TEST PAPER QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
GRADED A+
●● What is an autosome?
Answer: Any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome
●● How many autosomes do humans have?
Answer: 22 pairs (44)
●● What are sex chromosomes?
Answer: chromosomes that determine the sex of an organism
●● How many sex chromosomes do humans have?
Answer: 1 pair (2 chromosomes)
●● What is a diploid cell?
Answer: A cell with two sets of chromosomes (2n)
ex. 46 chromosomes
●● What is a haploid cell?
,Answer: a cell that contains one set of chromosomes (n)
ex. 23 chromosomes
●● What is a homologues?
Answer: members of a pair of chromosomes
●● What is a homologous chromosome?
Answer: one of two paired chromosomes, one from each parent, that
carries genes for a specific trait at the same location
●● What is the cell cycle?
Answer: an orderly set of stages that take place between the time a
eukaryotic cell divides and the time the resulting daughter cells also
divide (mitosis)
●● What happens before the next division? (mitosis)
Answer: the cell grows larger, number of organelles double, DNA is
replicated
●● What are the two major stages of the cell cycle? (mitosis)
Answer: Interphase (includes several stages) - cell growing
Mitotic stage (includes mitosis and cytokinesis) - division of the nucleus
,●● Most of the cell cycle is spent in what stage? (mitosis)
Answer: Interphase (growing stage), but varies by cell type
ex. skill cells will stay in this phase a lot, nerve cells will not
●● How long does interphase last for adult mammalian cells? (mitosis)
Answer: about 20 hours, which is 90% of the cell cycle
●● What are the three stages of interphase? (mitosis)
Answer: G1, S, G2
●● What happens during G1 stage? (mitosis)
Answer: the cell grows and synthesizes many enzymes and nutrients for
later during DNA replication
●● What is each double helix called?
Answer: chromatid
●● What are two identical chromatids called?
Answer: sister chromatids
●● How many chromosomes enter S phase? (mitosis)
Answer: 1 chromatid each
, ●● How many chromosomes leave S phase? (mitosis)
Answer: 2 identical chromatids (sister chromatids) each
●● What happens during G2 stage? (mitosis)
Answer: cell synthesizes proteins (happens between DNA replication
and onset of mitosis)
●● What stage does the cell going into after interphase? (mitosis)
Answer: M stage
●● What stages go under the M stage? (mitosis)
Answer: mitosis (nuclear division) and cytokinesis (division of the
cytoplasm)
●● During mitosis, daughter chromosomes are distributed by what?
Answer: mitotic spindle
●● How many checkpoints are there in the cell cycle?
Answer: three
●● What are cyclins?