The Cell Exam Questions Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Cell

= Correct answer

Multiple Choice

1. The idea that life could appear from nonliving materials was called which of the following?

A. the cell theory

B. the cellular genesis theory

C. the theory of biogenesis

D. the theory of spontaneous generation

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. The first known use of epidemiology to trace the source of a disease outbreak was the identification of contaminated water as the cause of cholera transmission in London. Which of the following was the physician who accomplished this?

A. Joseph Lister
B. John Needham

C. Ignaz Semmelweis

D. John Snow

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which of the following is a series of steps for determining the causative agent of a particular disease?
   A. Koch’s postulates

B. Lister’s checklists

C. Pasteur’s principles

D. Semmelweis’ guidelines

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: 23

1. Which scientist performed an elegant series of experiments that finally and definitively disproved the theory of spontaneous generation?

A. John Needham

B. Louis Pasteur

C. Francesco Redi
D. Jan Baptista van Helmont

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Prokaryotes are classified into which domain(s)?

A. Domain Archaea only

B. Domain Bacteria only

C. Domains Archaea and Bacteria only

D. Domains Bacteria and Eukarya only

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which term refers to a curved rod?

A. bacillus

B. coccus

C. spirillum

D. vibrio

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. When a bacterial cell with a cell wall is placed in salt water with a higher-solute concentration than the cell cytoplasm, the cell will undergo which of the following?

A. crenation

B. crenolysis
C. lysis
D. plasmolysis

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8, 22

1. The bacterial chromosome located in which of the following?

A. the capsule
B. the nucleoid region

C. the nucleus

D. the thylakoids

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which scientist thought spontaneous generation had occurred in flasks of broth after the broth had been boiled?

A. John Needham

B. Louis Pasteur

C. Francesco Redi
D. Jan Baptista van Helmont

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which of the following is not evidence for the endosymbiotic theory?

A. Chloroplasts and mitochondria contain ribosomes that resemble prokaryotic ribosomes.

B. Chloroplasts and mitochondria contain their own DNA that resembles prokaryotic DNA.

C. Chloroplasts and mitochondria have structures that resemble prokaryotic cell walls.

D. Chloroplasts and mitochondria reproduce using binary fission, like prokaryotic cells.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 1

1. Which physician realized that doctors were causing maternal deaths by failing to wash their hands while assisting during childbirth?

A. Girolamo Fracastoro

B. Joseph Lister

C. Louis Pasteur
D. Ignaz Semmelweis

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: 23

1. How did Joseph Lister dramatically improve surgical outcomes?

A. by developing new antibiotics

B. by developing new ways to circulate air within surgical facilities
C. by using phenol as an antiseptic and disinfectant during surgery

D. by using vaccination against communicable diseases

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: 14, 23

1. Sporulation generally occurs under which of the following circumstances?

A. when conditions are unfavorable or there are insufficient nutrients

B. when microbes are exposed to a new, favorable environment

C. when microbes are under little stress and can become dormant

D. when resources become highly abundant

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8, 22

1. Which of the following is not a difference between endospores and vegetative cells?

A. Vegetative cells are metabolically active, whereas endospores are dormant.

B. Vegetative cells are more resilient due to their metabolic activities, whereas endospores are more sensitive to change.

C. Vegetative cells normally have enzyme activity, whereas endospores do not show enzymatic activity.

D. Vegetative cells stain easily using normal staining protocols, whereas endospores are difficult to stain without special endospore stains.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Immediately following asymmetric cell division during sporulation, which of the following structures contains the DNA and goes on to develop into an endospore?

A. cortex
B. forespore

C. hindspore

D. spore coat

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Which of the following gives the correct order of the stages of sporulation?

A. Cortex formation, formation of a double layer of membrane, DNA replication, spore release

B. DNA replication, formation of a double layer of membrane, cortex formation, spore release

C. DNA replication, spore release, cortex formation, formation of a double layer of membrane

D. Formation of a double layer of membrane, DNA replication, spore release, cortex formation

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Which of the following is not a clinically significant, spore-forming bacterium?

A. Bacillus anthracis

B. Clostridium botulinum

C. Clostridium difficile

D. Escherichia coli

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. All cells have which of the following?

A. capsule
B. cell membrane

C. cell wall

D. nucleus

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Which term refers to proteins that extend across the plasma membrane from one side to the other?

A. glycoproteins

B. lipoproteins

C. peripheral proteins

D. transmembrane proteins

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. In which types of organisms are phospholipids with branched chains common?

A. archaea
B. bacteria

C. eukaryotes

D. all of the above

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. The lipopolysaccharide molecule is an important component of the cell membranes of which organisms?

A. archaeans
B. eukaryotes

C. gram-negative bacteria

D. gram-positive bacteria

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8, 23

1. Capsules and slime layers are examples of which type of structure?

A. cell walls

B. glycocalyces

C. peptidoglycan layers

D. S-layers

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Bacteria use flagella to move purposefully toward or away from a chemical by which of the following?

A. having alternating runs and tumbles of equal lengths
B. increasing the length of runs and decreasing the length of tumbles

C. increasing the length of tumbles and decreasing the length of runs

D. using only runs

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8, 22

1. Which of the following is not a typical difference between eukaryotes and prokaryotes?

A. Eukaryotes have ester-linked phospholipids, whereas prokaryotes have ether-linked or ester-linked phospholipids.

B. Eukaryotic cell walls lack peptidoglycan in their cell walls (if present), whereas many prokaryotes use peptidoglycan in their cell walls.

C. Eukaryotic cells have histones for DNA organization, whereas prokaryotic cells have histone-like proteins or nucleoid-associated proteins involved in DNA organization.

D. Eukaryotic cells typically have circular chromosomes, whereas prokaryotic cells typically have linear chromosomes.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. In eukaryotic cells, the function of the nucleolus is which of the following?

A. It is where all the nuclear DNA is located.

B. It is where cellular respiration takes place.
C. It is where ribosomal RNA is synthesized and ribosome assembly begins.

D. It is where transcription and translation of all gene products take place.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 9

1. Microfilaments are composed of which structure?

A. actin

B. desmin

C. keratin

D. tubulin

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which of the following are not types of inclusions in bacterial cells?

A. carboxysomes

B. magnetosomes
C. thylakoids

D. volutin granules

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 8

1. Which of the following is not true of archaeal membranes?

A. They are sometimes monolayers.

B. They have branched phospholipids.

C. They have ether linkages instead of ester linkages.

D. They have peptidoglycan linkages attaching their membranes to their cell walls.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which cell would best be able to survive in a hypotonic environment?

A. a gram-positive bacterium in a medium containing penicillin
B. a gram-positive bacterium in a medium without antibiotics

C. an animal red blood cell

D. an archaeal cell lacking a cell wall

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 8, 22

1. For a peritrichously flagellated bacterium, which of the following results in a run?

A. alternating beating of flagella

B. alternating whip-like movements of flagella

C. clockwise flagellar rotation

D. counterclockwise flagellar rotation

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 8

1. Which of the following is true of ribosomes?

A. All prokaryotic ribosomes are 70S and eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes are 80S.

B. Bacterial ribosomes are 70S, whereas archaeal and eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes are 80S.

C. Organelle ribosomes and prokaryotic ribosomes are 70S, whereas eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes are 80S.

D. Prokaryotic ribosomes are 80S, but eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes are variable in size.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 1

1. Which of the following is not part of the endomembrane system?

A. lysosomes

B. mitochondria

C. the Golgi apparatus

D. the rough endoplasmic reticulum

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Which of the following are anchored into the plasma membrane by a basal body composed of nine triplets of microtubules?

A. eukaryotic cilia only

B. eukaryotic flagella only

C. eukaryotic cilia and flagella only

D. prokaryotic flagella only

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 8

1. Which best describes the function of cristae?

A. They aid in the proper trafficking of vesicles around eukaryotic cells.

B. They are compartments for digestive enzyme storage in eukaryotic cells.

C. They increase the surface area for reactions associated with cellular respiration.

D. They provide a location for the light reactions of photosynthesis in plant cells.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

True/False

1. One of the first recorded proponents of spontaneous generation was Aristotle.

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. All bacterial cells can form endospores.

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: 8

1. Some bacterial inclusions are surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer membrane.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. The S-layer can function as a cell wall in some archaeans.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic flagella have the same structure.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8, 9

1. Mitochondria contain their own DNA but chloroplasts do not.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 1

1. Specialized organelles called hydrogenosomes are used by some eukaryotes to produce hydrogen anaerobically.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 9

1. The extracellular matrix of animal cells generally consists mostly of phospholipids.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: N/A

Matching

1. Match each term for bacterial cell arrangement with the correct illustration.

Answers: A. iii., B. v., C. ii., D. iv., E. i.

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Match each type of solution with its best description.

Answers: A. iii., B. i., C. ii.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 20

1. Match each organelle with its best description.

Answers: A. iv., B. v., C. i., D. iii, E. ii.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Match each organelle with its best description.

Answers: A. iii., B. iv., C. i., D. ii.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Match each cytoskeletal component with its best description.

Answers: A. ii., B. iii., C. i.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 9

1. Match each cell’s characteristics with the correct domain or domains. Some domains may be used more than once.

Answers: A. i. and ii, B. i., C. i. and iii., D. ii., E. iii.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 8, 9

Fill in the Blank

1. The ________ is the outermost portion of an endospore.

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: 8

1. The plasma membrane is a(n) ________ bilayer.

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Microtubules are filaments composed of ________ dimers.

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. The theory that states chloroplasts and mitochondria arose from prokaryotes that lived within other cells is the ________ theory.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 1

1. The ________ model is the model currently used to explain the structure of the plasma membrane.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. The general term for molecules that bind to structures such as receptors, including the molecules that bind to receptors in cell-mediated endocytosis, is ________.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Most cell membranes are phospholipid bilayers, but archaeans sometimes have phospholipid ________.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. The first known epidemiological study found that the disease ________ was being spread from wells in London.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 23

1. Some large molecules, viruses, and bacteria enter eukaryotic cells using ________ endocytosis.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. If a protozoan cell (with no cell wall) is placed into distilled water (with all solutes removed), water would flow ________ the cell and the cell would ________.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 22

1. ________ is a form of transport used by bacteria, but not by eukaryotic cells, to move materials across the cell membrane and into the cell.

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 22

Short Answer

1. What two terms describe molecules that consist of protein and carbohydrate?

Sample

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. What type of organisms sometimes have a plasma membrane that is a monolayer?
   Sample

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: 8

1. What is an extracellular matrix and what functions can it perform?

Sample

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. What is a hydrogenosome?

Sample

Difficulty: Easy

ASM Standard: N/A

1. What is the difference between phagocytosis and pinocytosis?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes have ribosomes, but some antibiotics specifically target prokaryotic ribosomes. How is it possible to use these antibiotics to treat human diseases and how do they affect eukaryotic cells?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 7, 14, 23

1. Why is the plasma membrane considered a fluid mosaic?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: N/A

1. What is the difference between facilitated transport and active transport?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 22

1. How do the components of bacterial cell walls differ from the components of archaeal cell walls?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. How do eukaryotic cell wall components differ from bacterial cell wall components?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 9

1. Prokaryotes do not have chloroplasts, but some are photosynthetic. What structures do cyanobacteria use for photosynthesis?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. How do prokaryotic flagella differ from eukaryotic flagella?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. Lysosomes are used for digestion in eukaryotes. What is an advantage of having a specialized structure for this purpose?

Sample

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 9

1. Giardia lamblia is a protist that causes gastrointestinal disease in humans. It has mitosomes, which appear to be reduced mitochondria. It also has reduced endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparati. Why do you think this species is able to survive with reduced cellular components?

Sample

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 9

1. Penicillin inhibits cell wall synthesis in bacteria. Under certain conditions, bacteria can survive without a cell wall. Why is penicillin often effective in killing pathogenic bacteria by inhibiting cell wall synthesis? Under what conditions would bacteria be able to survive penicillin treatment?

Sample

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 7, 14, 23

Brief Essay

Essay Question Rubric

Assume rating/grading scale for the question ranges from 0 to 3 points.

1. Mitochondria are unable to survive outside of eukaryotic cells. If they originated from ancestral prokaryotes, as proposed by the endosymbiotic theory, then why can’t they survive independently?

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 1

1. Explain what happens during sporulation.

Difficulty: Moderate

ASM Standard: 8

1. In osmosis, water moves across a semipermeable membrane in response to a concentration gradient. For example, osmosis could occur if a cell were placed into a solution of concentrated NaCl. Why don’t the sodium and chloride ions cross the membrane instead of just water?

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 22

1. You discover a new species of microbe and begin to study its characteristics. It lacks any mitochondria but has some membranous internal structures. It lacks a cell wall; however, it has a nucleus with a very small quantity of DNA. What do you think is the best classification for this organism? How can it function?

Difficulty: Difficult

ASM Standard: 9, 22, 28

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