Evolution Chapter 11 Quiz

Why did the role of horizontal gene transfer ultimately become diminished over evolutionary time?

As cells became more complicated, they also became more integrated, less modular and less likely to take up new genes by horizontal gene transfer.

Which of the following statements regarding the benefit of making the switch from an RNA- to a DNA-based genetic system during the evolution of life is correct?

DNA is a more stable molecule because deoxyribose is less reactive than is ribose.

Which of the following statements about LUCA is NOT correct?

It refers to a single, ancestral organism.

The first genetic material on Earth was most likely __________.

RNA

What do we know about horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the evolution of early life?

HGT was probably a powerful force during early cell evolution, leading to complex cellular organisms.

In order to understand the origin of life on Earth, evolutionary biologists collaborate with__________.

chemists, geologists, and atmospheric scientists

The origin of cell structures might be hypothesized to have involved a hypercycle, based on mutualism at the molecular level. Which of the following is correct regarding the hypercycle model?

Natural selection will favor a hypercycle that is enclosed in a membrane.

Which gas was most likely the LEAST abundant in early Earth's atmosphere?

O2

Which of the following statements about the Lincoln and Joyce experiment on self-replicating ribozymes is most likely correct?

The self-replicating ribozymes that had more efficient catalytic activities would soon began to dominate their populations.

Stanley Miller and Harold Urey developed and conducted experimental tests for a "prebiotic soup" model of the origin of life, which had been proposed a few decades earlier by Aleksandr Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane. What did Miller and Urey show could be synthesized abiotically?

amino acids

All of the following are true regarding Sol Spiegelman's experiment on the origins of life, except that __________.

there was no selection for any of the variations in length

Which two scientists elaborated on Darwin's idea of the "warm little pond" and formulated the "prebiotic soup hypothesis" as the first hypothesis for the abiotic origin of life on Earth?

Oparin and Haldane

Which of the following molecules involved in membrane structure was likely favored by natural selection in the evolution of early cells?

fatty acids