The three stages of cell signaling?
Answer: Reception, Transduction, Response
An enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from ATP to a protein (turning it "on")?
Answer: Protein Kinase
Mechanism that amplifies a response to move further away from the set point?
Answer: Positive Feedback
AP Biology · Unit 4 of 8
AP Biology Unit 4: Cell Communication and Cell Cycle
2 ready-made review sets for this unit, 33 questions in all, to play as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.
A question from the sets
The three stages of cell signaling?
- Signal Transduction Pathway
- S Phase (Synthesis)
- Autocrine Signaling
- Reception, Transduction, ResponseRight answer
What Unit 4 covers
Unit 4 is how cells talk to each other and how they divide. Cells signal by direct contact, to nearby cells, or over long distances with hormones; a signal is received, relayed inside the cell by second messengers and phosphorylation cascades, and turned into a response. The unit then covers negative and positive feedback, the cell cycle and its checkpoints, the cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases that drive it, apoptosis, and how losing that control can lead to cancer.
Where students slip
- Most signal molecules do not enter the cell: they bind a receptor on the surface and the message is relayed inside. Steroid hormones, which cross the membrane and bind receptors inside the cell, are the best-known exception.
- Positive feedback isn't "good" feedback. It pushes a variable further from its set point, as in childbirth or fruit ripening.
- DNA is copied in S phase, before mitosis begins. From then until anaphase, each chromosome is two sister chromatids.
- A kinase adds a phosphate group; a phosphatase removes it.
The sets
Play this set opens the set in splycr, where you can read every question and host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account, and students join with the code on the board. A free account lets you copy a set and edit it.
The questions come from the Biology by Bradford flashcard bank, written by an IB and AP Biology teacher. Each one plays as multiple choice, and the wrong options are other answers from the same set.
Phase where sister chromatids are pulled apart to opposite poles?
Answer: Anaphase
Enzyme that is active only when attached to a cyclin?
Answer: CDK (Cyclin-Dependent Kinase)
The cell enters this non-dividing "resting" state if it fails the G1 checkpoint?
Answer: G0 Phase
Game modes that suit this unit
Every set plays in all eight modes. These two fit this unit best.
Splycr
The phases of mitosis and the steps of signal transduction come in order, and students who half-know them slip somewhere in the middle. A streak raises the multiplier to 3× and one slip drops it to 1×, so knowing the whole sequence pays.
Throne
One student holds the throne and the class answers to take it, and a wrong answer from the champion costs double. It makes a good end to the unit, with a volunteer who thinks they know the cell cycle.