AP Biology Exam Study Plan Overview
Prepare for the AP Biology exam with a structured approach using the stoplight method: identify your knowledge level with red (unknown), yellow (partial knowledge), and green (well-known) markers to prioritize study topics.
Unit Highlights and Key Concepts
Unit 1: Chemistry of Life
- Water and Hydrogen Bonding: Understand water's polarity, hydrogen bonding, cohesion, adhesion, and role as a universal solvent.
- Macromolecules: Study monomers and polymers, dehydration synthesis and hydrolysis, and functions of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
- Protein Structure: Remember the four levels (primary to quaternary) and importance of R groups.
- DNA/RNA Structure: Note differences in sugar and bases, base-pairing rules, and antiparallel DNA strands.
Unit 2: Cell Structure and Function
- Differentiate prokaryotic vs eukaryotic cells and understand organelle roles, membrane structure, and transport mechanisms including osmosis and water potential. Review the Comprehensive AP Biology Unit 2 Review: Cell Structure & Function for an in-depth understanding.
- Learn about cellular compartmentalization and the endomembrane system.
Unit 3: Cellular Energetics
- Enzymes: Specificity, catalysis, and factors affecting activity.
- Metabolic Pathways: Glycolysis, Kreb’s cycle, Calvin cycle, and ATP’s role in energy coupling.
- Photosynthesis and Respiration: Understand light reactions, Calvin cycle, aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and fermentation.
Unit 4: Cell Communication and Cell Cycle
- Signal reception, transduction, and cellular responses.
- Cell cycle phases, regulation, checkpoints, and implications for cancer.
Unit 5: Heredity and Genetics
- Meiosis stages and genetic variation (independent assortment, crossing over).
- Mendelian genetics, sex-linked traits, linked genes, and population genetics (Hardy-Weinberg principle).
Unit 6: Gene Expression
- DNA replication processes, transcription, translation, and gene regulation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
- Mutations and their effects, biotechnology tools like PCR and DNA sequencing.
Unit 7: Evolution
- Natural selection types, population genetics, evidence supporting evolution including molecular homologies, speciation mechanisms, and mass extinctions.
- Origin of life theories emphasizing RNA world hypothesis.
Unit 8: Ecology
- Species interactions, energy flow, population growth models, biodiversity indices, and human impacts like habitat destruction and invasive species.
Study Strategy Tips
- Use a checklist and highlighters to assess and prioritize your study topics effectively.
- Engage with interactive resources at LearnBiology.com for videos, quizzes, and FRQ practice.
- Understand key diagrams and processes to prepare for free-response questions.
Conclusion
A disciplined, prioritized study plan combined with active learning and practice is essential to excel on the AP Biology exam. For a broader scope on biological systems and practical applications, consult the Comprehensive Guide to Cells, Tissues, and Biological Systems for Exams. Use the resources and strategies outlined here to achieve confidence and a top exam score.
the AP Bio exam is coming up and you're going to need a plan to prioritize what you study that's what this video is
designed to give you here's your review plan download this checklist at apos su. checklist get three highlighters red
green and yellow follow along with me during the video use the stoplight method to identify items that you know
well Mark those in green that you know a little bit Mark those in yellow and that you don't know at all Mark those in red
priority tize you're studying study the red items first then the yellow and then just to keep the topics fresh study the
green let's do this AP Bio unit one chemistry of life topic 1.1 water and hydrogen bonding water is a polar
molecule it forms hydrogen bonds which are weak intermolecular bonds because of water's polarity and hydrogen bonding
water acts as the universal solvent and water's keepy properties include cohesion adhesion surface tension high
specific heat you don't only see hydrogen bonds between water molecules hydrogen bonding is everywhere in
biology you see it in DNA you see it in RNA forming RNA specific shapes you see it in proteins you see it in so many
intermolecular interactions topics 1.2 to 1.3 Elements of Life Etc the molecules of Life are built from
monomers that combine into polymers you combine monomers into polymers through dehydration synthesis you take polymers
apart through hydrolysis carbohydrates are used for energy storage and they create key structures that includes
monosaccharides which are used for energy storage disaccharides for energy transport and polysaccharides which can
store energy like starch or make structures like cellulose which makes up cell walls lipids are non-polar their
key unit is the fat fatty acid they can be saturated or unsaturated saturated fatty acids are more solid unsaturated
fatty acids which have bends and kinks are more liquid their functions include energy storage in the fats and oils
waterproofing in waxes membrane formation in phospholipids and signaling in steroids phospholipids have a dual
nature they have a hydrophobic non-polar tail that's seen at number three they have a hydrophilic polar head at one
when mixed with water the heads bond with water while the Tails form a water-free Zone this creates a
phospholipid bilayer which is the basis of membranes we'll talk about this much more in unit 2 proteins have diverse
functions that includes motion as in muscle tissue enzymes proteins also build structures they're used for
transport they're used for energy storage and for signaling proteins are composed of amino acids that's their
monomer they have an amino group a carboxy group and most importantly they have an R Group a side chain that can
vary in chemistry you put those amino acids together through four levels of structure and that includes primary
structure the linked genetically determined sequence of amino acids the Alpha helices and the beta pleated
sheets that form between interactions between amino acids in the polypeptide backbone then you have the complex turns
and Loops that form as our groups interact with one another through a variety of bonds that might include
hydrogen bonds and Cove valent bonds as well as hydrophobic interactions and ionic bonds and then you have the
aggregation of multiple polypeptide chains forming quaternary structure nucleic acids are the molecules of
heredity especially DNA which plays that role in cells RNA can be the hereditary material in some viruses but it's more
important as an information transfer molecule as in messenger RNA and RNA can catalyze reactions sort of like enzymes
and you see that in ribosomes splies and micrornas and the ability of RNA to do that will come back later when we talk
about the origin of life in unit 7 nucleic acid monomers are nucleotides and that consists of a five carbon sugar
a nitrogenous base and a phosphate group the nucleotides that make up DNA and RNA are subtly different there's a different
sugar deoxy ribos versus ribos in RNA and the bases are different atcg in DNA aucg in RNA in terms of DNA structure
know that DNA is famously double stranded that's why it's the double helix it has two sugar phosphate
backbones sugar phosphate sugar phosphate the base pairing rules for DNA are adenine bonds with thyine and
cytosine bonds with wning and it has an anti-parallel structure anti-parallel is like this note that in one strand this
is the five Prime end this is the three prime end in the other strand this is five Prime and this is three prime are
you struggling with apbio learn biology.com is an online Interactive Learning System that's been approved by
the college board for every topic that you want to learn about you'll watch an engaging video study a clear to Theo
summary reinforce your learning with flashcards and test yourself with quizzes when it's time to study for the
AP Bio exam go to our AP Bio exam review page where you can access our incredible study resources you'll walk into every
quiz test and the AP Bio exam feeling confident and prepared here's your plan one go to learn biology.com two sign up
three start learning and prepare to crush it in your AP bio class and on the AP Bio exam unit 2 cell structure and
function know the difference between procaryotic and eukaryotic cells in terms of size structure and the way they
package their DNA AP biology is a Cell Biology class while you might not be asked specific questions on the AP exam
about specific organel you will need to know the overall geography of cells know the parts on this slide that relates to
animal cells many of those parts are also found on on plant cells and I've highlighted the parts that are different
in plant cells in bold on this diagram topic 2.3 is cell size and the key idea is that cells are small to maximize
their surface area to volume ratio as objects get bigger the amount of surface area they have relative to their volume
goes down that's why cells need to be small so they can have lots of surface area to allow for lots of diffusion
there are many many adaptations that relate to surface area structures like gills or the big flat ears of Elephants
or the inner folding of the mitochondrial membrane or the lining of the intestine that's all about
increasing surface area to allow for increase amounts of diffusion either of molecules or in the case of elephant
ears of heat things can also evolve so that there's less surface area that's why whales have evolved to be so big
because with less surface area in their huge bodies they lose less heat which is an important consideration for a mammal
topics 2.4 to 2.9 membrane structure and function we'll start with membrane function it's all about selective
permeability controlling what can enter and leave the cell phospholipids form the framework but because we already
talked about that in unit one you can go back and look at that the overall structure is a fluid mosaic model and
what that means is that there's not only phospholipids there's also protein and cholesterol and they're all moving
around the membrane molecules and their functions include the phospholipids which form the framework of the membrane
cholesterol which acts as a fluidity buffer what that means is that it keeps the membrane stable at high temperatures
and fluid at low temperatures and proteins which are involved in transport cytoskeleton attachment membrane
embedded enzymes signal transduction and cell cell recognition membrane transport a lot of
things go through cells just based on diffusion movement of molecules from higher to lower concentration it happens
spontaneously the cell doesn't need to exert energy for diffusion to happen and molecules flow down their concentration
gradients in passive transport the cell is allowing diffusion it's passive about what it's letting come in but there's
simple diffusion and facilitated diffusion simple diffusion is for small non-polar molecules oxygen carbon
dioxide but also for the lipids which can diffuse directly through the phospholipid bilayer that includes
steroids and fats polar molecules and ions can't diffuse through the phospholipid bilayer so they need
channels the channels are made of protein and they facilitate these molecules passage that's why it's
facilitated diffusion again it's for polar molecules and ions not everything however can get into
cells by diffusion sometimes cells need to take things that are at low concentration and actively pump them in
that's called active transport active transport requires energy in the form of ATP which gets broken down to ADP to
power some kind of pump instead of flowing down a concentration gradient in active transport molecules are being
pumped bumped up a concentration gradient you can also have things move into cells by bulk transport the two
forms are endocytosis where the membrane Buckles in takes the fluid and materials that are outside and brings it into a
vesicle inside the cell or exocytosis which is the reverse those vesicles fused with the membrane dumping their
contents outside osmosis is the diffusion of water just like everything else water will flow down a concent
ation gradient from higher to lower concentration that's what you see happening over here water's in higher
concentration here because there's less solute it's in lower concentration here because there's more solute therefore
water will flow through this selectively permeable membrane that allows water to pass but now the solute from this side
to this side another way to say that is that water will flow from hypotonic to hypertonic you'll need to be able to
predict the effect of Osmosis on plant and animal cells explaining things like what kind of environment would cause
this plant cell's membrane to shrink away from its wall what's the favorite environment for a plant cell it happens
to be a hypotonic environment because that's where water flows into cells and over here in this red blood cell an
animal cell what conditions would be causing these red blood cells to be bursting if you can answer that then you
understand the effect of Osmosis on animal and plant cells that leads us to the topic of water potential it's a more
formal way to talk about osmosis and the movement of water it has an equation water potential equals solute potential
plus pressure potential the idea is that adding solute to water decreases its water potential in this device called a
Ube no kidding water is Flowing from the hypotonic side to the hyperonic side because this has more solute but another
way you can say that is that the addition of solute lowered the water potential so therefore water was flowing
from higher water potential to lower water potential if you add pressure then you'll note that pressure increases
water potential and water will flow away from an area of high pressure topics 2.10 through 11 cellular
compartmentalization cellular compartmentalization is exactly what it sounds like cells have internal
compartments that can have special pH special chemistry and that allows for different parts to
do different things that in and of itself explains a lot of cell structure and function in particular the
endomembrane system which consists of things like the nuclear membrane the Ruff the smooth are various vesicles the
GGI and lomes two compartments that are not part of the endomembrane system are mitochondria and chloroplast that's
because they're Endo symbiance they're the descendants of organisms that were once independent
that now live inside our cells kind of a mindblowing idea both of these organel evolve from Free Living bacteria the
evidence for that is abundant each of them has their own circular DNA they replicate through binary fision those
are both features that are found in bacteria they have bacteria like ribosomes and they perform protein
synthesis they have two membranes and the outer membrane is a vestage of the fact that they were at one point taken
up by another cell if you want to crush it on this year's AP Bio exam then you're going to have to write great
responses on the frq portion of the exam it's half of your score where can you learn how to do that on learn
biology.com with our enhanced practice frqs you read a prompt you type in your response we give you feedback telling
you about your answer strengths and weaknesses if you need help you can ask for a hint if you're really stuck you
can study a sample answer we have dozens of practice frqs and this is the kind of practice and feedback that'll lead you
to crush it on this year's AP Bio exam so here's your plan go to learn biology.com sign up use our enhanced
practice frqs to get the practice you need to succeed AP buyer unit 3 cellular energetics enzymes are protein catalysts
they lower the activation energy of reactions that occur within cells enzymes are highly specific they bind
with their substrates at an active sight and generally every enzyme has a specific substrate enzymes are sensitive
to changes in their environment they can be denatured By changes in PH or temperature what does denaturing mean it
means that the shape of their active site changes so that they can no longer interact with their substrate and that
causes the activity of the enzyme to plummet enzymes can also be inhibited by molecules that are in their environment
in competitive inhibition a molecule that is not the enzyme substrate competes with the substrate for the
active site that keeps the enzyme from catalyzing whatever reaction it was going to cataliz with its substrate in
non-competitive inhibition there's an allosteric site a second site that another molecule binds with it's not
competing for the active site but because of the way proteins are and because of the chains of amino acids and
how those amino acids interact with one another binding over here can change the active site over here similar processes
can be used for regulation and we'll see that there's a kind of Regulation that's called allosteric regulation that can be
used to modulate the activity of enzymes topic 3.4 Cell Energy a lot of what you learn about in unit 3 are metabolic
pathways metabolic pathways are linked series of reactions all controlled by enzymes where the product of one
reaction becomes the reactant for the next reaction so here's the product and it's the reactant for the next these
metabolic pathways can be linear like glycolysis or it can be cyclical like the kreb cycle or the Calvin cycle and
in that case the ending compound is also the starting compound reactions can be extonic or endergonic extonic reactions
release energy and therefore can drive cellular to work endergonic reactions require energy reactions are often
coupled through ATP ATP consists of a five carbon sugar called ribos it consists of a nitrogenous base and three
phosphate groups ATP without these two phosphates over here is adenine one of the monomers of RNA here's how it works
in terms of energy coupling energy in from a process like cellular respiration Powers the creation of ATP
from ADP and phosphate that is an endergonic reaction that requires energy ATP can be broken down to ADP and
phosphate and as it does energy is made available for cellular work so in this case an exonic reaction can power
endergonic processes every time you move your arm you're hydroling ATP you're removing this third phosphate and that's
making movement possible topic 3.5 photosynthesis this photosynthesis is a process in which photo autot tropes self
feeders using light use light energy to combine carbon dioxide and water to create
carbohydrates oxygen is released as a waste product photosynthesis is the source of biomass and the basis of
almost every food chain on this planet and its formula is 6 CO2 plus 6 H2O plus light energy creates glucose and oxygen
there are two phases of photosynthesis the first of these are the light reactions and in the light reactions
light energy shown coming in over here is converted into chemical energy in the form of ATP which we just discussed and
nadph nadph is a mobile electron carrier it can carry electrons it can carry reducing power if you want to talk about
it chemically from one area of the cell to another in the Calvin cycle the energy in ATP nadph is converted into
carbohydrate here we see this over here it's often represented as glucose but as we'll see in a minute it's actually a
molecule called g3p what the Calvin cycle does is it fixes carbon dioxide converting it from
a low energy gas into high energy sugars the light reactions in the light reactions light Powers an electrical
current that powers proton pumps that pump protons into the thid space facilitated diffusion through ATP
synthes generates ATP this is a photo system over here it's a very complex assemblage of
proteins that's packed with chlorophylls it's capable of taking light energy and making it into this flow of electricity
that flows down an electron transport chain on the way it passes through these proton pumps that pump protons from the
stroma into the th covid space stroma thid space stroma thid space the protons accumulate here and they can only defuse
out through the ATP synthes Channel at the same time when these chlorophylls lose an electron another part of this
photos system breaks apart a water molecule that's the source of the oxygen released during the light reactions and
it also creates additional protons that enhance this gradient so more ATP is produced what about the second product
of the light reactions electron flow from this photo system to another electron transport chain flows to nadp
plus which gets reduced to nadph that's how we get the two products of the light reaction in the Calvin cycle there are
three distinct phases that enable carbon dioxide to be converted into g3p glycer alide 3 phosphate the first phase is
carbon fixation carbon dioxide gets pulled into the cycle and incorporated into originally a six carbon compound
which then gets broken into this three carbon compound over here that's the carbon fixation phase carbon's entering
the biosphere it's entering the system now there's energy investment the products of the light reactions ATP and
nadph are used to energize this compound and we wind up with g3p that g3p can be harvested from the
cycle and and made into sugars or anything else the cell needs in the last phase that g3p a three carbon molecule
is combined and changed in various ways so that we wind up with a bunch of rubp a five carbon molecule and more ATP is
required to make that happen that's the Calvin cycle that's how the carbon in you originally got into the
biosphere topic 3.6 cellular respiration cellular ation is how cells take glucose and convert it ultimately into ATP note
that animals just do cellular respiration but plants do both cellular respiration and photosynthesis cellular
respiration comes in four stages or phases those are glycolysis the link reaction the kreb cycle and the electron
transport chain you should know the inputs and the outputs for glycol is the link reaction and the KB cycle but you
don't need to know all of the stuff that goes on in the inside and to step back a little bit note that all of these
reactions are doing similar things which is that they're oxidizing food here's glucose it's food they're oxidizing it
they're taking away its electrons and they're creating these mobile electron carriers in cellular respiration they're
nadh and fadh2 remember we had nadph in photosynthesis glycolysis and the kreb cycle also make
a little bit of ATP however most of the ATP in cellular respiration is created through oxidative phosphorilation and
the electron transport chain which you see Happening Here wondrously complex these electron carriers what they do is
they power an electrical current that flows through an electron transport chain in the inner mitochondrial
membrane along the way that electron energy is used to pump protons from The Matrix to the intermembrane space in the
same way as there was proton accumulation during photosynthesis that happens during cellular respiration the
the sequestered compartment is the intermembrane space these protons can only diffuse out through the ATP synthes
Channel as they do their kinetic energy is used to combine ADP and phosphate into ATP that's how cellular resp
aration makes ATP why do we need oxygen because oxygen is the final electron acceptor in the electron transport chain
essentially pulling electrons down the entire length of the chain respiration can also happen without oxygen that's
Anor robic respiration and it creates much less ATP no oxygen required it generates only two atps both from
glycolysis and it's combined with fermentation and ferment ation is a process that regenerates an ad plus so
here's glycolysis pyruvic acid or pyruvate is the three carbon output of glycolysis
and in fermentation reactions that pyruvate is basically changed into ethanol what happens the pyruvate is
reduced so that nadh can be oxidized back to nad+ why because nad+ is one of the substrates of glycol is and
glycolysis can't produce its two atps unless nad+ is around that's true of lactic acid fermentation which happens
in our muscle cells when we're doing Anor robic respiration it also happens in yogurt as they create the lactic acid
that makes yogurt sour I want to acknowledge how difficult and complex some of these Concepts can be and I want
to encourage you to go to learn dm.com you can do the tutorials and you can use our unit reviews and it's going to
really help you get on top of this material setting you up for Success on your unit test or the AP Bio exam AP Bio
unit 4 cell communication feedback and the cell cycle cells constantly communicate with one another they can do
that directly by touching one another or they can do that through signals in AP biology we're mostly focused on this
through signals the signals are ligans or ligans lians are complimentary to specific receptors here the circle bind
BS with this receptor over here because their shape is complimentary and The Binding leads to a cellular response
there are three phases of cell communication when it happens through lians the first is reception of the Lian
the second is signal transduction that's taking the initial signal making it into another kind of signal and that's often
accompanied by amplification of the signal and finally there's a cellular response of which there can be two kinds
the first is Gene activation that second is enzyme activation I encourage you to learn about G protein coupled receptors
there's a tutorial on learn Das biology.com it's available in your textbook if you're using it because it's
important in its own right it has shown up on the AP Bio exam and it's an example of the monstrously complex kind
of visual representation that the College Board will throw at you on the test steroid hormones work somewhat
differently than the polar hormones that I've demonstrated in the previous slides the reason is that because they're
steroids they can diffuse right through the phospholipid B layer once they're in there they bind with cytoplasmic
receptors they can then as a receptor hormone complex diffuse into the nucleus and activate genes topic 4.5 homeostasis
and feedback homeostasis is maintaining internal conditions at a relatively constant optimal level you experience
this all the time your body temperature is 37° C despite the fact that you might be in a cold place or a warm place or
change from one to another feedback is when the output of a system is also an input to the system feedback can be
negative and that's when the output quiets the system kind of steps on the brakes and positive feedback accelerates
internal changes and drives a process forward a feedback system that you should know about involves glucose
homeostasis which involves insulin and glucagon two hormones insulin lowers blood sugar back to the set point
glucagon raises when your blood sugar gets low and when these systems break down it results in the disease Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is because there's a breakdown in insulin production type 2 diabetes is when there's a problem with
cells responding to the insulin signal there are also positive feedback loops one to know about involves oxytocin and
child birth and it works like this as the baby grows it activates stretch receptors in the uterus that causes the
release of the hormone oxytocin which then feeds back to the uterus increasing contractions activating the stretch
receptors that process culminates in childbirth a similar positive feedback loop works with fruit ripening and the
gaseous hormone ethylene topic 4.6 to 4.7 the cell cycle this includes the phases of mitosis which you can remember
by the pneumonic I put my Apple there Charlie for interphase prophase metaphase anaphase tase cyto canis
remember that most of mitosis everything after interphase is all just a sliver of the process most of the cell cycle is
interphase which can be divided into growth one General growth synthesis of DNA and then growth two which is
preparation for the M phase cells can also enter into this g0 phase when they become highly specialized essentially
leaving the cell cycle the process is regulated by various check points where the cell checks for various conditions
along the way if those conditions are met the cell proceeds to the cell cycle if they're not these checkpoints enable
the cell to pause the cell cycle is regulated both externally and internally externally by signals coming from
outside the cell there's also internal regulation and that regulation happens through cyclin and then cyclin dependent
kinases cancer is caused by unregulated cell division you can see here that cancer starts with mutations the cells
grow in one location forming a tumor when they spread to other sites that's called metastasis mutations and genes
called Proto onco increase the rate of cell division and mutations in tumor suppressor genes remove cell division
Inhibitors they undermine the checkpoints that we just talked about you can think about that with a gas
pedal and a breakes analogy AP Bio unit 5 heredity meiosis diploid germ cells germ cells that would
be in the ovaries and the testes create haid sperm and egg cells with one chromosome set meiosis begins with germ
cells again in the testes or the ovaries that start by replicating their DNA just like at the start of mitosis that
creates cells that are deployed with doubl chromosomes in meiosis 1 homologous pairs these pairs that are
inherited from the mother and the Father the Matched chromosomes wind up being separated and in meiosis 2 the sister
chromatids are pulled apart meiosis just to put that in context involves the same phases as mitosis but they're doubled in
prophase one here's where you see the homologous pairs pairing up and two important things happen one is that as
they pair up they wind up exchanging pieces of DNA that's a process that's called crossing over the other thing
that happens is that as these homologous pairs are pulled to the cell equator what every chromosome pair does is
independent of every other pair and that creates tremendous variation in the gametes the rest of meiosis we see the
homologous pairs being separated in meiosis one and here we see the sister chromatids being separated for haid
gametes result meiosis and sexual reproduction generate diversity in three ways the first is independent assortment
it's how these maternal and paternal homologous chromosomes can be sent to the Next Generation independently of one
another leading to many combinations of chromosomes the second is crossing over and genetic recombination finally during
fertilization a gamet from the father winds up fertilizing the gamet from the mother that combines the genomes of two
individuals creating even more variation that's distinct for mitosis in which the daughter cells are clones of the parent
cell once we understand meiosis we can look at sex determination in mammals and birds in mammals there's an
xxxy sex determination system in Birds there's a z wzz sex determination system not all animals have chromosome
determination of sex for example in various kinds of reptiles the temperature at which an embryo develops
determines whether that embryo will be male or female and in bees and wa and several other insects the males are haid
every cell in their body is haid and the females are diploid once we understand meiosis we can also look at what happens
when the process does not proceed correctly one major disorder is called nondisjunction and that's when either
homologous pairs don't separate correctly or sister chromatids don't separate after fertilization that can
have a variety of consequences one of which is a triom where one of the chromosomes instead instead of a
homologous pair will have three chromosomes that's the cause of down syndrome or there can be a monosomy
where instead of a homologous pair there's one chromosome I believe that's only survivable in the sex chromosomes
the XX chromosome in mammals and that causes a condition called Turner syndrome topics 5.3 to 5.5 genetics what
is a gene it's the basic unit of heredity pass from parent to offspring it determines a trait seen from the
Viewpoint of molecular genetics our next topic it's a sequence of nucleotides that codes for RNA or protein genetics
key Concepts you should know mle's principle of segregation of alal the difference between homozygous and
heterozygous dominant and recessive genotype and phenotype monohybrid crosses you should easily be able to
handle that's a cross between two heterozygotes and you can expect a 3:1 ratio in terms of the phenotype and a 1
to 2:1 ratio in terms of the genotype sexlink genes involve genes that are on the X chromosome so they're not passed
on by the father they're passed on by the mother who has the alil on one of her or both of her ex chromosomes males
can't be heterozygous they either have the alil or they don't everything we've talked about so far has involved one
gene going from parents to offspring what if there are two Gene pairs as with this parental genotype over here in that
case independent assortment is the rule that needs to be applied what every Gene pair does is independent of every other
Gene pair that leads to dihybrid crosses which result in a nine to 3 to 3 to one phenotypic ratio in The Offspring if you
have more than two genes then you don't do a punet square you use things like the rule of multiplication all of the
genes that we've looked at so far have involved genes that are on different chromosomes but genes can be linked on
the same chromosome in fact that's the rule not the exception because we have 20,000 genes that are distributed among
23 uh chromosome pairs so here are linked genes in dropa what do you need to know link genes are mostly inherited
together they're on the same chromosome as they get sent to the Next Generation they'll travel together however they can
be separated because of crossing over to make this a little clearer look at this example link genes that are close
together usually get inherited together so B and C very close together unlikely that they'll be separated by crossing
over but genes that are further apart Like A and E most likely will be separated by crossing over as a result
of this you can look at the amount of recombination that happens in various Crossing experiments and you can use
those recombination frequencies to generate chromosome Maps like this one which show show the distance in terms of
recombination between two alals that are on the same chromosome here are some additional genetic topics there's
non-nuclear inheritance which are genes that are on mitochondria not on one of the chromosomes in the nucleus there's
incomplete dominance where there's a blending effect between the two alals and there's genotype environment
interaction where it's the environment that determines the phenotype much more than the genes you should know how to do
kai Square to analyze the results of genetic crosses I totally recommend that you set up tables like this one and you
can see a tutorial about that on learn biology.com your success in AP biology starts here are you struggling with AP
Bio with learn biology.com students get the skills and confidence to be a top student and earn fours and fives on the
AP Bio exam guaranteed go to learn biology.com to find out how you can master your biology course and crush the
AP Bio [Music] exam AP Bio unit 6 gene expression we
handled most of the first Topic in this unit DNA and RNA structure back in unit 1 now we're in topic 6.2 DNA replication
the main thing to know is that DNA replication is semiconservative the original strand
separates and each strand serves as a template for synthesis of a new strand the result is that the daughter strands
are half new and half old hence semiconserved DNA replication is carried out by a team of enzymes the ones that
you should know include helicase DNA polymerase primase ligase and others because DNA polymerase the main enzyme
involved in DNA replication can only synthesize in the five Prime to three prime Direction replication occurs
differently on the two strands it's continuous on What's called the leading Strand and it's fragmentary on the
lagging strand composed of short segments that are called okazaki fragments that are later sealed together
topic 6.3 is transcription which is the making of RNA from a DNA template you should be able to take any sequence of
RNA and translate it into amino acids using a genetic code dictionary and you should be able to explain the details of
protein synthesis itself these are all fantastic processes topic 6.5 to 6.6 Gene regulation operons are important
Gene regulation systems in procaryotes ukar don't use operons a key principle in multicellular ukar like you and me is
that all cells in the same organism are genomically equivalent this neuron this epithelial cell they're quite different
phenotypically but they have the same genes they're different different because they express different genes
acetalation and methylation are two of the many mechanisms that ukar use to control gene expression acetalation
turns genes on methylation turns genes off that leads to the entire field of epigenetics changes in DNA expression
that involve reversible chemical modifications in DNA or changes in DNA packaging but not changes in the DNA
sequence a key difference between ukar and procaryotes is that eukariotic genes are interspersed with introns which
makes phenotypic variation possible because of alternative splicing of exons exons are expressed sequences they wind
up being translated into proteins introns are intervening sequences that get edited out topic 6.7 mutation we'll
start with point mutations which are changes where one nucleotide changes to another they can have a VAR iety effects
ranging from nothing because there's redundancy in the genetic code to nonsense where stop codon gets inserted
to missense where we change the amino acid frame shift mutations are another kind of point mutation but instead of a
substitution frame shift mutations change the reading frame so they have more extensive effects imagine you have
a sentence and you just delete one of the letters you make the rest of the sentence nonsense that's what frame
shift mutations do mutations can be positive which makes them adaptive they can be negative or harmful or they can
be neutral having no effect whatsoever it completely depends on the context and mutations are the source of the
variation that makes evolution possible horizontal Gene transfer also changes genomes but by a different mechanism
than mutation it's where one individual transmits genes to another organism of the same generation it's as if you touch
someone and we're able to transfer genes to them kind of weird it includes conjugation in bacteria transformation
transduction which involves viruses and viral recombination unit 6 ends with topic 6.8 genetic engineering and
biotechnology here are some of the techniques that you should be familiar with those are PCR used for amplifying
DNA restriction enzymes and gel electroforesis for analyzing DNA recombinant DNA and engineering plasmids
which enables us to do amazing things like put human genes into bacteria so they can produce Gene products like
insulin and finally DNA sequencing which is giving us huge amounts of information that's being used in medical research
evolutionary biology every biological field are you asking yourself how am I going to get a four or a five on the AP
Bio exam it's a good question because it's a hard test but we have a plan for your success go to learn biology.com and
complete our interactive tutorials and interactive AP Bio exam reviews we guarantee you a four or five on the AP
Bio exam see you on learn biology.com unit 7 Evolution got to say the college board's name for this is natural
selection and that's a bad name because much of evolutionary change is not about natural selection write the College
Board demand a change this unit begins with the material that was figured out by Charles Darwin that includes natural
selection which brings about adaptations through survival of the fittest artificial selection in which humans
select favored traits in our domesticated animals and plants and sexual selection which is selection for
Reproductive Advantage the effects of selection can include directional selection where the population's mean is
pushed in One Direction stabilizing selection against the extremes and disruptive selection which is against
the mean topic 7 .4 to 7.5 population genetics this is the study of how alal frequencies change in gene pools that's
the lens in which population genetics looks at Evolution I want to start by eliminating the biggest misconception
that students have in AP biology courses and that is the wrong idea that the dominant Al has to be more common than
the recessive Al somehow people confuse dominance with frequency but that is not true true the frequency of an alil is
based on the advantage or harm it confers to its Associated phenotype or random historical factors dominant alals
are not necessarily common and they don't grow in frequency over time an example for that is the alal that causes
acondroplasia is a dominant alal and it's exceedingly rare population genetics is one of the most mathematical
parts of the course it's based in two equations developed by by Hardy and Weinberg the first is p + Q = 1 and the
second is p ^2 + 2 PQ + Q ^2 = one and there's an Associated Hardy Weinberg principle in this system P represents
the frequency of the dominant Al Q represents the frequency of the recessive alil you can set this all up
at a cross multiplication table that looks like this and when you do population genetics analysis the thing
to do is to figure out the frequency of recessives in the population once you do that if for example it's 0 49 then you
know that if this is q^2 then Q is the square root of that so this is 049 this is 7 that enables you to figure out the
frequency of the dominant Al and everything else according to the Hardy Weinberg principle the frequency of Al
and Gene pools will stay constant unless one or more of the following conditions is not met this is a fictional not
non-evolving population its characteristics are that it's infinitely large it has no harmful
or beneficial alals there's random mating there's no immigration or immigration there's no net mutation of
one Al to another this enables us to identify the factors that cause evolution these are genetic drift random
change in small populations that's caused by things like population bottlenecks or the founder effect
natural selection some alals are harmful some alals are beneficial sexual selection some phenotypes are more
attractive than others gene flow where genes move from one population to another or directional mutation where
one Al mutates into another these are all the factors that cause evolution there's a mountain of evidence that
establishes that evolution is true this is why it's a theory not merely a hypothesis that evidence includes fossil
homologous features which are derived from a common ancestor vestigial features which no longer have a function
molecular homologies similarities in amino acid sequences DNA sequences or Evolution that we continue to observe
such as resistance to pesticides and mosquitoes antibiotics in bacteria and so on these are all evidence that
descent with modification has occurred and is occurring philogyny is evolutionary
history but as an AP Bio student you mostly have to Grapple with it in terms of these wonderful branching diagrams
that show evolution in process the key Concepts include the concept of a clay a group of organisms that is derive from a
common ancestor other Concepts include nodes shared derived features very important ancestral features outgroups
and molecular clocks topics 7.10 to 7.12 speciation variation and Extinction we begin with the biological
species concept the idea that a species is a group of organisms that can naturally interbreed to produce fertile
offspring a malard and a pin tail are both Ducks but they're different species because they don't interbreed why not
because of reproductive isolating mechanisms those can be prezygotic barriers that keep a zygote from forming
for example the markings on this male malard might make him attractive to the female pintail which would make her
uninterested in mating with him that's a behavioral barrier there are also post zygotic barriers where if some confusion
arose and these two did mate then the zygote might not be able to develop or if it did develop it wouldn't be fertile
there are two kinds of speciation to know about there's alop Patrick speciation which involves a kind of
geographic barrier here that's represented as a kind of Mountain but it could just as easily be a river or a
canyon where there's differentiation on each side of the barrier and ultimately the two sub populations become so
different they can no longer interbreed sympatric speciation happens without a barrier there's a variety of mechanisms
that can lead to it one to know about is chromosomal changes that happen particularly in Plants where there's a
doubling of chromosomes caused by an error in meiosis and that leads to single generation speciation mass
extinctions are events usually caused by geological or even astronomical factors that cause a mass die off of huge
numbers of species all at one time five have been identified within earth history this one over here 65 million
years ago or so is the one that killed off the dinosaurs caused by an impact of an asteroid a key thing to know is that
these mass extinctions cause vast decreases in bi diversity look at all this diversity here in this phenetic
tree and then it's cut down to just two claves that make it through but then their subsequent adaptive radiation and
reestablishment of biodiversity topic 7.13 is the origin of Life the key question is how did life naturally
emerge in the absence of life after the Earth became habitable geological processes chemical processes led to the
abiotic synthesis of monomers things like amino acids and monosaccharides and nucleotides there must have been some
process that led those monomers to then be formed into polymers RNA nucleic acids proteins so on and so forth that
has to happen in the absence of life and that's complicated because that process happens through enzymes now how does it
happen without enzymes some kind of geological process at a hydrothermal event something like that eventually
these polymers become encapsulated within a membrane that forms a kind of Proto cell and eventually that protocell
becomes something that can reproduce itself and we have the last Universal ancestor of all life last Universal
common ancestor Luca and that gives rise to the three domains of life the Miller Yuri experiment performed in the 1950s
is the prototype for successful abiotic synthesis of amino acids in AIM ulated early Earth environment this apparatus
resulted in the production of amino acids this has become the model for many subsequent experiments that have
produced other monomers more complex substances but these experiments are still a long way from generating life in
a test tube a key concept to know about related to the origin of life is the RNA world and Luca and the idea is that RNA
was probably the first genetic molecule why because Unlike DNA which is purely informational our RNA is also catalytic
it can also act as an enzyme and catalyze reactions so the scenario is something like this there are the
inorganic precursors carbon dioxide methane other molecules that combine to form RNA monomers those become combined
to form RNA polymers which wind up folding into complex shapes that have catalytic ability eventually you have
self-replication of rnas and those rnas that are self-replicating become encap olated in proto cells eventually we have
the last Universal common ancestor and if you can go through this diagram and identify all the numbers then you're
doing pretty well on your March to AP Bio success I'm Mr W from learn Das biology.com where we believe that
interaction and feedback is what leads to deep substantial learning we're so sure of that that we provide a money
back guarantee that comes with your subscription AP Bio unit ecology topic 8.1 responses to the
environment unlike every other topic in the AP Bio curriculum this one is very hard to give you guidance about because
the college board's description of this topic is extremely vague I've taught this topic through case studies really
fascinating stuff that involves great data sets these are available on learn Das biology.com you can learn about
explaining monogamy and promiscuity and Bs how ants are able to find find their way back to their nest after foraging by
counting their steps how Turtles can migrate back to the nest where they were born through detection of magnetic
fields why animals form schools and flocks and how honeybees communicate my main advice to you is that learn how to
be analytical carefully read the question and do your best topic 8.2 is about energy flow in individual
organisms and entire ecosystem systems the topics covered include metabolic rate and size and the relationship
between the two why animals like shrews have such a higher metabolic rate than large animals like elephants the flow of
energy through food webs including the concept of a trophic or a feeding level the idea of the pyramid of energy and
how only 10% of the energy gets passed from trophic level to trophic level for example from producers to primary
consumers and then other ecological pyramids not limited to but including the Pyramid of
numbers topics 8.3 and 8.4 are about population growth that includes the exponential growth model and the
logistic model which includes the idea of carrying capacity some key concepts are biotic potential how fast a
population is capable of growing and limiting factors things that keep a population at or below its carrying
capacity it and those can be density dependent or density independent topic 8.5 is species interactions you should
know all of the interactions that are in this chart you should know their definition and you should know what the
effect is on the two interacting species whether it's positive negative or neutral that's usually represented with
a minus sign a zero or a plus sign many of these interactions lead to important evolutionary consequences for example
comp competition leads to character displacement and Niche partitioning a niche is the way an organism makes a
living so like for example if you look at Shorebirds different kinds of shore birds evolve different beaks to exploit
different parts of the Sandy Beach environment on the other hand interactions such as predation or bivy
parasitism and parasitoidism result in evolutionary arms races that lead to wondrous and amazing adaptations on the
parts of each of the interacting species community structure is also strongly influenced by certain species that act
as Key Stone species these are often predators that control herbivores and by doing so they increase the overall
biodiversity of the ecosystem ecology also includes understanding and measuring biodiversity
biodiversity includes both species richness the number of species and species evenness how evenly species are
spread out you have to be able to use the Simpsons diversity index the formula will be given to you in the AP Bio
formula sheet finally human impacts on diversity they have not been good humans have been decreasing biodiversity
through destruction of habitat through habitat fragmentation when one big habitat gets cut up into smaller pieces
it simply can support the same spread of species many of which particularly large Predators need huge amounts of area in
order to have the available Niche that they need introduction of invasive species has been a huge problem that's
been intentional and unintentional we've participated in destructive exploitation of resources by logging too much over
fishing and clear cutting Forest this is creating an Extinction Vortex where populations are getting smaller that
leads to genetic drift and inbreeding these species lose genetic diversity they become less fit there's less
reproduction more mortality and that leads to a smaller population a key idea of this course is that variation is good
and many human activities wind up reducing variation here are your next moves for AP bios sucess please
subscribe to learn biology.com and please watch this next video
For comprehensive coverage, consult additional guides like the 'Comprehensive Guide to Cells, Tissues, and Biological Systems for Exams.' Utilize online resources such as the detailed Unit 2 review on cell structure and function available via provided links, and interactive platforms offering quizzes and FRQ practice to reinforce your learning and application skills.
The stoplight method involves marking study topics with colors based on your familiarity: red for unknown, yellow for partial knowledge, and green for well-known. Begin by assessing each topic and then prioritize studying red areas first, followed by yellow, to efficiently use your time and reinforce weak points before the exam.
Focus on cellular structure distinctions between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, organelle functions, membrane transport mechanisms such as osmosis and water potential, cellular energetics including glycolysis, Krebs cycle, photosynthesis, and respiration, as well as cell communication and cell cycle regulation. Understanding these foundational processes helps you tackle multiple exam questions effectively.
Master meiosis stages and sources of genetic variation like independent assortment and crossing over. Study Mendelian genetics traits, sex-linked and linked genes, and population genetics concepts such as the Hardy-Weinberg principle. These topics form the basis for inheritance patterns and evolutionary biology questions.
Use checklists with highlighters to mark your knowledge level for each topic and prioritize accordingly. Engage with interactive tools such as videos, quizzes, and free-response question practice at platforms like LearnBiology.com. Additionally, focus on understanding key diagrams and biological processes to prepare for application-based exam questions.
Break down gene expression into DNA replication, transcription, translation, and gene regulation in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and study mutations and biotechnology tools for practical understanding. For evolution, focus on natural selection types, population genetics, evidence like molecular homologies, speciation, and mass extinctions. Connecting these concepts through examples improves comprehension and exam readiness.
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