Molecular
Biology Question Bank
Course Introduction
Molecular Biology is an exploration of the molecular mechanisms underlying the processes of life, focusing on the structure, function, and regulation of biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. The course covers essential topics including gene expression, DNA replication and repair, transcription, translation, and the molecular basis of genetic regulation. Through lectures, laboratory experiments, and discussions, students gain insight into cutting-edge molecular techniques and how these approaches are applied in fields like medicine, biotechnology, and genomics.
Recommended Textbook
Biochemistry 8th Edition by Mary K. Campbell
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Biochemistry and the Organization of Cells
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following functional groups is specific to an alcohol?
A) -NH
B) -OH
C) -C=O
D) C=C
E) O-P
Answer: B
Q2) The main difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells is the existence of _____ in eukaryotes.
A) the nucleus
B) ribosomes
C) DNA
D) RNA
E) cell walls
Answer: A
Q3) amino acid
A)nucleic acids
B)proteins
C)carbohydrate
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Water: the Solvent for Biochemical Reactions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ion product constant for water (K<sub>w</sub>) is equal to:
A) 10<sup>14</sup>
B) 10<sup>7</sup>
C) 10<sup>0</sup>
D) 10 <sup>7</sup>
E) 10 <sup>14</sup>
Answer: E
Q2) The inflection point of the titration curve for a weak monoprotic acid is equal to its pK<sub>a</sub>
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The substance most likely to form a micelle is
A) acetic acid
B) sodium palmitate
C) methyl alcohol
D) acetone
Answer: B
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4
Chapter 3: Amino Acids and Peptides
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is the most similar between oxytocin and vasopressin?
A) their biological function
B) their amino acid sequences
C) their isoelectric point
D) their overall structure
Answer: D
Q2) At its isolectric pH, glycine will have
A) both of its ionizable functional groups dissociated.
B) neither of its ionizable functional groups dissociated.
C) only its carboxyl group dissociated.
D) only its amino group dissociated.
Answer: A
Q3) Which of the following is an amino acid not found in proteins?
A) asparagine
B) ornithine
C) isoleucine
D) proline
Answer: B
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5
Chapter 4: The Three-Dimensional Structure of Proteins
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Sample Questions
Q1) Adult hemoglobin is half saturated with oxygen at what partial pressure of oxygen?
A) 5 torr
B) 10 torr
C) 25 torr
D) 50 torr
E) 100 torr
Q2) The structure of myoglobin consists
A) almost entirely of -helices.
B) almost entirely of -sheets.
C) of a mixture of -helices and -sheets.
D) of a unique secondary motif that is neither -helix nor -sheet.
Q3) Which of the following best describes the structure of collagen?
A) It is composed of a single -helix.
B) It is a double helix.
C) It is a triple helix
D) It is composed primarily of -sheet.
Q4) A single amino substitution can give rise to a malfunctioning protein.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Protein Purification and Characterization Techniques
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Sample Questions
Q1) The isoelectric point is
A) the pH at which a substance has no net charge
B) the pH at which a substance has a net positive charge
C) the pH at which a substance has a net negative charge
D) the pH at which a substance has no charge groups of any kind
Q2) If a protein with the sequence PQRKYPIG is treated with trypsin, what will the products be?
A) PQR KYPIG
B) PQRK YPIG
C) PQR K YPIG
D) PQ R KPIG0
Q3) In electrophoresis experiments
A) the separation must be carried out in bright light
B) the polarity of substances to be separated is more important than their charge or size
C) the sample can be badly degraded as a result of the separation
D) an electric field must be applied to the mixture to be separated
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Chapter 6: The Behavior of Proteins: Enzymes
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Sample Questions
Q1) The active site of an enzyme
A) is frequently located in a cleft in the enzyme.
B) is the portion of the enzyme to which the substrate binds.
C) contains the reactive groups that catalyze the reaction.
D) all of these are correct
Q2) The amount of energy released during a reaction tells nothing about the rate at which that reaction will occur.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What effect does a catalyst have on the G° of a reaction?
A) A catalyst lowers the G°.
B) A catalyst raises the G°.
C) A catalyst has no effect on the G°.
D) It depend on the specific catalyst.
Q4) When the substrate concentration is low, an enzyme reaction
A) will display zero-order kinetics.
B) will display first-order kinetics.
C) will display second-order kinetics.
D) will denature and cease to function.
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Chapter 7: The Behavior of Proteins: Enzymes, Mechanisms, and Control
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Sample Questions
Q1) Refer to Exhibit 7A. Which two enzymes would be the most likely ones to regulate if this pathway is freely reversible and can go both ways?
A) 1 and 2
B) 1 and 3
C) 1 and 5
D) 2 and 4
E) 4 and 5
Q2) An important step in elucidating the behavior of an enzyme is
A) obtaining a crystalline sample of the enzyme.
B) insuring that metal ions are always excluded from the enzyme sample.
C) determining the active site residues.
D) none of these
Q3) The binding of aspartate to different subunits of ATCase is an example of A) enzyme inhibition
B) a heterotropic effect
C) a homotropic effect
D) negative cooperativity
E) none of these
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Chapter 8: Lipids and Proteins Are Associated in Biological Membranes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not a function or characteristic of membrane proteins?
A) Transport
B) Catalytic activity
C) Blood clotting
D) Receptor sites
Q2) What kinds of bonds do lipase break in order to release fatty acids from triacylglycerols?
A) esters
B) carbon-carbon single bonds
C) carbon-carbon double bonds
D) There are no fatty acids in triacylglycerols to release.
Q3) Which of the following alcohols is never found in phosphatides?
A) Ethanolamine
B) Serine
C) Inositol
D) Sugars
E) All of these can be components of phosphatides.
Q4) Glycolipids on the surface of cells are especially important as cell markers.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Nucleic Acids: How Structure Conveys Information
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Sample Questions
Q1) RNA is hydrolyzed in basic solution, but DNA is not. This occurs because
A) thymine is found in DNA, and uracil is not
B) DNA is double stranded, and RNA is single stranded
C) DNA contains 2'-deoxyribose, but RNA does not
D) RNA has modified bases, but DNA does not
Q2) Protein synthesis can occur while the mRNA molecule is being synthesized in:
A) Prokaryotes only.
B) Eukaryotes only.
C) Unicellular organisms only.
D) Multicellular organisms only.
E) Plants but not animals
Q3) In DNA structure, hydrophobic bonding via pi-clouds is referred to as A) base stacking.
B) propeller twist.
C) hyperchromicity.
D) supercoiling.
E) denaturation
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Biosynthesis of Nucleic Acids: Replication
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is thymine used in DNA rather than uracil?
A) Thymine is more hydrophobic, so it stacks better in the helix.
B) If cytosine is deaminated, it forms uracil, which can be easily distinguished from thymine.
C) Thymine is not capable of wobbling, so it pairs more accurately than uracil.
D) All of these are correct.
Q2) Telomerase activity in cancer cells may explain their longevity.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The universal features of DNA replication include all the following, except:
A) Release of PP<sub>i</sub> from a nucleoside triphosphate.
B) Synthesis from the 5' end to the 3' end.
C) Base pairing of A to T and G to C.
D) Use of a primer.
E) All of these describe DNA synthesis.
Q4) The duplication process of DNA is called
A) replication.
B) transcription.
C) translation.
D) nucleation.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Transcription of the Genetic Code: Biosynthesis of RNA
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which is not associated with bacterial promoters?
A) the transcription start site
B) the Pribnow box
C) the 35 element
D) 3' antiterminator
Q2) All of the following apply to attenuation mechanisms, except:
A) They are used most often for operons for amino acid synthesis.
B) They involve the synthesis of proteins in the regulation of RNA synthesis.
C) The rate of RNA synthesis is regulated by the conformation of the protein being synthesized.
D) They require the presence of partially completed mRNA molecules.
E) All of these apply to attenuation mechanisms.
Q3) RNA transcribed from the coding strand instead of the template strand
A) is called antisense RNA.
B) produces histones.
C) is tRNA.
D) never occurs.
Q4) Inducers allow for a system in which an enzyme is not made unless it is needed.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Protein Synthesis: Translation of the Genetic Message
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Sample Questions
Q1) Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases are involved in which step of translation?
A) activation
B) initiation
C) elongation
D) termination
E) none of these
Q2) What type of assay using tRNAs and ribosomes enabled complete determination of the genetic code?
A) filter binding assays
B) high performance chromatography
C) electrophoresis
D) density gradient centrifugation
Q3) Which amino acids have unique codons?
A) met, gly
B) trp, met
C) tyr, met
D) stop, his
Q4) Under certain conditions, tRNAs can bind to the standard stop codons.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Nucleic Acid Biotechnology Techniques
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Sample Questions
Q1) Fluorescent techniques can detect concentrations as low as
A) molar (10<sup>1</sup> M).
B) micromolar (10 <sup>6</sup> M).
C) picomolar (10 <sup>12</sup> M).
D) attamolar (10 <sup>18</sup> M).
Q2) Refer to Exhibit 13A. If the region between the 2 sites for HgiEII were deleted, the resulting plasmid
A) would be useless as it would lack an origin of replication.
B) would work well for cloning.
C) would be about 2.6 kb in length.
D) would confer resistance to ampicillin but not tetracycline.
Q3) Which of the following proteins has been successfully produced through genetic recombination?
A) insulin
B) human growth hormone
C) tissue plasminogen activator
D) erythropoietin
E) All of the above proteins have been produced successfully.
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Chapter 14: Viruses, Cancer, and Immunology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Long terminal repeats (LTRs) are involved in which part of the retroviral lifecycle?
A) incorporating the viral genome into the host genome
B) replicating the viral DNA
C) creating the nucleocapsid
D) production of spike proteins
E) none of these
Q2) Which of the following is not related to ex vivo gene therapy?
A) gag genes
B) pol genes
C) MMLV
D) adenovirus
E) expression cassettes
Q3) Clonal selection is the ability of the immune system to control the proliferation of antigen-specific cells, since it has a mechanism to recognize which cells interact with that antigen.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: The Importance of Energy Changes and Electron
Transfer in Metabolism
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Sample Questions
Q1) The production of larger molecules from smaller ones is called A) metabolism.
B) catabolism.
C) anabolism.
D) none of these
Q2) Which of the following is not a mechanism used to activate substrates for further metabolism?
A) Addition of a phosphate group.
B) Combination with a vitamin, such as coenzyme A.
C) Hydrolyzing a polymer into its component monomers.
D) Addition of a phosphate group or combining with a vitamin.
E) All of these processes activate substrates.
Q3) Biochemists use a modified value for standard G values because
A) all reagents are not at a 1 molar concentration.
B) the pH in living systems is seldom, if ever, near 0.
C) the concentration of water is not at 1 molar concentration.
D) the reagents are not one molar and the pH = 7.
E) All of these justify why biochemists use a special G value.
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Chapter 16: Carbohydrates
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Sample Questions
Q1) Chitin, which forms the exoskeletons of insects, is composed of
A) (1 4) linked N-acetylglucosamine residues
B) (1 4) linked N-acetylglucosamine residues
C) (1 4) linked glucose residues
D) (1 4) linked glucose residues
Q2) Sucrose is composed of the following simple sugars:
A) galactose only
B) glucose only
C) fructose only
D) galactose and glucose
E) glucose and fructose
F) galactose and fructose
Q3) Deoxyribose is best described as a(n):
A) oxidized form of ribose
B) reduced pyranose
C) polyhydroxyl alcohol
D) glycoside
E) reduced form of a pentose
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18
Chapter 17: Glycolysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the conversion of glucose to pyruvate, how many of the actual steps involve electron transfer?
A) none
B) 1
C) 2
D) 3
E) 4
Q2) Which of the following is not true?
A) Every reaction in a metabolic pathway must have a negative G, or the pathway cannot run.
B) the reaction with the largest negative ÄG is the hexokinase reaction
C) the overall pathway of glycolysis has a negative ÄG
D) all of these are true
Q3) The reduction of pyruvate to lactate
A) allows for recycling of NAD<sup>+</sup>.
B) is the process that aids in the recovery of sore muscles after exercise.
C) is accompanied by phosphorylation of ADP.
D) does not occur in aerobic organisms.
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19
Chapter 18: Storage Mechanisms and Control in Carbohydrate Metabolism
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Sample Questions
Q1) The compound uridine diphosphate glucose (UDPG) plays a role in
A) glycogen breakdown.
B) glycogen synthesis.
C) glycolysis.
D) gluconeogenesis.
E) none of these
Q2) The regulatory enzymes in gluconeogenesis are
A) hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, and pyruvate kinase
B) glucose-6-kinase, aldolase, and enolase
C) glucose-6-phosphatase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, pyruvate carboxylase, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase
D) pyruvate carboxylase, aldolase, and phosphofructokinase
Q3) Properly used, glycogen loading by athletes is a safe process.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What kind of enzyme catalyzes the following reaction ribose-5-P ribulose-5-P
A) transketolase
B) epimerase
C) transaldolase
D) isomerase
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Chapter 19: The Citric Acid Cycle
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Sample Questions
Q1) The reaction in which malate is oxidized to oxaloacetate is not thermodynamically favored. It takes place because
A) it is coupled to ATP hydrolysis.
B) it involves substrate-level phosphorylation.
C) the product is continuously used up in the next reaction of the cycle, which is thermodynamically favored.
D) it is coupled to a strong reduction.
Q2) All but one of the enzymes of the citric acid cycle are found in this part of the mitochondrion:
A) The outer membrane.
B) The inner membrane.
C) The mitochondrial matrix.
D) The intermembrane space.
E) It is not known where these enzymes are located.
Q3) The only difference between succinate and fumarate is the geometry around their double bonds, one contains a cis double bond and the other contains a trans double bond.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 20: Electron Transport and Oxidative
Phosphorylation
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Sample Questions
Q1) If a cyclist started a race and rode at a near maximum speed, which of the following fuel sources would be used up first?
A) fat in the muscle cells
B) muscle glycogen
C) liver glycogen
D) muscle creatine-phosphate
E) all of these would be exhausted simultaneously
Q2) The final reduced species in the electron transport chain is
A) O<sub>2</sub>
B) H<sub>2</sub>O
C) cytochrome c
D) coenzyme Q
E) none of these
Q3) Complex I of the electron transport chain oxidizes ____, reduces ____, and ____ protons in the process.
A) FADH<sub>2</sub>; coenzyme Q; doesn't pump
B) FADH<sub>2</sub>; coenzyme Q; pumps
C) NADH; coenzyme Q; doesn't pump
D) NADH; coenzyme Q; pumps
Page 22
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Chapter 21: Lipid Metabolism
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Q1) Which of the following is not true regarding catabolism of triacylglycerols?
A) Control of release of fatty acids from triacylglycerols in adipocytes involves cyclic AMP as a second messenger.
B) When cAMP is a second messenger in the catabolsim of triacylglycerols, it activates a protein kinase
C) The protein kinase, once activated, cleaves fatty acids from the triacylglycerol
D) The phosphorylated form of triacylglycerol lipase is the active form
E) All of these are true
Q2) Isoprenoid derivatives play what role in steroid biosynthesis?
A) inhibit a key step
B) are key intermediates
C) compete with steroid biosynthesis for a limited precursor
D) its role is unknown
Q3) Where in the cell does fatty acid synthesis occur?
A) Cytoplasm.
B) Outer mitochondrial membrane.
C) Mitochondrial intermembrane space.
D) Inner mitochondrial membrane.
E) Mitochondrial matrix.
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Page 23
Chapter 22: Photosynthesis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Of the two photosynthetic pathways, Calvin Cycle or Hatch-Slack Pathway, only the Calvin Cycle uses the pentose phosphate pathway.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following is true concerning chlorophyll?
A) It abosrbs green light, which is why leaves are green
B) Chlorophyll a and b each have peaks of absorption at two different wavelengths
C) Chlorophyll a has a maximum absorption at 600 nm
D) Between the two chlorophylls, light is absorbed between 400 and 700 nm
E) none of these
Q3) Light with short wavelengths has less energy than light with long wavelengths.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The fixation of CO<sub>2</sub> to form sugars requires the following:
A) Oxygen, O<sub>2</sub>.
B) ATP.
C) NADPH.
D) Both ATP and NADPH.
E) All 3 of these are required to convert CO<sub>2</sub> to sugar.
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Chapter 23: The Metabolism of Nitrogen
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Q1) There is a curious diversity of nature for the two sulfur containing amino acids. Methionine is made from cysteine in bacteria, but cysteine is made from methionine in mammals.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What intermediate of the TCA cycle is produced from aspartic acid during the urea cycle, synthesis of IMP, and conversion from IMP to adenosine?
A) fumarate
B) malate
C) -ketoglutarate
D) succinate
Q3) Which of the following is not associated with purine synthesis?
A) Synthesis of the base while ribose is attached.
B) Stimulation of ATP synthesis by GTP and of GTP synthesis by ATP
C) An Inosine intermediate.
D) Inhibition by pyrimidines.
E) All of these are features of purine synthesis.
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25
Chapter 24: Integration of Metabolism: Cellular Signaling
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Q1) Which of the following is not a role for hormones?
A) maintenance of homeostasis
B) mediation of responses to external stimuli
C) growth and development
D) antioxidants
Q2) Which of the following vitamins is involved in hydroxylation reactions of collagen
A) Vitamin A
B) Vitamin C
C) Vitamin D
D) Vitamin E
E) none of these
Q3) Intracellular second messengers include all of the following except
A) Ca<sup>2+</sup>
B) DAG
C) cATP
D) nitric oxide (NO)
Q4) Proteins eaten in excess can be stored to satisfy future protein requirements.
A)True
B)False
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