Oxford University Press | Online Resource Centre

Choose your answers by clicking the radio button next to each choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.

Question 01

Which statement is true about species which possess a nymphalid ground plan of butterfly wings?

a) They can only produce the same patterns on front and hind wings.

b) They can only produce the same patterns on the dorsal and vental sides of a wing.

c) If spots and stripes are produced, then they are only produced in certain places.

d) All spots must be of one color.

Question 02

If organisms grow by molting and have a threshold size at which they mature, they will:

a) not vary in the number of molts they experience before maturation.

b) form discontinuous sets of different sizes and ages when they are adult.

c) display simple, intuitive connections between size at birth and size at maturity.

d) be subject to a very simple type of natural selection on body size.

Question 03

Which general points are well illustrated by induced responses to predators?

a) One phenotype can be produced by many genotypes.

b) One genotype can produce many phenotypes.

c) Phenotypic plasticity is never adaptive.

d) Developing organisms are not very sensitive to their environment.

Question 04

A reaction norm is a property of which of the following?

a) A single gene

b) A population

c) A single organism

d) A multilocus genotype

Question 05

The sensitivity of the development of a trait to changes in the environment is expressed by:

a) the intercept of the reaction norm on the Y axis.

b) the population mean reaction norm.

c) the family mean reaction norm.

d) the slope of the reaction norm.

Question 06

When can a population respond to selection for greater sensitivity to changes in an environmental factor?

a) When there is genetic variation for the slopes of the reaction norms to that factor.

b) When all the reaction norms run parallel to each other.

c) When the reaction norms are all constrained to have very little variation in slopes.

d) When the organisms are not phenotypically plastic.

Question 07

To see how phenotypic plasticity can change genetic correlations across environments, we plot:

a) one trait on one axis, the other trait on the other, and depict differences in the environment by different symbols.

b) one environment on one axis, the other environment on the other, and depict the two traits by different symbols.

c) environments around the edge of a circle and traits as distance from the origin, one trait above a horizontal diameter, the other below it.

d) environment on the x-axis, one trait on the y-axis to the left, the other trait on the y-axis to the right.

Question 08

If there is genetic variation for slopes of reaction norms, then:

a) the heritability of the trait depicted may change with the environment in which it is measured.

b) the heritability of the trait must change with the environment.

c) the heritability of the trait cannot change.

d) the genetic correlation of this trait with others must change.

Question 09

Reaction norm analysis demonstrates that:

a) nature and nurture are separate causes easily distinguished.

b) all traits are produced by interactions between genes and environment.

c) the traits involved in reaction norms are produced by interactions between genes and environments.

d) the causation of the phenotype cannot be usefully analyzed.

Question 10

The location of spots on butterfly wings is associated with the expression of which gene?

a) HOX-9

b) Sonic hedgehog

c) Decepentaplegic

d) Distalless

Question 11

Butterfly eyespots are determined by deeply conserved developmental control genes. Which of the following statements is correct about deeply conserved developmental control genes?

a) They cannot respond to seasonal change.

b) They cannot respond to selection.

c) They are immune to mutational variation.

d) They are usually only produced in a certain part of the wing.

Question 12

Because distalless is a strongly conserved developmental control gene, it:

a) could not conceivably respond to selection for greater environmental sensitivity in the structure whose development it controls.

b) could not have other functions earlier in development.

c) must have the same function in all arthropods.

d) has a DNA sequence constrained to remain the same despite numerous changes in the development of the organisms in which it is expressed.

Question 13

A plant cell detects whether it is in light or shade by detecting:

a) the concentration of phytochrome molecules in its cytoplasm.

b) the rate at which phytochrome-far-red molecules bind with receptors on its nuclear membrane.

c) the ratio of the concentrations of phytochrome-red and phytochrome-far-red molecules in its cytoplasm.

d) the product of the concentrations of Pr and Pfr.

Question 14

When a plantain leaf detects that it is growing in the shade, it becomes:

a) waxier.

b) longer and broader.

c) intricately dissected, like a piece of lace.

d) thin and erect.

Question 15

Why do the ciliates in the Tetrahymena pyriformis species complex all look so similar that we cannot tell them apart under a powerful microscope?

a) Because they all have the same DNA sequence in all of their genes.

b) Because their organelles are all made out of the same proteins even though their DNA differs.

c) We do not know.

d) Because they never mutate.

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 07.

Chapter 07

Instructions