2. What are the 4 major chemical classes of hormones?
3. What are the two major types of hormone producing cells?
4. Compare exocrine and endocrine glands, especially considering overall structure and where they respectively release their products. What part/function of the pancreas is an exocrine gland; what part/function an endocrine gland?
5. In the RELEASING cell, how are non-steroid hormones (and neurotransmitters) synthesized, packaged and released? What are secretory vesicles? How is the release of steroid hormones different; (because steroid hormones are membrane soluble, they can not be contained within secretory vesicles)?
6. What kinds of chemical signals trigger the release of hormones?
7. ALL chemical signals are detected by RECEPTORS.
----- What distinguishes a TARGET CELL from all other cells for a given hormone?
----- What kinds of molecules are receptors?
----- How do steroid receptors work? Where are they located?
----- How do non-steroid hormone receptors work? Where are they located?
----- What does "signal transduction" mean?
8. As an example of a signal transduction pathway, draw the pathway of how a hormone can activate the production of cAMP. What are G-proteins? What are second messengers? What is the general action of cAMP? What is a "Protein Kinase"? What is a "Phosphatase"? What is a "Phosphodiesterase"?
9. List the major human endocrine organs and their associating hormones.
10. Sketch the structure of the hypothalamus and pituitary.
----- Identify neurosecretory cells and endocrine cells.
----- Describe the release of ADH; what stimulates ADH release; what is the ADH target; what turns off ADH release (negative feedback) - (refer to the lectures on kidney function)
----- Describe the release of thyroid hormone, thyroid hormone action and the involvement of the hypothalamus and pituitary in regulating thyroid hormone release. What "environmental" signal triggers thyroid hormone release? What signals turn off thyroid hormone release (negative feedback).
12. Sexual reproduction is important for evolution because: _______ ?
13. Compare internal and external fertilization with respect to gamete investment and behavior. Consider the diversity of strategies to ensure that sperm and eggs find each other.
14. Consider the anatomy of the male reproductive organ. What is spermatogenesis and where does it occur? Describe the events occurring during spermatogenesis. What are sertoli cells, spermatogonia, spermatids, sperm? Are sperm diploid or haploid?
15. Describe the hormonal regulation of spermatogenesis, including the role of the hypothalamus and pituitary and the hormones LH, FSH, and testosterone.
16. What do the letters LH and FSH stand for? Do the processes described by these letters occur in males? Why do male hormones have such names?
17. Consider the anatomy of the female reproductive organ. Where does oogenesis occur? Where does fertilization occur? Where does embryonic development occur? Where is estrogen made? progesterone?
18. Identify three ways in which spermatogenesis and oogenesis differ (look them up, page 947-949).
19. In humans (and mammals), WHEN does the production of primary oocytes occur? Approximately how many primary oocytes are present at puberty? How is it that only ONE of these (typically) is selected at a time for further oogenesis.
20. In humans (and mammals) WHEN and WHERE does second meiotic division occur during oogenesis.
21. Make a sketch of a human ovary. What are the processes that occur leading up to ovulation. What are the processes that occur following ovulation. Why is this process referred to as a cycle (OVARIAN CYCLE)? Describe the events of the OVULATORY PHASE which culminate with ovulation, and the events of the LUTEAL PHASE which are important in regulating uterus physiology.
22. What is the difference between the Follicle and the Corpus Luteum. Why can both be thought of as exocrine glands?
23. Describe the hormonal regulation of oogenesis, including the role of the hypothalamus and pituitary and the hormones LH, FSH, estrogen and progesterone. How does positive feedback control ovulation. How is this process turned off (cycled down).
24. Describe the hormonal regulation and physiological response of the uterus (1) in preparation for receiving an embryo, (2) in response to receiving an embryo, and (3) in the absence of receiving an embryo.
24. In humans, where does fertilization occur ("normally")? How developed is the embryo when it implants in the wall of the uterus? What is the difference between egg, zygote and embryo?
25. Review the anatomy of a sperm. Compare it to a "normal" cell and note the major differences. What is the acrosome; what is the function of the acrosome? What is the difference between a flagella, cilia, microvilli?
27. What is the "blastula"? What occurs following fertilization to establish the blastula?
28. Identify the three "germ layers" and describe how these "germ layers" become established during gastrulation.
29. Contrast yolk and placenta; what are their respective functions?
30. How does "orientation" or "polarization" get established in the early developing embryo? (How does the embryo establish up/down, right/left, etc.)
31. "Develop proceeds in an orderly, hierarchical and sequential manner." Explain.
32. Embryonic development involves: (1) cell division; (2) differentiation; and (3) morphogenesis. Define and explain.
33. Describe the process that forms the notochord and the nervous system. What tissues/organs derive from ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm respectively?
34. What does "pattern formation" refer to? What are positional cues? How do they act to regulate development? What are homeobox genes and why do people find them interesting to study?
36. Understand the electrical properties of nerve cells (and muscle cells) with respect to:
----- membrane potential (voltage inside vs. outside)
----- unequal distribution of ions (esp. K+ and Na+)
----- electro-chemical gradient
----- Na/K ATPase
----- voltage sensitive ion channels
37. What is the "resting potential" of a nerve (or muscle) cell? What properties contribute to the "resting potential"?
38. What is the "action potential"? What is the role of voltage sensitive ion channels in the "action potential"? Why do "action potentials" "self propagate"?
39. Do action potentials occur in dendrites? In axons? In cell bodies?
40. Explain how "neurotransmitter release" is the result of most neuronal activation. What is a synapse? Describe the chemical communication events that occur at the synapse (controlled release of neurotransmitter, receptor activation, signal transduction). How does synaptic activity lead to neuronal activation?
41. What kinds of chemicals are neurotransmitters? How do these differ from hormones?
42. Describe the components of a nervous system in terms of (1) sensory input, (2) central processing, and (3) motor output. Describe decision making in these same terms. Describe behavior in these same terms.
43. Sensory mechanisms reside at the interface between organism and environment. Describe general features of the sensory mechanisms of (1) smell, (2) touch, (3) vision, (4) hearing.
44. SMELL: Compare the anatomy and biochemistry of an olfactory neuron to the "basic nerve cell" you described above. What is the difference between the nose as a smell organ and the olfactory neuron as an odor detector. How is an odor molecule detected by an olfactory neuron (i.e. signal transduction).
45. VISION: Compare the anatomy and biochemistry of a visual neuron with an olfactory neuron. Light receptor neurons and olfactory neurons have nearly identical receptor proteins: compare retinal with an odor and describe how both olfactory and visual receptors are activated. What is the signal transduction pathway in our visual cells?
46. Sensory organs translate the relevant features of the environment into topographic spatial neuronal maps in the brain. Describe this process for the visual system (see p. 1037, fig. 45.11). Suggest how a similar map might exist for the auditory system (see. p. 1039, fig. 45.13 b).
47. Become familiar with the basic parts of a muscle: muscle vs. tendons, muscle fibers, myofibrils. The muscle cell or "fiber" contains one or many nuclei? What is the sarcoplasmic reticulum?
48. Skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle and smooth muscle all function/contract by essentially the same process. These three muscle types differ principally in how they regulate contractions, and in the "regularity" of their organization. Skeletal muscle (and cardiac muscle) appear "striated" under a microscope. What are the striations? What is a sarcomere? Z-line, thin filament, thick filament?
49. What is the biochemical mechanism underlying muscle contraction? What is actin and myosin? How do actin and myosin interact to accomplish muscle contraction? What is the role of ATP in effecting muscle contraction?
50. What are tropomyosin and troponin? How do tropomyosin and troponin regulate muscle contraction? What is the role of Ca++ in regulating muscle contraction?
51. Begin in the spinal cord with a motor neuron. How do you cause a muscle to contract? Once it begins contracting, how do you stop it from contracting? In other words, what mechanisms turn muscles on and off?
52. To say that Ca++ is an important regulatory molecule is a gross understatement. Ca++ is central in many signal transduction pathways following hormonal or neurotransmitter signaling (post-synaptic). Action potentials in neurons regulate intracellular Ca++ at the synapse to stimulate neurotransmitter release (pre-synaptic). Action potentials (or membrane depolarizations) regulate intracellular Ca++ in muscle cells to allow interactions between actin and myosin? Because Ca++ has so many activities, cells go to great effort to keep Ca++ concentrations LOW except when needed. QUESTION: How is Ca++ removed from the cytoplasm?
53. Compare hydrostatic skeletons and structural skeletons (i.e. external cuticle or internal bone). What is the critical importance of a skeleton in movement (how do muscles and skeletons interact)?
54. Behavior could mean the coordinated movement of a muscle in an environmental context. You know about sensory neurons, the brain as a processing unit, motor neurons and muscles. Draw a simple model of how behavior is initiated, implemented and regulated.