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Zoo 470 Study Guides
Zoo 470 - Exam #1 - 2000
You can expect a good chunk of the exam to be short answer questions. Other types of questions, including identification, multiple choice, matching, and true/false, will also be present, but don't count on them being the largest portion of the exam. In addition, there has been an emphasis in class on experiments and what they tell us about mechanisms of early development. These are really important, and you should understand them thoroughly. In all cases, except the one case of cleavage patterns, the exam will reflect what was emphasized in class. The text should be used to reinforce in-class material.
Your best study hints will come from last year’s exam:
http://worms.zoology.wisc.edu/470ex1_99.html
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I. Introduction to Development
What are the big ideas that developmental biologists study? What are some techniques that allow them to study such questions?
II. Genomic Equivalence
What experiments in amphibians indicate the genomic equivalence of nuclei? What does this tell us about how the nucleus exerts effects on differentiated cells? What do chromosome puffs tell us about differential gene activation in differentiated tissues? How were the experiments performed that resulted in Dolly? "Cumulina" the mouse? Cloned primate embryos? What do we know about how normal Dolly really is at the cellular and molecular level? What is the state of legislation in this and European countries regarding human cloning?
III. Molecular Biology Techniques
What is the basic idea underlying each of the following - (a) DNA cloning (b) cDNA libraries (c) genomic libraries (d) PCR (e) Northern blots (f) in situ hybridization (g) immunostaining (h) transgenics (i) targeted mutations? How can each of these be used? Key: Be able to state which technique(s) would be approporiate for answering specific questions about gene expression.
IV. The Cell Surface
What is a cell adhesion molecule? What are cadherins? Catenins? CAMs? Be able to explain the classical experiments and molecular basis of differential affinity. What evidence suggests that cadherins are involved? What is the extracellular matrix? What are major ECM molecules? How do integrins function in promoting attachment of cells to the extracellular matrix? What are polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies ? How do G-protein mediated signals get transferred from a transmembrane receptor via signal transduction to the interior of the cell? What effects does inositol triphosphate (IP3) have on the endoplasmic reticulum? How do tyrosine kinase mediated signals get transduced? Remember, you are only responsible for this at the level we covered it in class.
V. Gametogenesis
Meiosis
What does meiosis accomplish? What are the differences between meiosis in spermatogonia and oogonia? What is a polar body ?
Spermatogenesis
What is the basic structure of the seminiferous tubule in mammals? What are Sertoli cells and what is their function? What is capacitation in mammals? What activates sea urchin sperm? What specializations are present in sperm that relate to their function? For example, what is the acrosome, midbody, etc.?
Oogenesis
What is the structure of the ovary? What is the structure of a follicle? What is the corpus luteum, and what is its function? What are gonadotropin releasing factors? Where are they produced? What is the role of estrogen and progesterone in ovulation? At what stage of meiosis are mammalian, amphibian, and sea urchin oocytes/eggs arrested?
CSF and MPF
What is the apparent molecular identity (or a crucial component) of CSF (hint: what's c-mos?)? What is the effect of CSF on meiotic or mitotic cells when it is injected into them? What is the state of MPF when it is active? What are its two major protein subunits? How does calcium release at fertilization result (indirectly) in release from metaphase arrest? How is cyclin destruction related to exit from mitosis and how do cyclin levels change during the cell cycle?
Hormonal Control of Ovulation in Mammals
Be able to explain what role various hormones play in this process, where these hormones come from, what target tissue(s) they act on, and what the resulting effect(s) is on the target tissue. These include: progesterone, estrogen, FSH, LH. Be able to explain what gonadotropin hormone release-factors are. Where are they produced? Where do they act? What is the role of human chorionic gonadotropin in maintaining pregnancy? Where is it produced? What is the molecular mode of action of RU486?How do the brain vesicles form? What mechanisms may be partly responsible for this? What major brain structures form from the various brain vesicles found at various stages of human development? What structures give rise to the retinas of the eyes? The lenses? What role does N-cadherin appear to play in optic vesicle formation? What is a rhombomere?
VI. Fertilization
Acrosome Reaction
What changes take place in the sperm? What triggers the acrosome reaction in sea urchins and mammals? How are the acrosome reactions different in sea urchins and mammals? What is an acrosomal process? What is capacitation and why is it important in mammals?
Sperm-Egg Binding
What molecules are involved in sperm-egg attachment in mammals and sea urchins? What experiments support such a role? What is binding? What experiments show that it mediates species-specific sperm-egg binding in sea urchins? What changes may take place in the bindin receptor? What are ADAM proteins? What are they thought to mediate during mammalian fertilization? What unique structural features of ADAMs make them interesting? What is the zona pellucida? What role is ZP-3 thought to play in sperm-egg binding? Be able to compare and constrast sea urchin and mammalian fertilization mechanisms.
Cortical Granule Exocytosis
What triggers release of cortical granules? What is contained in the cortical granules? How does the fertilization envelope arise in sea urchins? What changes in the zona pellucida are thought to occur following fertilization in mammals?
Blocks to Polyspermy
How does the fast block to polyspermy differ from the permanent block to polyspermy? What is the basis for the permanent block to polyspermy in sea urchins? How does the permanent block to polyspermy differ in mammals?
Egg Activation
What is egg activation? What triggers egg activation? What ionic events are important for egg activation (e.g., calcium, pH)? How can such changes be artificially induced? What intracellular pathway is thought to stimulate calcium release within the egg (i.e., what second messenger)? What receptor-mediated pathways may play a role in this process, such as G proteins or receptor tyrposin kinases? How does intracellular pH change following fertilization? What experiments indicate the pH rise is required for the onset of protein synthesis? What other metabolic events occur as part of egg activation?
Pronuclear Migration
WWhat cytoskeletal system mediates pronuclear migration? What changes in the sperm pronucleus must occur prior to pronuclear fusion? What is syngamy in mammals?
Cytoplasmic Movements Following Fertilization
Why are cytoplasmic rearrangements important in many embryos? How are such movements important in specifying the future dorsal side of the amphibian embryo? How does the site of sperm entry predict the future dorsal side of the Xenopus embryo? How do we know that the subcortical cytoplasm rotates relative to the cortex in Xenopus? In other frogs (i.e., what's a grey crescent?)? What cytoskeletal system is intimately involved in these movements?
Human Reproductive Biology
What molecular interaction is RU486 thought to disrupt? Be able to explain how steroid hormones exert their effects, and where in the process RU486 acts. What is ICSI? Zona drilling?
VII. Neuralation and Neural Ectoderm
Cleavage
What cytoskeletal systems are involved? How does the cell cycle during early cleavages differ from that of cells in the adult (somatic cells)? What are reductive cleavages? What does this mean for the embryo? What are the basic types of cleavage, and what organisms are good examples of each type? What is the difference between radial and spiral cleavage, and what groups of organisms display these types of cleavage? How does the amount and position of yolk affect how cleavage occurs? What is compaction? What changes take place in the early mammalian embryo at the time of compaction? What molecule is thought to play a role in compaction, and why do we think so?
Developmental Plasticity of the Early Mammalian Embryo
What experiments indicate that the cells of the uncompacted 8-cell mammalian embryo are essentially undifferentiated, or totipotent? What are allophenic mice? What is pre-embryo biopsy? Be able to explain what techniques are used to perform this procedure. What are embryonic stem cells? How are they made? How have human stem cells been produced? What potential uses have been proposed for human ES cells?
What significant accomplishments take place during formation of the blastula (e.g., regionalization, blastocoel formation, etc.)? How does the amount of yolk in the egg affect the way the blastula or blastodisc forms? What is a mammalian blastocyst? How does the position of cells within the early mammalian embryo relate to what sort of cell they will become? What is the significance of a fluid-filled blastocoel?
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