Inheritance, Variation and Evolution | AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy Biology, Foundation tier (8464)

Inheritance, Variation and Evolution

192 questions
15 subtopics
Biology Paper 2
Biology Paper 2

Inheritance, Variation and Evolution is examined in Biology Paper 2.

It covers sexual and asexual reproduction, meiosis, dNA and the genome, genetic terms, dominant and recessive alleles, punnett squares, probability and genetic crosses, inherited disorders and sex determination, variation, evolution, selective breeding, what genetic engineering is, and what it is used for, gM crops, their risks, and the steps of the process, evidence for evolution, and extinction, fossils, resistant bacteria and classification of living organisms.

Sample questions from Inheritance, Variation and Evolution

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Sexual and asexual reproduction

Name the male gamete and the female gamete in animals.

Show the answer
The sperm cell is the male gamete and the egg cell is the female gamete.
Meiosis

How do the four gametes formed from one cell compare with each other genetically?

Show the answer
They are all genetically different from each other.
Genetic terms, dominant and recessive alleles

What is meant by an organism's phenotype?

Show the answer
The characteristics that the organism actually shows.
Punnett squares, probability and genetic crosses

A cross gives 3 tall plants for every 1 short plant. Out of 60 offspring, how many are expected to be tall?

Show the answer
45 plants.
Variation

Why do the offspring of the same two parents differ from one another?

Show the answer
Each inherits a different mixture of the parents' genes, and they may also develop in different conditions.
Evolution

Where does the variation that natural selection acts on come from?

Show the answer
From mutations, which produce different variants within the population.
What genetic engineering is, and what it is used for

Which human substance is made by genetically engineered bacteria to treat diabetes?

Show the answer
Human insulin.
GM crops, their risks, and the steps of the process

Suggest why a crop that is resistant to insect attack could reduce the numbers of birds in an area.

Show the answer
Fewer insects survive on the crop, so the birds that feed on those insects have less food.

The 15 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Sexual and asexual reproduction	Mitosis and meiosis, gametes in animals and flowering plants and their fusion at fertilisation, why sexual reproduction produces variation, and asexual reproduction from one parent by mitosis producing clones.	10
Meiosis	How meiosis halves the chromosome number and fertilisation restores it, where it happens, copying then two divisions giving four different gametes, and mitosis in the growing embryo.	11
DNA and the genome	Nucleus, chromosome and gene by size, the double helix and DNA as a polymer, what a gene codes for, and what studying the human genome offers medicine and migration history.	15
Genetic terms, dominant and recessive alleles	Gametes, chromosomes, alleles, genotype and phenotype, characteristics controlled by a single gene, dominant and recessive alleles and when each is expressed, and homozygous and heterozygous organisms.	13
Punnett squares, probability and genetic crosses	Characteristics controlled by several genes, why a cross predicts only probabilities, ratios and percentages from 3:1 and 1:1 crosses, worked crosses in mice and cats, and identifying a recessive allele from a family tree.	11
Inherited disorders and sex determination	Polydactyly and cystic fibrosis, their dominant and recessive alleles, the case for and against embryo screening, the 23 chromosome pairs, XX and XY, and the chance of a boy.	13
Variation	Variation caused by genes, the environment or both, why siblings and cloned plants differ, extensive genetic variation arising from mutations, how few variants affect the phenotype, and how a new phenotype suited to a changed environment can spread quickly.	15
Evolution	The definition of evolution, natural selection and new species, why it acts on populations, simple life forms over three billion years ago, mutations as the source of variation, and the interbreeding test.	12
Selective breeding	Selective breeding or artificial selection and its history, choosing and breeding parents over many generations, characteristics chosen in crops, farm animals, dogs and flowers, inbreeding and its problems, and the effects on variation and food production.	16
What genetic engineering is, and what it is used for	The definition of genetic engineering, where the new gene comes from, engineered crops and insulin from bacteria, cutting out and transferring a gene, and the benefits, objections and risks.	11
GM crops, their risks, and the steps of the process	What genetically modified crops are and the insect and herbicide resistance and higher yields they give, concerns about wild flowers, insects, birds and human health, and hopes of using genetic modification to overcome inherited disorders.	9
Evidence for evolution, and extinction	The fossil record and antibiotic resistance as evidence, the discovery of genes, what extinction means, and how environmental change, disease, new predators, competition and low variation cause it.	10
Fossils	What fossils are and where they form, preservation without decay, replacement by minerals and preserved traces, why early life left few, and reading evolutionary trees and common ancestors.	14
Resistant bacteria	Why bacteria evolve rapidly, how mutation and antibiotic use produce and spread resistant strains such as MRSA, slowing resistance by limiting prescriptions, completing courses and restricting farm use, and the cost and slowness of developing new antibiotics.	14
Classification of living organisms	The Linnaean groups from kingdom to species, binomial names and what shared groups show about relatedness, how microscopes and biochemistry changed classification, Carl Woese's three domains of archaea, bacteria and eukaryota, and placing organisms on evolutionary trees.	18

Inheritance, Variation and Evolution is 192 of the 1,023 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.