Natural Selection and Genetic Modification | Edexcel GCSE Combined Science Biology, Higher tier (1SC0)
Natural Selection and Genetic Modification
- 73 questions
- 7 subtopics
- Paper 1
- Paper 1
Natural Selection and Genetic Modification is examined in Paper 1, Biology 1.
It covers natural selection and antibiotic resistance, fossil and stone tool evidence for human evolution, the five kingdoms and the three domains of classification, selective breeding, and genetic engineering and its stages.
Sample questions from Natural Selection and Genetic Modification
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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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. -
Natural selection and antibiotic resistance
Name one antibiotic-resistant bacterium that causes difficult infections in hospitals.
Show the answer
MRSA, a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to methicillin. -
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. -
Fossil evidence for human evolution
How old is Turkana Boy, and which species does the skeleton belong to?
Show the answer
It is about 1.6 million years old and belongs to Homo erectus. -
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. -
Stone tool evidence for human evolution
Describe how the rock layer a stone tool is found in can be used to judge its age.
Show the answer
Layers of rock build up in order, so a tool found in a deeper layer is older than one found in a layer above it. -
Five kingdoms and the three domains
Name the three domains.
Show the answer
Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. -
Five kingdoms and the three domains
Explain why archaea were separated from bacteria despite both being prokaryotes.
Show the answer
Although the cells look alike under a microscope, their genes and cell chemistry differ so much that the two groups are only distantly related.
The 7 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Five kingdoms and the three domains | The older five kingdom classification and what it was based on, Carl Woese's three domains of Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya, the genetic and chemical evidence for them, why archaea were separated from bacteria, and why genetic analysis classifies organisms more reliably than appearance. | 8 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| The stages of genetic engineering | Restriction enzymes and sticky ends, why the gene and vector are cut with the same enzyme, ligase, plasmids and viruses as vectors, the stages of inserting a human gene into a bacterium, recombinant plasmids, and why bacteria make useful host cells. | 8 |
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 Combined Science Biology, Higher tier Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 968 questions with their answers.