Read the article and watch the short video at the link below, and then answer the following questions.

LINK: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/spider-genes-put-new-spin-arachnids-potent-venoms-stunning-silks-and-surprising-history

Question 1. Why do researchers think the web-building abilities of many spiders may have evolved more than once? (2 points)

Question 2. What are the three main groups (suborders) of spiders? What makes each one distinct?

Question 3. Are all three main groups found in New England? Use iNaturalist to identify one spider (genus and species) from each of the main groups that are found in New England. Note that not all groups may occur in New England!

Question 4. What did spider biologists (arachnologists) use to classify different types of spiders prior to the now widespread use of DNA?

Question 5. What is so unique about Stegodyphus mimosarum?

Question 6. Why have spider genomes been difficult to sequence?

Question 7 . Provide a hypothesis for why black widow possess toxins that attack vertebrate nerve cells, but related house spiders do not.

CREATE a phylogenetic tree (evolutionary) with Diarthrognathus, Triconodonts, Docodonts, Multituberculates, Symmetrodonts, Pantotheres, Monotremes, Marsupials, and Placentals.

Why do you think that our bodies have different densities of receptors in different areas? How does this help humans survive/interact with their environment?

What do the data suggest might be good environmental conditions for tuberculosis patients?

10. Consider Cell B, which is a normal neuron (i.e. one with standard extra- and intracellular concentrations of most ion species). a) Plot membrane potential vs time for the postsynaptic response of Cell B in response to an inhibitory neurotransmitter being released onto it by another cell, Cell A. Label and number axes. b) Explain how this could result by the neurotransmitter affecting EITHER an anion channel or a cation channel on Cell B. c) What would be the change of the postsynaptic potential of Cell B if you were to instantly depolarize the presynaptic cell (cell A) from resting potential to a membrane potential value exactly equal to E_Ca++? (the Nernst potential for calcium)

Pink is the phenotype from the expression of a heterozygous genotype in flowers that exhibit incomplete dominance. Red and white flowers result from the two homozygous genotypes.

10. What would be the probability of getting pink flowered plants from a cross between two pink flowered plants?

11. Is there any chance of red or white flowers from a cross of two pink flowered plants? Explain your answer.

12. Explain how recombination during meiosis contributes to genetic diversity in offspring.

13. Why are females often carriers of X-linked recessive traits, but do not show the trait as often as males?

14. Why would cancer be considered a disease that is multifactorial?

Describe how positive and negative controls regulate the cell cycle. Your response should include a definition of positive and negative control, and an example of each

Explain the different steps leading a 7 pass transmembrane receptor protein being exposed on the plasma membrane. You will start as the mRNA encoding for this protein was just exported outside of the nucleus.

explain what X inactivation is in Calico cats and how it could affect gene expression in a multicellular organism.

We respect Dr. Trudeau and all those earlier scientists who did the best they could within the contemporary understanding of the problem they addressed and utilizing the materials and technology they had at hand. Modern-day biologists like to talk about resistance/susceptibility genes and patterns of inheritance, rather than family blood. They think about infectious disease in terms of microbes and pathogenicity, rather than speaking of bad humors. They have identified vitamins and other nutrients that are abundant in some foodstuffs and lacking in other that are essential for optimal immune function. Without the benefit of such modern formulations, Dr. Trudeau, by a disciplined application of scientific curiosity and careful, clever methodology, shed light on each of these concerns, light that helped to illuminate the minds of scientists who came after. Still, a look at his original paper leaves us wondering, were the rabbits genetically identical? Probably not! Why? Were they all of the same sex and age? Couldn’t he have given the animals kept on short rations just a smaller amount of the same varieties of food available to the animals fed abundantly—after all, there might be some important nutrient missing in potatoes. In light of the title of the paper, why not measure bacterial numbers in the rabbits on post mortem rather than just survival time? (In a subsequent paper, he did exactly that.) Once you start critiquing an experiment from 100 years ago, or 10 years ago, or sometimes even last year, it’s hard to stop. Can you think of anything else you would have changed about the Rabbit Island Experiment?

Explain what epigenetics is. Give examples of specific molecular mechanisms at play

Briefly summarize the central dogma and indicate where gene expression can be controlled along the way.