Campbell Biology: Concepts and Connections, 8e (Reece et al.)
Chapter 16 Microbial Life: Prokaryotes and Protists
16.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Individual prokaryote cells are about ________ eukaryote cells; collectively, all prokaryote
cells on Earth ________.
A) the same size as; weigh about one-tenth the total mass of eukaryote cells
B) 10 times bigger than; weigh about 10 times as much as the total mass of eukaryote cells
C) one-tenth as big as; weigh about one-tenth the total mass of eukaryote cells
D) one-tenth as big as; weigh about 10 times as much as the total mass of eukaryote cells
2) Eukaryotes are ________ prokaryotes.
A) more ancient than
B) dependent upon
C) more widespread than
D) more numerous than
3) Prokaryotes are classified into
A) domain Protista and domain Archaea.
B) kingdom Bacteria and kingdom Archaea.
C) domain Bacteria and domain Archaea.
D) kingdom Protista and kingdom Bacteria.
4) Rod-shaped bacteria are called
A) cocci.
B) bacilli.
C) spirochetes.
D) vibrios.
5) One difference between gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria is that
A) gram-positive bacteria have more peptidoglycan in their cell walls.
B) gram-positive bacteria have fimbriae but gram-negative bacteria do not.
C) gram-positive bacteria are spiral-shaped, and gram-negative bacteria are either rod-shaped or
spherical.
D) only gram-negative bacteria can form endospores.
6) Prokaryotic cell walls function
A) to promote flexibility and formation of pseudopodia.
B) to prevent the cell from bursting in a hypotonic environment.
C) to propel cells (locomotion).
D) as a site of metabolic reactions (photosynthesis and cellular respiration).
7) An unknown bacterial species is recovered from a sick patient’s digestive tract. It has a
membrane outside the cell wall that contains toxic lipids. This observation indicates that
A) the infection should be relatively easy to control with common antibiotics, because the
pathogen is a gram-positive species.
B) the infection should be relatively easy to control with common antibiotics, because the
pathogen is a gram-negative species.
C) the infection may be quite threatening and difficult to control, because the pathogen is a
gram-positive species.
D) the infection may be quite threatening and difficult to control, because the pathogen is a
gram-negative species.
8) Which of the following options correctly pairs a structure in prokaryote cells with its
function?
A) fimbriae, help prokaryotes stick to each other and to surfaces
B) capsule, rigid protective structure enclosing cell
C) flagella, feeding appendages
D) endospore, food digestion vacuole
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9) You culture the dried soup from a 4,000-year-old cooking pot found in an Egyptian tomb and
obtain a distinctive species of prokaryote. You immerse a test tube of these bacteria in boiling
water for several hours, but the colony grows back. This species is probably
A) halophilic.
B) endospore-forming.
C) a spirochete.
D) a cyanobacteria.
10) Chemoautotrophic bacteria obtain their carbon from ________ and their energy from
________.
A) CO2; sunlight
B) CO2; reactions involving inorganic chemicals
C) methane; sunlight
D) organic molecules; sunlight
11) The largest group of prokaryotes is the ________, which obtain both energy and carbon from
________.
A) autotrophs; inorganic molecules
B) chemoautotrophs; decaying organic material
C) chemoheterotrophs; organic molecules
D) photoautotrophs; light
12) A bacterium living in an underground septic tank thrives by absorbing organic compounds
from decomposing wastes. What is it?
A) a chemoautotroph
B) a chemoheterotroph
C) a photoautotroph
D) a photoheterotroph
13) A slimy layer of bacteria coating a surface is also known as a ________.
A) bioaggregate
B) tissue
C) biofilm
D) plague
14) The use of prokaryotes and other organisms to clean up pollutants from soil, air, or water is
called ________.
A) decomposition
B) nitrogen fixation
C) bioremediation
D) biocomposting
15) The trickling filter at a sewage treatment plant works by
A) passing wastewater through fine sand, mechanically removing fine pollution particles.
B) passing wastewater through a thick bed of rocks that contain chemicals that sterilize the water
and neutralize chemical pollutants or bind with them to produce a harmless precipitate.
C) passing wastewater through a thick bed of rocks. Biofilms of bacteria and fungi on the rocks
remove much of the organic material dissolved in the wastewater.
D) adding fertilizer to wastewater and passing it through a culture medium rich in oil-eating
prokaryotes.
16) Evidence for the relatively close relationship of archaea to eukaryotes includes
A) the absence of introns from genes in both groups.
B) the fact that both contain circular DNA without histones.
C) the presence of peptidoglycan in the cell walls of both groups.
D) the fact that both have several kinds of relatively complex RNA polymerases.
17) Unlike archaean and eukaryote cell walls, bacterial cell walls contain a unique substance
called
A) cellulose.
B) peptidoglycan.
C) phospholipid.
D) glycogen.
18) Intestinal gas is evidence of active ________ in one’s digestive tract.
A) thermophiles
B) methanogens
C) yeast cultures
D) halophiles
19) Which of the following is a member of the domain Archaea?
A) gram-positive bacteria
B) methanogens
C) spirochetes
D) chlamydias
20) Which of the following statements about archaea is false?
A) Some archaea have mitochondria like those of eukaryotic cells.
B) Archaea are abundant in the oceans.
C) Some archaea are adapted to extreme environments such as extremely salty or extremely hot
habitats.
D) Some archaea live in the digestive tracts of cattle.
21) Which of the following organisms are common soil decomposers that grow in colonies of
branched chains of cells that superficially resemble a fungus?
A) actinomycetes
B) yeasts
C) halobacteria
D) cocci
22) Cyanobacteria
A) are photosynthetic archaea.
B) are eukaryotes and are the earliest type of algae.
C) are chemoautotrophs.
D) are the only prokaryotes with plantlike oxygen-generating photosynthesis.
23) Which of the following organisms was the first to introduce oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere?
A) cyanobacteria
B) early protozoans
C) plants
D) green algae
24) The term for a close association between organisms of two or more species is
A) symbiosis.
B) interdependence.
C) associative living.
D) colonialism.
25) ________ are toxic proteins secreted by pathogenic bacteria, and ________ are toxic
components of the outer membrane of gram-negative pathogens.
A) Endotoxins; phosphotoxins
B) Endotoxins; botulinum toxins
C) Exotoxins; enterotoxins
D) Exotoxins; endotoxins
26) Which of the following causes food poisoning and typhoid fever?
A) Escherichia coli
B) Bacillus anthracis
C) Clostridium botulinum
D) Salmonella
27) Barry Marshall and his collaborators showed that
A) lifestyle factors such as stress, diet, and smoking cause chronic gastritis and stomach ulcers.
B) lab animals are easily infected by Helicobacter pylori.
C) Helicobacter pylori bacteria are protective against peptic ulcers.
D) Helicobacter pylori bacteria cause chronic gastritis and stomach ulcers.
28) The two diseases that represent high-priority threats as biological weapons today are
A) smallpox and typhus.
B) syphilis and HIV.
C) anthrax and botulinum toxin.
D) anthrax and Thiobacillus.
29) ________ are heterotrophic protists; ________ are photoautotrophic protists.
A) Mixotrophs; protozoans
B) Protozoans; algae
C) Protozoans; plants
D) Parasites; protozoans
30) Protists include
A) a single clade of eukaryotes that are distantly related to animals.
B) two clades of eukaryotes: One that is related to animals and fungi, and another that is related
to plants.
C) two clades of eukaryotes: algae and protozoans.
D) multiple clades of eukaryotes with some lineages more closely related to plants, animals, or
fungi than they are to other protists.
31) Which of the following options lists the events of protist evolution in the correct order,
according to current science?
A) Mitochondria evolved through primary endosymbiosis; chloroplasts then evolved through
secondary endosymbiosis.
B) Mitochondria and then chloroplasts evolved through primary endosymbiosis; later,
protozoans were incorporated into several other groups of protists through secondary
endosymbiosis.
C) Chloroplasts and then mitochondria evolved through primary endosymbiosis; later, algae
were incorporated into several other groups of protists through secondary endosymbiosis.
D) Mitochondria and then chloroplasts evolved through primary endosymbiosis; later, algae were
incorporated into several other groups of protists through secondary endosymbiosis.
32) In secondary endosymbiosis, a/an ________ became endosymbiotic in a/an ________.
A) autotrophic prokaryote; heterotrophic eukaryotic protist
B) heterotrophic prokaryote; autotrophic eukaryotic protist
C) heterotrophic eukaryotic protist; autotrophic heterotrophic protist
D) autotrophic eukaryotic protist; heterotrophic eukaryotic protist
33) Diatoms
A) are autotrophs with a glassy cell wall that contains silica.
B) are mixotrophs.
C) are heterotrophic protists that decompose dead plants and animals in freshwater habitats.
D) include the malaria parasite.
34) Which of the following groups includes protists that reside within the cells of corals?
A) brown algae
B) diatoms
C) dinoflagellates
D) ciliates
35) Dinoflagellates are best described as
A) protozoans that use cilia to move and feed.
B) marine and freshwater algae that can produce harmful red tides.
C) parasitic protozoans that must spend part of their life cycles in vertebrate hosts.
D) large, multicellular algae that resemble plants but do not have true leaves, stems, or roots.
36) Plasmodium, the organism that causes malaria, is a/an
A) amoeba.
B) stramenopile.
C) ciliate.
D) alveolate.
37) ________ are stramenopiles that commonly are found decomposing dead animals in
freshwater habitats.
A) Brown algae
B) Water molds
C) Cellular slime molds
D) Plasmodial slime molds
38) Which of the following groups include organisms that are a key source of food in all aquatic
environments and whose fossilized forms are used as a filter and as a grinding and polishing
agent?
A) diatoms
B) brown algae
C) amoebas
D) dinoflagellates
39) Kelp, a seaweed that is anchored to the seafloor by rootlike structures and can grow to
heights of 60 m, is a kind of
A) water mold.
B) brown alga.
C) green alga.
D) diatoms.
40) The main ingredient of crude oil is
A) diatoms.
B) dinoflagellates.
C) bacteria.
D) algae.
41) Which of the following cellular structures is characteristic of amoebas?
A) pseudopodia
B) microvilli
C) cilia
D) flagella
42) Which two groups of protists produce hard, mineralized skeletal structures or cell walls that
contribute to marine sediments and form fossils?
A) green algae and brown algae
B) foraminiferans and radiolarians
C) dinoflagellates and diatoms
D) cellular slime molds and water molds
43) Which of the following is a parasitic excavate that causes African sleeping sickness, a
disease spread by the tsetse fly?
A) Plasmodium
B) Trypanosoma
C) Paramecium
D) Amoeba
44) Many species of which protist group have modified mitochondria that lack functional
electron transport chains?
A) excavates
B) rhizarians
C) ciliates
D) unikonts
45) Plasmodial slime molds
A) are photoautotrophic.
B) are marine decomposers.
C) contain many nuclei in one mass of cytoplasm.
D) are primitive fungi.
46) You collect a protist from a rotting log and grow it in a petri dish containing E. coli, which it
engulfs. For a while the protists multiply as single cells. Then the E. coli run short, and the
protists aggregate to form a clump, which rises up to become a stalked structure with a globular
head. What kind of protist do you have?
A) a plasmodial slime mold
B) a cellular slime mold
C) a free-living amoeba
D) a water mold
47) There is a good chance you will eat carrageenan today and that you will eat nori at some
point in your life, if you haven’t already. In either case, you will be eating a product of
A) brown algae.
B) red algae.
C) green algae.
D) diatoms.
48) In what way does the green alga Ulva resemble land plants?
A) It produces diploid gametes.
B) It has a complex life cycle with diploid body cells and haploid gametes.
C) It has a complex life cycle with alternation between multicellular diploid and haploid
generations.
D) It has a multicellular haploid stage that alternates with a unicellular diploid stage.