Cell Biology / Cell Biochemistry

BIOL 4374 / BCHS 4313

Exam 1 (Yellow)
Sep 15, 2010
Read each question carefully. Chose the single best answer to each of the following questions. In
some cases, key words are emphasized in bold italics font

1. Which of the following is NOT one of Prof Rea’s “5 Essential Characteristics of Living Cells?
a. Capable of protein synthesis
b. Bound by a lipid-rich plasma membrane
c. Capable of coordinated movement
d. Capable of autonomous replication
e. All of the above are on Dr Rea’s list

2. The Three Domain Model of Life is based primarily upon similarities and differences among
organisms in the macromolecules that mediate which of the following processes?
a. transcription d. development
b. translation e. mitosis
c. metabolism

3. Which of the following is an important model organism for the study of vertebrate development?
a. Drosophila melanogaster
b. Danio rerio
c. Saccharomyces cerevisae
d. Arabidopsis thaliana
e. Caenorhabditis elegan

4. Which category of molecules comprises the largest percentage of the dry weight of a typical
animal cell?
a. inorganic ions
b. sugars and precursors
c. nucleotides and precursors
d. fatty acids and precursors
e. macromolecules

5. The Endosymbiosis Hypothesis seeks to explain the origin of which of the following organelles
in eucaryotic cells.
a. chloroplasts and mitochondria
b. mitochondria and Golgi apparatus
c. nuclei and mitochondria
d. mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum
e. all of the above

6. Which of the following is the smallest intracellular feature that can be resolved by microscopy
using visible light ?
a. microtubule d. mitochondria
b. ribosome e. Golgi apparatus
c. nucleus

7. The apparent change in the direction of propagation of light as it crosses the air-water interface is
called …
a. reflection d. contraction
b. refraction e. retraction
c. diffraction
8. What is an "Airy Disk"?
a. a light-weight data storage device
b. a high performance Frisbee
c. a diffraction pattern
d. a refraction pattern
e. none of the above

9. Where would you find the condenser lens group on an upright, light microscope?
a. between the ocular and objective lenses
b. between the specimen and the objective lenses
c. between the light source and the specimen
d. between a rock and a hard place

10. Which of the following are arranged in order of decreasing refractive index (i.e., from highest
to lowest)?
a. air > water > glass d. glass > water > air
b. air > glass > water e. none of the above
c. water > air > glass

11. Which of the following optical techniques is best suited for the observation of unstained, living
cells in culture?
a. confocal laser scanning microscopy
b. multiphoton laser scanning microscopy
c. differential interference microscopy
d. transmission electron microscopy
e. brightfield microscopy

12. The “numerical aperture” describes what characteristic of a lens?

a. the magnification
b. the light gathering ability
c. the number of elements in the lens group
d. the amount of image distortion
e. none of the above

13. The spatial resolution of optical microscopy is ultimately limited by …

a. the brightness of the light
b. the wavelength of the light
c. the purity of the light
d. magnifying power of the microscope
e. technological state-of-the-art

14. Which of the following optical techniques employs a pinhole to restrict light detection to
photons originating from the focal plane?
a. confocal fluorescence microscopy
b. laser scanning microscopy
c. differential interference microscopy
d. phase contrast microscopy
e. scanning electron microscopy
15. Which of the following optical techniques provides the highest resolution image of the surface
features of a specimen?
a. confocal fluorescence microscopy
b. laser scanning microscopy
c. differential interference microscopy
d. phase contrast microscopy
e. scanning electron microscopy

16. Fluorescence microscopy is based on the ability of certain molecules to…

a. absorb light of a given wavelength and then emit light of a longer wavelength.
b. absorb light of a given wavelength and then emit light of a shorter wavelength.
c. continuously emit light of a constant wavelength.
d. absorb light of many different wavelengths.
e. glow in the dark

17. The green fluorescent protein was isolated from which of the following?
a. jellyfish d. sea cucumber
b. mushroom e. firefly
c. arabidopsis thaliana

18. Beam splitting (dichroic) mirrors are useful devices in fluorescence microscopes because …
a. they only allow fluorescent light to pass
b. they reflect visible light above a certain wavelength
c. they reflect visible light below a certain wavelength
d. they change the color of light that reflects off of the mirror
e. beam splitting mirrors are not used in fluorescence microscopes

19. In many soluble proteins, amino acids with hydrophobic side chains are gathered together
during the folding process to form ...
a. a ligand binding domain
b. a non-polar core
c. the catalytic site
d. a beta sheet
e. none of the above

20. Elements of secondary structure are stabilized primarily by ...

a. disulfide bonds
b. hydrogen bonds
c. ionic bonds
d. van der Waals forces
e. chaperone proteins

21. Which of the following is false about the alpha helix?

a. each turn of the helix involves 3.6 amino acid residues
b. it is stabilized by hydrogen bonds
c. the amino acid side chains are oriented outward from the axis of the helix
d. some are amphipathic
e. all of the above are true about the alpha helix

22. Which of the following is false about structural domains of proteins?

a. they contain secondary structural elements
b. they form during translation of the protein
c. they fold independently of other domains on the same protein
d. they are often evolutionarily conserved and incorporated into new proteins as “modules”
e. all of the above are true regarding structural domains
23. What is a "molten globule"?
a. a partially folded protein
b. a conformation obtained when a soluble protein is warmed beyond the critical temperature
c. a liposome composed of phospholipids with highly unsaturated fatty acid residues
d. an integral membrane protein
e. none of the above

24. Why are prions pathogenic?

a. they join together to form large channels in the plasma membrane
b. they are docking sites for viruses
c. they catalyze the misfolding of specific proteins
d. they are highly immunogenic, resulting in autoimmune diseases
e. prions are not pathogenic

25. All of the information required to direct the proper folding of proteins is contained in the ...
a. 5' untranslated region of the DNA sequence that encodes the protein
b. primary structure of the polypeptide
c. tertiary structure of the chaperone protein
d. ribosome
e. endoplasmic reticulum

26. Which of the following is false regarding chaperone proteins

a. they assist in the proper folding of proteins
b. they bind to the nascent polypeptide in the cytoplasm
c. they bind to charged amino acids in the nascent polypeptide
d. they require ATP hydrolysis to dissociate from the nascent polypeptide
e. all of the above are true

27. Which of the following is false regarding membrane phospholipids?

a. they include phosphoglycerides and sphingolipids
b. they undergo rapid lateral diffusion
c. they frequently flip-flop across to the opposite leaflet
d. all are amphipathic
e. all of the above are true

28. The most common phospholipid in the plasma membrane of most eucaryotic cells is ...
a. phosphatidyl choline d. sphingomyelin
b. phosphatidyl serine e. cholesterol
c. phosphatidyl ethanolamine

29. Which phospholipid is negatively charged at neutral pH?

a. phosphatidyl choline d. sphingomyelin
b. phosphatidyl serine e. all of these are uncharged at neutral pH
c. phosphatidyl ethanolamine

30. In membrane phosphoglycerides, unsaturated fatty acids are most commonly found at which
position(s) along the glycerol moiety?
a. position 1
b. position 2
c. position 3
d. positions 1 & 3
e. positions 2 & 3
31. Glycolipids are found ...
a. exclusively on the intracellular leaflet of the plasma membrane
b. exclusively on the extracellular leaflet of the plasma membrane
c. on both sides of the plasma membrane
d. on both the plasma membrane AND the nuclear envelop
e. none of the above

32. Which of following phospholipid modifications would result in decreased membrane fluidity?
a. increased cholesterol content
b. increased chain length of the fatty acid tails
c. increased saturation of fatty acid tails
d. two of the above
e. all of the above

33. In eucaryotes, transmembrane domains of integral membrane proteins are most frequently
folded into a(n) …
a. alpha helix d. coiled coil
b. beta sheet e. leucine zipper
c. hydrophobic core

34. During the folding of an enzyme, the active site is usually assembled by bringing together
which of the following?
a. non-polar amino acids
b. aromatic amino acids
c. modified amino acids
d. non-adjacent amino acids
e. prosthetic groups

35. The first step in the activation of the src kinase is …

a. dephosphoryation of a phosphotyrosine residue
b. autophosphorylation of a tyrosine residue
c. autophosphorylation of a serine residue
d. binding of an activating protein
e. dissociation of an activating protein

36. Which of the following statements about ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis is false?

a. the c-terminal of the first ubiquitin molecule is enzymatically attached to the
ε-amino group of a lysine residue on the target protein
b. ubiquitination requires ATP hydrolysis
c. the growth the polyubiquitin chain targets the protein for degradation by the 20S
proteasome
d. both the ubiquitin and the target protein are degraded in the 20S proteasome
e. all of the above are true

37. Which of the following is NOT considered a component of the endomembrane system?
a. nuclear envelope
b. endoplasmic reticulum
c. Golgi apparatus
d. lysosome
e. all of the above are components of the endomembrane system
38. The phospholipid bilayer spontaneously assembles from an aqueous suspension of
phospholipids because …
a. the hydrocarbon tails are sticky
b. most phospholipid head groups are positively charged
c. the hydrocarbon tails are thermodynamically excluded from water
d. phospholipids all contain a phosphate group
e. none of the above

39. What are flippases?

a. they are enzymes that catalyze cis-trans isomerizations
b. they are transcription factors that reverse the order of transcription of genes
c. they are membrane proteins that move phospholipids across the lipid bilayer
d. they are factors that reverse the orientation of membrane proteins
e. they are none of the above

40. Which of the following is NOT one of the five most common components of the lipid bilayer in
biomembranes?
a. phosphatidyl inositol
b. phosphatidyl choline
c. phosphatidyl ethanolamine
d. cholesterol
e. sphingomyelin

41. In the SCF ubiquitin ligase complex, what is the role of the F-box protein?
a. adaptor protein
b. substrate recognition & binding
c. ubiquitin activation
d. ubiquitin ligation
e. none of the above

42. Small GTPases are activated by the exchange of GTP for GDP. This is an example of which of
the following?
a. positive cooperativity
b. allosteric regulation
c. convergent evolution
d. domain switching
e. good judgment

43. SH2 domains contain high affinity binding sites for which of the following?
a. amphipathic alpha helices d. phosphotyrosine residues
b. ubiquitin e. calcium ions
c. GTP

44. What causes the assembly of viral capsids?

a. ATP hydrolysis
b. Phosphorylation of capsid proteins
c. GTP binding
d. GTP hydrolysis
e. Viral capsid self-assembles spontaneously
45. What are Quantum Dots?
a. very small dots
b. fluorescent semiconductor crystals
c. fluorescent organic compounds
d. excited singlet electrons
e. phosphorescent particles

46. The green fluorescent protein is folded into which of the following tertiary structures?
a. a beta barrel
b. a dimerization domain
c. an SH2 domain
d. a coiled coil
e. none of the above

47. The immunogold labeling technique is frequently used in conjunction with which of the
following?
a. transmission electron microscopy
b. scanning electron microscopy
c. differential interference microscopy
d. confocal laser scanning microscopy
e. atomic force microscopy

48. In biomembranes, cholesterol segregates together with certain phospholipids to form aggregates
within the plasma membrane that may serve to organize signaling proteins at the cell surface. What
is the name of these structures?
a. lipid receptors d. GPI anchors
b. lipid tethers e. coated pits
c. lipid rafts

49. Foerster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) is a process by which energy is transferred
between which of the following?
a. two proteins d. two fluorescent molecules
b. two phospholipids e. two musical instruments
c. a phospholipid and a protein

50. The resolving power of electron microscopy is 10000 times greater than that of visible light
microscopy. Why is this so?
a. electrons are more energetic than photons
b. electron microscopy uses powerful magnets to focus the electrons, while visible light
microscopes use only glass lenses
c. electrons travel faster than the speed of light
d. electrons vibrate at much higher frequencies than visible photons
e. electron microscopes are much more expensive than visible light microscopes