Heredity B

[EwwPhysics]

What are some common tiebreakers for this event? Are most tiebreakers time or some questions?

I think a common tiebreaker is like what is the RNA strand produced from this DNA strand, or what are the proteins produced from this DNA strand, stuff like that. Also dihybrid crosses are probably popular for tiebreakers.
I'm pretty sure there's never going to be a tiebreaker for time, that would be really really weird...
At one invitational the tiebreaker was just starting from the last question and working your way backwards, whoever got the first question wrong, but I wouldn't expect something like that to be the norm, I've never seen it on a practice test.

[EwwPhysics]

Hey does anyone know what some good online resources are, for heredity?

I've been using Khan Academy - try the High School Biology course

Khan Academy is good, I think the AP bio course is also good if you want to go more in-depth.

[Phenakism]

How much do we have to know about protein synthesis for this event?

I would learn a lot about it. It's a very big part of heredity, so I've dedicated about 1/3 of my cheat sheet to transcription and translation. Also, it's one of the more in-depth and complicated parts of heredity, so it's really fun to study and a change from the usual tedious and easy punnett squares On my cheat sheet, I organize my transcription/translation notes with 4 main sections: pre-mRNA processing, mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA. By organizing by type of RNA, I can have both how protein synthesis works and the structure and function of each type.
In terms of how in depth, you honestly won't have to know too much in depth for regionals/states/most invitationals.

Thank you! I just split mine up by replication, transc, post mrna, and trans but your system is really cool too.

[donutsandcupcakes]

When they say we need to learn DNA structure, do we have to learn every chemical and protein associated with it?

[EwwPhysics]

When they say we need to learn DNA structure, do we have to learn every chemical and protein associated with it?

I wouldn't, so far I haven't seen any questions on it in any practice test (though there is stuff like "how many hydrogen bonds between adenine and thymine," "what is the difference between deoxyribose sugar and ribose sugar"). I just have a picture on my cheat sheet on the structures of adenine, guanine, etc. just in case it comes up, but I wouldn't waste a bunch of time studying it. I'm pretty sure most event supervisors just interpret it as the basic structure without getting into the chemical stuff.

[jaspattack]

When they say we need to learn DNA structure, do we have to learn every chemical and protein associated with it?

99% of the time in events like this, DNA structure consists of things like the names of the bases, what the sugar-phosphate backbone is made of, which ones are purines/pyrimidines, and how many bonds are between the bases. Especially at the Division B level, don't worry about super complicated stuff unless you go to like, Nats or something.

[donutsandcupcakes]

When they say we need to learn DNA structure, do we have to learn every chemical and protein associated with it?

99% of the time in events like this, DNA structure consists of things like the names of the bases, what the sugar-phosphate backbone is made of, which ones are purines/pyrimidines, and how many bonds are between the bases. Especially at the Division B level, don't worry about super complicated stuff unless you go to like, Nats or something.

Thank You!

[opal555]

Hi! I'm doing regionals in a few days and I'm a bit confused on what it means when the rules say "gene:protien relationship." Is that just a basic overview of gene expression? I haven't been able to find anything on that. It's urgent so please reply!

[EwwPhysics]

Yeah, that's always how I've interpreted it. I've never understood why they included both that and "transcription and translation" as they're basically the same... As long as you have stuff on transcription and translation, you'll be fine.
Good luck at regionals!

[RitikaKK]

40. Which of the following is not a post-transcriptional modification commonly made to transcripts in eukaryotic cells?
A. A modified guanine is added to the 3’ end of the transcript
B. Exons are spliced out
C. A string of adenines is added to the 5’ end of the transcript
D. All of the above

What answer choice do you think it would be?
The answer key says D, but I disagree because introns are spliced out, not exons.