Question

Question 1: The alien species has decided that they will use a special ray gun to destroy all of a specific type of organelles from all of the cells of your outer ears. Choose which of the following you would miss the least and discuss exactly what the results would be on a cellular level (hint- think of the functions of that organelle). List any treatments that you would try to counteract the loss of that organelle. Choose one of the following organelles to be removed in all of the cells of your outer ears: nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria, vacuoles, golgi, ER, or lysosomes

Question 2: The alien species has decided that they want use a ray gun on you that will duplicate or remove one of the 23 types of chromosomes in all of your body cells. You get to choose which chromosome is affected (choose the the one that would impact your life the least). If your last name begins with A-G Choose a chromosome that you will lose (you will lose one copies so now you will have a total of 45 chromosomes).

Question 3: The aliens have decided to remove one chemical element from the entire earth (one of the elements from the periodic table). 6 points: List and describe which 3 elements would impact life on earth the most if removed and exactly why each of these elements are important to life. 4 points: List and describe which two elements would impact life the least and describe why you wouldn't mind them being permanently removed from earth forever

Answer 1

Please find the answers below:

Answer 1: ER: (Endoplasmic reticulum is the organelle which is essentially required for synthesis of proteins and lipids in the cells. Since the external ear represents the organ which is actively engaged in collection of the sound waves to be traversed in the middle and inner ear, it is least involved in active protein synthesis, hence their eradication from the external ear would not pose a problem.

Answer 2: Most of the developmental and pathological genes in association with the ears are located on chromosome 18. Hence, deletion of any chromosome from autosomes except chromosome 18, including sex-chromosomes would not pose a problem.

Answer 3: Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen: The elements represent the most-essential elements among others such as phosphorus, sulphur, calcium etc which help in sustaining life on earth. These elements are the vital and most essential parts of all the biomolecules found in the organisms and hence existence on life would be impossible in the absence of any of these vital elements.