other spore-dispersed vascular plants
   The first vascular plant fossils (cuticle and spores in tetrads) are Cambrian; these plants had no roots or leaves

VII. Seed Plants (Chapter 30)
  A. Life cycle of the pine
    seed plants are monophyletic'
    conifers are found in a wide diversity of habitats
    In seed plants, male gametophytes (pollen) and seeds are dispersed; spores and sperm are not.
    In conifers, both male and female gametophytes develop inside cones, which are part of the sporophyte
    Know the fates of the two kinds of sporocytes during the conifer life cycle (slide 13 of BCORchapter30-1db.ppt).
    Know the three components of the ovule.
    The conifer seed is a new embryo, surrounded by female gametophyte, and enclosed in a seed coat.
  B. Origin of the seed
    Seed ferns from the coal age reveal the origin of the seed.
    A series of seed fossils suggest that a whorl of branches shortened and fused to form the integument surrounding the sporangium (called the nucellus)
        and its female gametophyte.
  C. Reproductive biology of flowers
     Basic flower structure
     Flowers vary in number of parts, in fusion of parts, and in symmetry.
     In some flowering plants, the stamens and pistils are in separate flowers.
  D. Flowering Plant Life Cycle
     Know the sequence of cell divisions and abortions that lies between meiosis and fertilization.
     Flowers and conifers are much alike; they both have two kinds of gametophytes that grow on the parent sporophyte, and in both
          it is pollen and seeds that are dispersed.   In both, the female gametophyte comes from the one spore of four that survives from each meiosis.  
     Flowers differ in having seeds in carpels, fewer cells in the gametophytes, and double fertilization.
     They aso differ in providing food for their embryos from the triploid  endosperm, not from the haploid female gametophyte.
     WE DID NOT COVER POLLINATION, EVEN THOUGH THE SLIDES ARE IN THE SLIDE SET.

VIII. Animal diversity: invertebrates (Chapter 33)
Know the basics about the Burgess shale: what groups had already been around for awhile and what groups had just appeared (focus both on phyla and clades), know the ideas that relate to explaining the sudden appearance of so many phyla at the beginning of the Paleozoic.
For all of the groups, focus on the morphological characteristics that support the molecular phylogeny.
Know the phylogeny of the major groups of invertebrates, expecially concentrating on basic features like symmetry and the protostome-deuterostome division.
Among protostomes, be able to distinguish lophotrochozoans from ecdysozoans
Know the  ideas about groups that went extinct (trilobites and brachiopods)
Know the variation in coelom (aceolomates, pseudocoelomates, coelomates)
Know the basic defining features mentioned in lecture for the phyla we covered.

IX. Animal Diversity: Vertebrates [actually includes all chordates]  (Chapter 34)
Know the general features of the chordates as exemplified by Amphioxus.
Know the major groups of chordates and the sequence of characters appearing during their evolution.
Know the few things we mentioned about animals making the transition to land.
Know the features of the amniote egg and their ecological significance.
Know the features of reptile evolution we discussed, especially the changes in the dinosaur lineage that we discussed (changes in the pelvis and inferred changes in the stomach), and the changes in the origin of the birds.
There will NOT be questions about the origin or phylogeny of mammals on the exam.

X. Plant Transport and Related Topics (Chapters 35, 36)   FINAL VERSION

Know the difference between the apoplastic and symplastic pathway, including the role of the plasmodesmata.
Understand the design and function of the endodermis.
Know the components (tissues and cells) of the vascular cylinder and their functions; know the structure and function of the tracheary elements as well
     as  the difference in structure and function of the tracheids and vessel elements.
Know the structure and composition of the two cell wall layers.
Know the interior architecture of the leaf.
Know the photosynthesis reaction, where the reactants are coming from, and where the oxygen goes.
Know the design of the chloroplast and the two functional parts of chlorophyll.
Know the function of the spongy mesophyll, the boundary between liquid and gas phases where evaporation takes place, and the significance of
    the teabag analogy in helping to understand the boundary.
Have the basics of the cohesion-adhesion-transpiration theory down.  Understand the significance of cohesion (of water), adhesion (of water to cellulose and lignin), and evaporation to the idea.  Have a general idea of how these three characteristics lead to the lifting of water as water evaporates from spongy mesophyll cells.
Remember - evaporation is the passage of water out of the spongy-mesophyll cell wall into the interior atmosphere, while transpiration is the whole process of lifting water upward in plants.
Know guard cell structure.   Know the steps in stomate opening, making sure that you understand how potassium pump enzymes get turned on and how
    they bring about shape-change of the guard cells.
  The sap flow in spring sugar maples was just for fun - it's not on the exam.