Biotechnology Contest Exam

Question 1 of 50

1. Question

A plant breeder makes a cross between two plants that are both the genotype Aa (Aa X Aa). How many different genotypes with respect to the A,a genes will be produced in their offspring?

1
2
3
4

Question 2 of 50

2. Question

What is the name of the technique that allows geneticists to observe DNA fragments from a DNA sample and compare them based on the lengths of the fragments?

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
Gel electrophoresis
Gene gun
Lateral flow strip test

Question 3 of 50

3. Question

A corn plant has the genotype BbRr where BB and Bb plants are resistant to corn borers while bb plants are not AND RR and Rr plants are resistant to Roundup Herbicide while rr plants are not. Which of the follow is a genotype that could be made by selfing this BbRr plant?

BbRr
BBRR
bbrr
All of the above

Question 4 of 50

4. Question

Protein(s):

are a chain of amino acids
is a rare molecule in an organism

Question 5 of 50

5. Question

A corn plant has the genotype BbRr where BB and Bb plants are resistant to corn borers while bb plants are not AND RR and Rr plants are resistant to Roundup Herbicide while rr plants are not. A corn breeder selfs the BbRr plant and produces hundreds of offspring. They grow hundreds of plants from these seeds. What fraction of all of these offspring from selfing BbRr will be BOTH corn borer resistant AND Roundup resistant?

1/4
3/4
3/4 + 3/4
3/4 X 3/4

Question 6 of 50

6. Question

Which choice is the correct ranking of the following items in order of smallest to largest?
1. chromosomes 2. proteins 3. genes 4. Cell

3 4 2 1
2 3 1 4
4 2 3 1
3 2 4 1

Question 7 of 50

7. Question

Which is the item below that is true about animal breeding?

Animal breeders need to select the parents carefully
Although slightly more difficult, breeding between 2 different species (ex. cat and dogs) can be done just as breeding within the same species.
Animal breeding would be much easier if there was no variation within a species in the genes that control their traits.
Animal breeders are only interested in traits for which selection is obvious and the genetic control or inheritance is easy to predict

Question 8 of 50

8. Question

What is a difference between mitosis and meiosis?

meiosis is used to make gametes that can genetically vary and mitosis makes identical cells.
meiosis happens throughout an organisms life but mitosis only happens in young organisms.
meiosis replicates chromosomes and mitosis replicates proteins.
meiosis happens faster than mitosis

Question 9 of 50

9. Question

For natural sexual reproduction to take place, parents have to be

the same color
the same age
of similar species
the same size

Question 10 of 50

10. Question

Mitosis is used

in plant tissue culturing
to grow and develop tissues
both the above
none of the above

Question 11 of 50

11. Question

A transgenic organism is one that

has genes inserted into it from another organism
has genes created through mitosis
normally occurs in nature
none of the above

Question 12 of 50

12. Question

Clones are

genes that cause the production of twins
organisms from which genes are removed
organisms which produce a clone protein
genetically identical organisms

Question 13 of 50

13. Question

Cell division that creates two genetically identical cells is called

mitosis
meiosis
both of the above
none of the above

Question 14 of 50

14. Question

Biotechnology can be used in all of the following EXCEPT

making proteins for human medicine
creating a living thing entirely from non living molecules
increasing animal reproduction rate
protecting plants from pests

Question 15 of 50

15. Question

The most commonly-used bacterium for gene transfer in plants is

Bacillus thuringiensis
Esherichia coli
Agrobacterium
None of the above

Question 16 of 50

16. Question

A fertilized egg is known as a

clone
zygote
gametme
anaphase

Question 17 of 50

17. Question

Why are marker genes often inserted into a cell’s DNA along with genes of interest?

to protect the legal rights of a company to sell the transgenic product
to add market appeal to the final transgenic organism
to visually identify transgenic cells or organisms
to make the cells grow faster in culture

Question 18 of 50

18. Question

A masked gene is known as a

dominant
gamete
genotype
recessive

Question 19 of 50

19. Question

Proteins are:

rare molecules in an organism
able to mutate into a different protein
biomolecules with a structure that is determined by a gene (DNA)

Question 20 of 50

20. Question

Select the statement that is true about animal breeding

animal breeders are only interested in traits for which selection is obvious and the genetic control of inheritance is easy to predict
animal breeders have a goal of improving a trait or traits in their breed or species of animal
breeders all have the same traits they want to improve, no matter what the animal species or breed

Question 21 of 50

21. Question

Which are reasons why mice can be good model organisms for gene discovery?

Mice are easy to manipulate so they grow as large as a cow or live as long as a person.
Mice use a universal genetic code so the DNA sequence of a mouse gene will be similar to the sequence of the gene that works in a similar way in other animals.
Mice were the first domesticated animals to provide milk, food, and fur.

Question 22 of 50

22. Question

The reason DNA based detection works to detect a transgenic organism in more situations than Protein based detection is

DNA detection works in all tissues of an organism that is transgenic but protein detection may not.
protein detection cannot be for a specific protein.

Question 23 of 50

23. Question

Nucleotides are:

building blocks of proteins
building blocks of genes
the same as genes
molecules of sugar

Question 24 of 50

24. Question

If the sequence of bases in a strand of DNA is represented by TACCAG, what would be the sequence of bases in the complementary DNA strand?

ATGGTC
AUGGUC
UADDAG
TACCAG

Question 25 of 50

25. Question

In mitotic division…

new cells have 3/4 the original number of chromosomes
new cells are exactly like the original cell
new cells have 1/2 the original number of chromosomes
new cells have three of each chromosome

Question 26 of 50

26. Question

Most organisms are _________ meaning that they have two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent.

diploid
haploid
polyploidy
triploid

Question 27 of 50

27. Question

Most humans have _________ pairs of chromosomes

20
21
23
25

Question 28 of 50

28. Question

In humans, genes control all of the following EXCEPT (

eye color
nutrition
inherited diseases
skin color

Question 29 of 50

29. Question

This is the molecule that actually does work in the cell such as catalyze a chemical reaction.

Protein
Gene
Trait

Question 30 of 50

30. Question

________ is a small part of the larger molecule that makes up a chromosome.

Protein
Gene
Trait

Question 31 of 50

31. Question

A plant breeder wants to cross a red flowered penstemon and a strong stemmed penstemon. The plants have perfect flowers. If the breeder wants the strong stemmed penstemon to be the male parent, he should?

Remove the stamen from the flowers and collect the pollen the plants are shedding, without worrying about damaging the pistil.
Remove the stamen from the flowers but be careful not to damage the pistil.
Do nothing, the flower is already a male and female.
Remove the pistil and then carefully place it in the flower of the other parent.

Question 32 of 50

32. Question

A peanut breeder would like to develop a variety that produces sweet flavored nuts for the peanut butter industry. She searches the world collection of peanut lines and cannot find any that produce sweet flavor. What should she do next?

She will need to cross peanuts with sugar beets or sugar cane to get sweet peanuts.
Grow peanuts in a high sugar environment so they acquire the sweet flavor trait.
Treat a peanut plant or peanut seeds with a mutagen in the hopes that a random mutation will make a new allele that can make peanuts produce sweet nuts.
Give up, there is nothing she can do to incorporate this trait into peanuts.

Question 33 of 50

33. Question

a: select parents
b: select offspring
c: identify a problem
d: cross parents
e: determine what combination of traits would help a plant overcome a problem.

The steps above are done by a plant breeder. The order they would do those steps is…

c, e, a, b, d
d, b, e, a, c
d, b, c, e, a
c, e, a, d, b

Question 34 of 50

34. Question

Why do tree breeders need to be more patient than corn breeders?

Trees have a longer generation time, so it takes longer for the breeder to select individuals that have the right traits
All trees have the same traits, so there is no motive for doing plant breeding with trees.
Trick question, trees do not have flowers so there are not tree breeders.
Trees produce very few seeds.

Question 35 of 50

35. Question

During transcription, the DNA code of a single gene is read and a copy is made called mRNA. Why is it not necessary for the entire DNA molecule (every one of hundreds of genes on the chromosome) to be copied during transcription?

an mRNA strand the size of a chromosome would be too large to travel outside of the nucleus to the cytoplasm.
not every gene is active in the cell at the same time…meaning not every protein is being produced all the time in every cell of an organism.
BOTH of the above are true.
Trick question, the entire chromosome IS copied into mRNA and travels into the cytoplasm.

Question 36 of 50

36. Question

Bacteria are different from plants and animals in that they

have more genes than plants and animals
are all genetically identical because they never change
have fewer genes than plants and animals
replicate slower than plants and animals

Question 37 of 50

37. Question

Which is the most accurate description of plant transformation?

the immature embryo might get removed from a plant, but these embryos are induced to develop masses of cells on a petri dish and it is these cells that are targeted for gene delivery before they develop into plants.
genes are shot at the plant leaves and the leaves develop into flowers, then seeds.
genes inserted into thousands of cells in a seed and if enough cells incorporate the genes, the plant is considered genetically engineered.
genes inserted into pollen, seeds made from the pollen produce transgenic plants.

Question 38 of 50

38. Question

Pig producers would like female pigs that have more piglets per litter. If a pig geneticist knew what gene or genes were responsible for litter size they could genetically engineer their best meat production breeds to have more offspring. The motivation for doing this would be…

the genetic engineering approach to increasing litter size might be faster than the classical breeding approach.
pig breeders cannot increase litter size using classical methods
genetic engineering can remove all biological restrictions so there will be no limit to the number of pigs in a litter.

Question 39 of 50

39. Question

What is the definition of a chromosome?

Segment of DNA that encodes a protein or an RNA molecule
Organism's characteristics
Macromolecules that are long DNA chains wound around proteins and contain genes.
Amino acid chains that have a specific shape and function

Question 40 of 50

40. Question

What is the definition of a phenotype?

Organism’s characteristics
Macromolecules that are long DNA chains wound around proteins and contain genes.
Amino acid chains that have a specific shape and function
Segment of DNA that encodes a protein or an RNA molecule

Question 41 of 50

41. Question

What is the definition of a gene?

Segment of DNA that encodes a protein or an RNA molecule
Amino acid chains that have a specific shape and function
Macromolecules that are long DNA chains wound around proteins and contain genes
Organism’s characteristics

Question 42 of 50

42. Question

What is the definition of a protein?

Macromolecules that are long DNA chains wound around proteins and contain genes
Amino acid chains that have a specific shape and function
Segment of DNA that encodes a protein or an RNA molecule
Organism’s characteristics

Question 43 of 50

43. Question

Quantitative traits are

traits that are often controlled by many genes and are measured in amounts, such as inches, pounds, percent, quantity
traits that are not controlled by genes
traits that are often controlled by one (or just a few) genes and their expression is either present or absent, such as no hair vs. hair, black fur color vs. brown fur color

Question 44 of 50

44. Question

Which type of genetic engineer must clone (copy) a gene as part of their work?

Microbial genetic engineer
Plant genetic engineer
Animal genetic engineer
All the above

Question 45 of 50

45. Question

Two genes that the genetic engineer could work with are gene A and gene B. Gene A from algae, is turned on in salt water and encodes an enzyme that breaks down oil. Gene B is from soil bacteria, is turned on in soil and encodes an enzyme that breaks down plant material. Which transgene could be used to create a genetically engineered soil bacteria that can clean up oil spills?

Use the promoter from gene A and coding region from gene B
Use the promoter from gene B and the coding region from gene A
Use gene B
Use gene A

Question 46 of 50

46. Question

Identify advantages mice would have over cattle or even pigs as a model to discover animal function genes?

Mice are cheaper to raise
Mice do not make messes where they live or bleed when you cut them
cattle and pigs have a very unique genetic code from other animals, mice would use a more common DNA code

Question 47 of 50

47. Question

A potato breeder develops a variety of potatoes that makes excellent French fries, has good yield and gives potato farmers very little management problems. Can the plant breeder retire?

No, the breeder cannot retire because the improved plants they create and select for farmers cannot be propagated by the farmer, only by the plant breeder.
Yes, potato varieties that meet farmer and consumer needs today will always fit those needs decades later.
No, the growing environment can change and so a variety that grows well now, may not grow as well years from now. The breeder needs to always be working for future change.

Question 48 of 50

48. Question

Plants are easier to transform than animals because…

they have fewer genes than animals
they have cells that can be cultured more easily to produce new plants in a test tube or on a petri dish
the cells that are targeted to be transformed are so big you do not need a microscope to see them.
they have a cell wall

Question 49 of 50

49. Question

How do genetic engineers and plant breeders work together?

They do not work together. A company uses either plant breeder or genetic engineering to make new varieties, but not both.
Genetic engineers add new genes and plant breeders combine these new genes with the best combinations of genes between different plants.
Genetic engineers always finish the genetic improvement process that plant breeders start so they are responsible for making the seeds sold to farmers.
Plant breeders add new genes and genetic engineers combine these new genes with the best combinations of genes between different plants.

Question 50 of 50

50. Question

The things that are true about animal breeding are…

breeding can only be done between 2 animals of the same species.
although slightly more difficult, breeding between 2 different species (ex. cat and dogs) can be done just as breeding within the same species.
animal breeding would be much easier if there was no variation within a species in the genes that control their traits.
animal breeding is only done on domestic animals not wild animals.

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