The Biological Question Thread

[sillysmile]

1. what is an operon and what is it's purpose?
2. what is a restriction fragment length polymorphism. (wow that's long)

[happyhappyland]

an operon is only found in prokaryotic organism where it consists of the gene and the promoter region.

do you need to know about polymorphism?

[Russ]

Operons can have more than one gene.

RFLP: you've got restriction sequences that are cut, but they're in different places in different people (hence the term polymorphism). This means that when you do restriction enzyme analysis, you get different fragment lengths in different people

[thushan]

What do we need to know about cultural and technological evolution?

[masonnnn]

What do we need to know about cultural and technological evolution?

basically understand and know the definitions of them.
questions regarding them will typically be a definition question
OR
you'll get a scenario and need to be able to distinguish what type of evolution it is

ie. when hominins started burial rituals this was an example of what kind of evolution?



(answer is cultural)

[sillysmile]

What do we need to know about cultural and technological evolution?

basically understand and know the definitions of them.
questions regarding them will typically be a definition question
OR
you'll get a scenario and need to be able to distinguish what type of evolution it is

ie. when hominins started burial rituals this was an example of what kind of evolution?



(answer is cultural)

that's could be interpreted either way though.. I mean what about cryogenics???
nah I'm only joking

[masonnnn]

hhhahah true that.

i keep getting questions on this wrong though, it's like "what is the most evolving evolution since hominins"
and i'd say with all the technology we have it'd be that, but it's always cultural...

[happyhappyland]

hhhahah true that.

i keep getting questions on this wrong though, it's like "what is the most evolving evolution since hominins"
and i'd say with all the technology we have it'd be that, but it's always cultural...

cultural develops technological

[stonecold]

Can someone exaplain the Q 6di on VCAA 2009.

I don't get VCAA's answer at all.

And for 6dii. you couldn't say bipedal locomotion because australopithicus and paranthropos had that as well is that right?

[stonecold]

And also, i found out why they label probes haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_in_situ_hybridization

Learn this people.  I have a feeling it will come up in some form, seeing how poorly probes were answered on last years paper.

Also, examiners report said it was made of DNA, but it could also be made of RNA yeah.  Why not, it would still hybridize all the same.
Wiki says probes can be DNA or RNA, not that that is the best source though.

Also, primers are strictly RNA yeah?

I know you need them for PCR to target the gene of interest

Also, in DNA replication are primers required, and likewise, are they required in transcription, or do the polymerases recognise the promoter regions ?

I remember reading somewhere that on the lagging strand of DNA, small primers are added and elongated by DNA polymerase, and they are later replaced with DNA, and then ligase joins the phosphodiester bonds between okazaki fragments..

[cypriottiger]

Also, examiners report said it was made of DNA, but it could also be made of RNA yeah.  Why not, it would still hybridize all the same.
Wiki says probes can be DNA or RNA, not that that is the best source though.

-_- i wrote RNA and corrected it wrong. damn u assessors!

[stonecold]

Also, examiners report said it was made of DNA, but it could also be made of RNA yeah.  Why not, it would still hybridize all the same.
Wiki says probes can be DNA or RNA, not that that is the best source though.

-_- i wrote RNA and corrected it wrong. damn u assessors!

Nah, it is right.  The main bit is that you wrote labelled.

[cypriottiger]

Also, examiners report said it was made of DNA, but it could also be made of RNA yeah.  Why not, it would still hybridize all the same.
Wiki says probes can be DNA or RNA, not that that is the best source though.

-_- i wrote RNA and corrected it wrong. damn u assessors!

Nah, it is right.  The main bit is that you wrote labelled.

labelled? hold on ill write my response
A synthesised piece of RNA,single-stranded,this is used to identify a sequence of DNA by binding to its complimentary fragment and illuminating under UV light.

[stonecold]

Also, examiners report said it was made of DNA, but it could also be made of RNA yeah.  Why not, it would still hybridize all the same.
Wiki says probes can be DNA or RNA, not that that is the best source though.

-_- i wrote RNA and corrected it wrong. damn u assessors!

Nah, it is right.  The main bit is that you wrote labelled.

labelled? hold on ill write my response
A synthesised piece of RNA,single-stranded,this is used to identify a sequence of DNA by binding to its complimentary fragment and illuminating under UV light.

I'm not sure.  See, a probe doesn't have to be labelled.  In the question that followed, they labelled the DNA, and not the probe, whereas in the FISH technique above, the probe is labelled and not neccessarily the DNA, although it probably has some stain to make it visible.

The probe won't fluoresce unless it has some kind of radiactive of fluorescent marker on it though, but as I said, you didn't need the probe to be labelled for that experiment, because the DNA had been labelled.

This was what I wrote:

"A probe is a labelled piece of single stranded DNA or RNA which has a complementary base sequence to a segment of DNA of interest (i.e. a gene), which allows it to be identified by hybridisation."

Probably best to just go with VCAA's definition though...

[cypriottiger]

lol very true, yours was a good answer though