AP Biology Concept Review for Exam

Chemistry of Life
1. Elements and Compounds: How do they differ? What are the essential elements of life?

2. Subatomic particles: What are they and how do they differ? How do they influence isotopes, atomic mass, and chemical bonds such as ionic, covalent and hydrogen?

3. Water: What are the general properties of water? What causes these properties? Why are they important for life? What is pH? What are buffers?

4. Organic Molecules: What are the 4 biological molecules? What are the monomers, polymers and bonds called that make up each of these biological molecules? (pg 90) What functional groups make up the monomers? How are all the parts of these molecules put together and taken apart?

5. Free Energy Change: definition on page 146... What are exergonic (catabolic, spontaneous) and endergonic (anabolic, non-spontaneous) reactions? What is ATP (structure and function)? How does ATP do work in the cell? What are the parts of a energy diagram?

6. Enzymes: How do enzymes affect an energy diagram? How do they affect a reaction? review pg 160... What are the roles of coenzymes, inorganic cofactors, and vitamins? What factors affect enzyme functions in reaction rates and why do they? How are enzymes regulated?

Cells
7. Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic: How are these two types of cells different and the same? What are the evolutionary ideas behind how they evolved?

8. Membranes: What are they composed of and what are the functions of each of those parts pg 128? How do substances move across them (cell transport), diffusion, osmosis, facilitated diffusion with protein channels, active transport with the Na/K pump, exo and endocytosis? Summary of everything on pg 140. What role do they play in cell communication?

9. Subcellular Organization: What are the different organelles that are found in eukaryotic cells ?  Explain the structure and function of each of them pg 123. How do they help with cellular regulation? How do plant and animal cells differ?

10. Cell cycle and Regulation: What are the phases of the cell cycle and what happens in each? pg 232 and 233 How much time does the cell usually spend in each part of the cycle? How does the process differ in plants vs. animal cells? What regulates all of this?

Cellular Energetics
11. Coupled Reactions: Just remember that some reactions are easier than others (more free energy) and they are coupled with the hard ones...

12. Fermentation and Cellular Respiration: What is the general (shorthand) reaction? The actual full process is a multistep process that includes glycolysis, Kreb's/Citric Acid cycle and electron transport (also known as chemiosmosis, but do NOT try to memorize all of the details... What goes into each step and what comes out of them? Where do they take place? glycolysis pg 167, kreb's/citric acid cycle pg 170-171, electron transport pg 173... the whole process pg 176 a number of tables summarize this in the review guides...  How is each step regulated? Which step produces the most ATP? How does aerobic respiration differ from anaerobic (fermentation) pg 178 ? The diagrams in you book are color coded: green is glycoylsis, orange is Krebs/Citic Acid cycle, and purple is electron transport (H+ pump).

13. Photosynthesis: What is the general (shorthand) reaction? Also a multistep process broken down into the light and dark/Calvin cycle... What goes into each of these steps and what comes out? Where do they take place? general overview pg 189 and 203, light reactions pg 195 and 197, Calvin cycle pg 199. What are plants green? What are the role of all the pigments in the leaves? How do C3  differ from C4 and CAM place? Why do they? C4 diagram pg 201   

Heredity
14. Meiosis: Compare to Mitosis... How are they the same? How are they different? overview of Meiosis on pgs 254-255, comparison to Mitosis on pg 256  What is the purpose of each? How does it help species survive? How can things go wrong with it (mutations)? 

15. Eukaryotic Chromosomes: What is it made of, how is it organized and how does it structure change to influence function? pg 320-321.

16. Inheritance Patterns: What are Mendel's Laws of inheritance? What are the exceptions to Mendel's inheritance patterns? What kind of crosses can be done to determine inheritance patterns? What different diagrams can be used to study/predict inheritance patterns and how do you interpret them? How do you know which type of chromosome the alleles are located on for a specific trait?

Molecular Genetics
17. RNA and DNA structure and function: What are they made of and how do they differ from each other? How is DNA replication? Where? Review the steps pg 317 What is the purpose of Transcription and Translation? How do they work? Where do each take place? Review diagram on pg 348.

18. Gene Regulation: How are certain genes turned off and others turned on at different times? What is an operon, repressible and inducible? Where can gene regulation take place in an eukaryotic cell?  How?  Review diagrams on pg 378 at end of chapter When does gene regulation take place?

19. Mutation: How do the different types of mutations compare: deletion, duplication, base substitution, inversion, insertion, translocation? What are the effects on the development of the organisms?

20. Biotechnology: What is recombinant DNA? What is the process of making and using it? How can you tell how big a piece of DNA is? What is PCR and how does it work? What is gel electrophoresis and what is it for? How can you transform bacteria?

Evolutionary Biology
21. Evidence of Evolution: What were the ideas that came before Darwin? What did Darwin base his theories on? How does the fossil record, homology/comparative anatomy, embryology, biogeography, and molecular biology support the ideas of evolution?

22. Mechanisms of Evolution: What four ideas led to the the theory of natural selection? What are the types of selection pg 480-481? How do you know a new species has evolved? What is the difference between convergent and divergent evolution, allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation? Individual experience natural selection, populations evolve... What does Hardy Weinberg's law say about a population? What are his two equations and how are they used to analyze a population? What five conditions must be met for a population to be in equilibrium and what happens if they are not met?

Taxonomy
23. Classification: What are the three domains? and six kingdoms? How do they differ? What are the other levels of organization? Phylum classification for plants in diagram on pg 605 and animals on pg 663. Class classification for chordates on pg 734...don't spend too much time with these...

Animal Behavior
24. Types of Behavior: Instinct and Learned, what are examples and how do you differentiate between the two? What are the social behaviors and symbiotic relationships?  see review on pg 1143

Animals
25. Systems: What are the tissues, organs and major components of each system, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, lymphatic/immune, excretory, nervous, musculoskeletal, endocrine, and reproductive? Relate each system to the problem that is solves for the organism and how it differs in different environments.

26. Diagrams: Look at diagrams like the heart pg 904, eye pg 1101, brain pg 1069 and 1070, and kidney pg 963, what are the significant structures and function of these structures?

27. Movement: How do muscles work pg 1107?

28. Development: How do the different stages of morphogenesis vary in structure and function, zygote, blastula, gastrula, and organogenesis pg 655? How do ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm differ pg 661? Read study outlines for Chapter 40-48.

Plants
29. Distinguishing Characteristics: What structures distinguish plants from other kingdoms and what structures allow plants to leave on land? What are the functions of those structures? What are the different tissues that make of plants pg 748-751?  What is the life cycles of a plants and how does alternation of generations play a role? How much times does each phylum spend in the 2n stage and how much in the n stage? What are the different parts of an angiosperm (flowering plant) called and what are their functions? How do plants move in response to stimuli? What are the functions of plant hormones pg 827? Review developmental origins of fruit diagram on pg 810. You can review study outline at end of chapters 35-39.

Ecology
30. Organization in Ecology: What is the hierarchy in the ecology world? What are the different biomes and what are some major feature of each? What are some examples of environmental variables? How do they change in a changing environment?  What are the roles of a producer, consumer and decomposer in a community? What is an ecological pyramid? How does biological magnification affect those organisms on the different levels of the pyramid?

31: Population Ecology: What four things need to examined when studying a population? What is carrying capacity? What factors influence a population? What role does density play in these factors?

32. Human Impact:  How have humans impacted ecology?