Enzyme that lays down an RNA primer to give DNA Polymerase a starting point?
Answer: Primase
Enzyme that acts as "glue" to join Okazaki fragments on the lagging strand?
Answer: Ligase
Concept that each new DNA molecule consists of one old strand and one new strand?
Answer: Semiconservative Replication
AP Biology · Unit 6 of 8
AP Biology Unit 6: Gene Expression and Regulation
3 ready-made review sets for this unit, 42 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
Enzyme that lays down an RNA primer to give DNA Polymerase a starting point?
- PrimaseRight answer
- Introns
- Translation
- Ligase
What Unit 6 covers
Unit 6 follows genetic information from DNA to protein. It covers the structure of DNA and RNA, replication and the enzymes that carry it out, transcription and RNA processing (the 5′ cap, the poly-A tail and splicing), and translation at the ribosome. Then regulation: operons in bacteria, transcription factors and epigenetic changes in eukaryotes, and how cells with the same DNA come to differ. It ends with mutations and with biotechnology such as PCR and gel electrophoresis.
Where students slip
- Replication, transcription and translation blur together. Replication makes DNA from a DNA template, transcription makes RNA from a DNA template, and translation makes a polypeptide from mRNA at a ribosome.
- Nucleic acids are built 5′ to 3′, so RNA polymerase reads the template strand 3′ to 5′.
- The codon table is read with mRNA codons, not the DNA template or the tRNA anticodon.
- The lac operon is inducible (usually off, switched on); the trp operon is repressible (usually on, switched off).
- Almost every cell in a body carries the same genes. Cells specialize by expressing different ones.
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.
The three modifications made to eukaryotic mRNA before it leaves the nucleus?
Answer: 5' Cap, Poly-A Tail, and Splicing
An operon that is usually OFF but can be turned ON (e.g., lac operon)?
Answer: Inducible Operon
Modifications to histones or DNA (like methylation) that affect gene expression without changing the DNA sequence?
Answer: Epigenetics
The three-base sequence on tRNA that matches the mRNA codon?
Answer: Anticodon
Process where different exons are joined, allowing one gene to code for multiple proteins?
Answer: Alternative Splicing
Which mutation creates an early stop codon?
Answer: Nonsense Mutation
Game modes that suit this unit
Every set plays in all eight modes. These two fit this unit best.
Boss Battle
Unit 6 is precise vocabulary: primase or ligase, missense or nonsense, inducible or repressible. A wrong answer heals the boss, so the class has a reason to get the name exactly right.
Racer in teams
Replication, transcription and translation are easy to blur. In team Racer only one teammate sees the right option, so students have to say out loud which process the question is about.