Biology
Cell Biology
The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on a variety of chemical reactions that occur in specialized areas of the organism's cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know cells are enclosed within semipermeable membranes that regulate their interaction with their surroundings.
Students know enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions without altering the reaction equilibrium and the activities of enzymes depend on the temperature, ionic conditions, and the pH of the surroundings.
Students know how prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells (including those from plants and animals), and viruses differ in complexity and general structure.
Students know the central dogma of molecular biology outlines the flow of information from transcription of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the nucleus to translation of proteins on ribosomes in the cytoplasm.
Students know the role of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus in the secretion of proteins.
Students know usable energy is captured from sunlight by chloroplasts and is stored through the synthesis of sugar from carbon dioxide.
Students know the role of the mitochondria in making stored chemical-bond energy available to cells by completing the breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide.
Students know most macromolecules (polysaccharides, nucleic acids, proteins, lipids) in cells and organisms are synthesized from a small collection of simple precursors.
* Students know how chemiosmotic gradients in the mitochondria and chloroplast store energy for ATP production.
* Students know how eukaryotic cells are given shape and internal organization by a cytoskeleton or cell wall or both.
Genetics
Mutation and sexual reproduction lead to genetic variation in a population. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know meiosis is an early step in sexual reproduction in which the pairs of chromosomes separate and segregate randomly during cell division to produce gametes containing one chromosome of each type.
Students know only certain cells in a multicellular organism undergo meiosis.
Students know how random chromosome segregation explains the probability that a particular allele will be in a gamete.
Students know new combinations of alleles may be generated in a zygote through the fusion of male and female gametes (fertilization).
Students know why approximately half of an individual's DNA sequence comes from each parent.
Students know the role of chromosomes in determining an individual's sex.
Students know how to predict possible combinations of alleles in a zygote from the genetic makeup of the parents.
A multicellular organism develops from a single zygote, and its phenotype depends on its genotype, which is established at fertilization. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know how to predict the probable outcome of phenotypes in a genetic cross from the genotypes of the parents and mode of inheritance (autosomal or X-linked, dominant or recessive).
Students know the genetic basis for Mendel's laws of segregation and independent assortment.
* Students know how to predict the probable mode of inheritance from a pedigree diagram showing phenotypes.
* Students know how to use data on frequency of recombination at meiosis to estimate genetic distances between loci and to interpret genetic maps of chromosomes.
Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of each organism that specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins characteristic of that organism. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know the general pathway by which ribosomes synthesize proteins, using tRNAs to