Name Student ID Zoo 470 Exam 1 Spring 2014 February 26 2014 This exam has a total of 6 pages and a total of 50 points You will have 90 minutes to complete it Please put your name and student ID on all pages Good luck 1 Provide brief definitions for each of the following 4 points a Yamanaka factor b Sertoli cell c Cortical granule d Localized determinant 2 Reproduction in humans is regulated by hormones A major pharmaceutical company has used this fact to develop commercial products a One product on the market is targeted towards women having difficulty becoming pregnant It detects two pituitary hormones in urine that correlate with the ovulatory cycle What hormones should this kit test for 1 point Two hormones used in the kit and c A third product produced by this company is a home pregnancy test that tests for successful conception i e fertilization within 7 days of the event What hormone does this product test for 1 point Hormone used in the kit d RU486 interferes with the normal function of progesterone during early pregnancy What tissue is the most important target of progesterone that is affected by the drug 1 point Tissue e What tissue s or cells normally produce progesterone 1 point Tissue Page 1 Name Student ID 3 Circle true T or false F for each of the following 8 points T F Targeted gene insertion by homologous recombination is a technique that is specific to mouse ES cells and not generally applicable to other mammals such as humans T F T F Like European Union countries the United States has passed legislation outlawing human cloning Smoothened receptors are important in embryos because they allow attachment of migrating cells to the extracellular matrix T F Unlike mammalian sperm sea urchin sperm produce a long acrosomal process T F Experiments involving separation of sea urchin blastomeres indicate that the right and left halves of early sea urchin embryos are autonomously specified in the 2 or 4 cell embryo The formation of the fertilization envelope in sea urchins involves release of proteoglycans from cortical granules which swell to help lift off the vitelline envelope Wnt signaling always leads to accumulation of catenin in the nucleus of the responding cell leading to changes in its state of differentiation T F T F T F If a female zebrafish is homozygous for a maternal effect mutation that is lethal and she is mated with a wild type male one quarter of her offspring will die T F One outcome of cloning by nuclear transplantation in endangered species is an increase in genetic diversity due to a decrease in the size of the gene pool Once mammalian sperm are produced following meiosis their final maturation occurs in the seminiferous tubule In mammalian cloning experiments Dolly was a surprise because cloning from embryonic cells had previously been shown to be impossible in mammals In the organizer experiment of Spemann the resulting secondary axis is formed entirely from the implanted material Sorting out experiments indicate that different differentiated cells have different cell surface properties Fertilization of a mammalian zygote typically occurs in the oviduct note the oviduct is called the Fallopian tube in humans A clone produced by transplanting a nucleus from a somatic cells of a wildtype mouse into an enucleated oocyte from a female mouse carrying a disease causing mutation in the mitochondrial genome would likely be free of mitochondrial related disease ES cells can generate many differentiated cells types but not cells that give rise to sperm or oocytes T F T F T F T F T F T F T F 4 Isolation of cells with extensive developmental plasticity is a major goal of regenerative medicine a Provide two pieces of evidence that pre compacted mammalian embryos are totipotent 2 points Evidence 1 Evidence 2 Page 2 Name Student ID 4 cont b Are inner cell mass cells from which embryonic stem ES cells are produced totipotent Explain your answer Are ICM cells totipotent Circle one 1 point Yes No Explanation 2 points c You are in Shinya Yamanaka s lab in Japan and you are competing with Jamie Thomson s group to find new ways to perform induced pluripotency You have induced human cells that you believe are pluripotent Describe one experiment that would show that your induced human cells seem to be pluripotent 2 points d At least some induced pluripotent iPS cells in mice are now known to be truly pluripotent Provide one piece of evidence showing that this is true 1 point 5 Cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer in mammals has raised several scientific and ethical issues a Most scientists oppose using somatic cell nuclear transfer to produce human babies reproductive cloning What common molecular defect in the vast majority of cloned mammals leads them to adopt this position 1 point Defect b Many scientists are in favor of therapeutic cloning for production of stem cells Has there ever been a documented case of successful therapeutic cloning in humans Circle the correct answer 1 point Yes No c Other scientists are opposed to therapeutic cloning What is the primary ethical objection to therapeutic cloning 1 point Page 3 Name Student ID 6 You are studying ZP3 in the laboratory of its discoverer Paul Wassarman a You and others have used a variety of techniques to study ZP3 s function Match the statements about ZP3 on the left with the appropriate response from the right hand column that could be used to obtain that information Note Choices from the right may be used more than once but each discovery should be matched with the single best answer from the right hand column 2 points Discovery ZP3 mRNA is present at high levels in the granulosa cumulus cells of the ovary When mice overexpress ZP3 their oocytes are more easily fertilized than wild type After fertilization individual zona pellucidas were examined and the distribution of ZP3 protein was altered Early mouse embryos from wildtype mothers in which ZP3 mRNA is knocked down appear normal Possible technique used a In situ hybridization b Targeted mutation knockout c Transgenic mice d RNAi e Immunostaining f Forward genetics g None of the above b You are a conservation biologist testing whether or not proteins found in the zona pellucida around the oocytes of a rare rainforest monkey confer sperm binding Assume you can biochemically purify all of the major proteins from the zona and that standard in vitro fertilization techniques are possible Describe one way that you could identify which protein s confer sperm egg