Natural Selection and Genetic Modification | Edexcel GCSE Biology, Foundation tier (1BI0)
Natural Selection and Genetic Modification
- 103 questions
- 9 subtopics
- Paper 1
- Paper 1
Natural Selection and Genetic Modification is examined in Paper 1, Biology 1.
It covers Darwin, Wallace and evolution by natural selection, antibiotic resistance, fossil and stone tool evidence for human evolution, the pentadactyl limb and the three domains of classification, selective breeding, tissue culture, genetic engineering, and the benefits and risks of GM crops, fertilisers and biological control.
Sample questions from Natural Selection and Genetic Modification
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Darwin, Wallace and the theory of evolution
Name the book, published in 1859, in which Darwin set out the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Show the answer
On the Origin of Species. -
Natural selection and antibiotic resistance
Explain how natural selection can eventually give rise to a new species.
Show the answer
If two populations become separated and face different conditions, different alleles are selected in each until the two groups can no longer breed together to give fertile offspring. -
Fossil evidence for human evolution
How old is the fossil skeleton known as Lucy, and which species does it belong to?
Show the answer
It is about 3.2 million years old and belongs to Australopithecus afarensis. -
Stone tool evidence for human evolution
Describe the stone tools being made about 300 000 years ago.
Show the answer
Flint was worked into a wider range of shaped tools, including pointed flakes used as spear tips, scrapers and knives. -
The pentadactyl limb and the three domains
Explain why unrelated species would not be expected to share the pentadactyl bone arrangement.
Show the answer
If each limb had arisen separately purely to suit its own function, there would be no reason for them all to use the same bones in the same pattern. -
Selective breeding
Give two characteristics that food crops are commonly selectively bred for.
Show the answer
A larger yield of grain or fruit, and resistance to disease. -
Tissue culture
Explain why tissue culture must be carried out under sterile conditions.
Show the answer
Bacteria and fungi would grow rapidly on the rich nutrient medium and would outcompete or kill the plant cells. -
Genetic engineering and modern agriculture
Golden rice contains a gene taken from a daffodil. What term describes an organism like this?
Show the answer
It is a genetically modified, or transgenic, organism.
The 9 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Darwin, Wallace and the theory of evolution | Darwin's Beagle observations and On the Origin of Species, Wallace's independent work and warning colouration, why scientists were slow to accept the theory, and why it matters today. | 8 |
| Natural selection and antibiotic resistance | Natural selection from mutation, competition and survival of the best suited, how an advantageous allele spreads and new species form, why acquired characteristics are not selected, how antibiotic resistance and MRSA arise, finishing antibiotic courses and not prescribing them for viruses, and percentage calculations. | 16 |
| Fossil evidence for human evolution | The Ardi, Lucy and Turkana Boy fossils, their ages, species and brain volumes, what their feet, legs and skeletons show about climbing and walking upright, calculating the time between fossils, and the trend in human evolution they reveal. | 11 |
| Stone tool evidence for human evolution | Pebble tools, hand axes, flint points and hafted tools across 2.5 million years, what growing complexity suggests about brain size, and dating tools by rock layers and radiometric methods. | 8 |
| The pentadactyl limb and the three domains | The pentadactyl limb, the vertebrate groups that share it and how it is modified in a bat's wing and a whale's flipper, why it is evidence for a shared ancestor, the older five kingdom system, and Carl Woese's three domains of Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya based on genetic analysis. | 14 |
| Selective breeding | How the individuals showing a characteristic are chosen and bred over generations, the traits sought in crops and livestock, the gain in food production, and the loss of variation. | 8 |
| Tissue culture | How a plant is grown from a small sample on a nutrient medium with auxins and cytokinins, why sterile conditions matter, and the uses in breeding, conservation and medical research. | 8 |
| Genetic engineering and modern agriculture | Genetic engineering and why a human gene works in a bacterium, insulin-making bacteria and golden rice, transgenic organisms, its advantages over selective breeding, engineered human insulin, the risks and ethical objections, a risk shared with selective breeding, and labelling and the long-term effects of GM organisms. | 14 |
| Benefits and risks of GM organisms | Crops given the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin gene and their advantages, pest resistance and other concerns about GM crops, the cost of GM seed, fertilisers and how run-off kills fish, biological control and its advantages and disadvantages, and calculating the percentage increase in yield. | 16 |
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.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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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.
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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.
Nearby topics
Edexcel GCSE Biology, Foundation tier Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,218 questions with their answers.