Week 1

Question 1

What is the closest relative to land plants?

Answer 1

Charophytes (stoneworts)

Question 2

Charophytes and land plants share which 4 features?

Answer 2

1. Cell wall composition
2. Cytokinesis
3. Biochemistry
4. Sperm Ultrastructure

Question 3

What are ancestral traits?

Answer 3

Traits that stayed in the species from its ancestor.

Question 4

What are derived traits?

Answer 4

Traits that evolved, that are innovative. These are due to adaptations and are not found in ancestors.

Question 5

What are the adaptations to grow in dry conditions?

Answer 5

1. Waxy cuticle
2. Stomata
3. Vascular tissue

Question 6

What was the adaptation to defy gravity?

Answer 6

Lignified vascular tissue

Question 7

What is lignin?

Answer 7

A complex polymer built from six-carbon rings. It is extraordinarily strong for its weight and is particularly effective in resisting compressing forces such as gravity.

Question 8

What adaptations to provide protection from UV radiation?

Answer 8

Flavonoids acts as plants sunscreens (in all but hornworts)

Question 9

What was the reproducing adaptation used to resist desiccation?

Answer 9

Desiccation-resistant walled spores (with sporopollenin) produced in multi cellular sporangia.

Question 10

Are spores haploid of diploid?

Answer 10

Haploid (n)

Question 11

What is the adaptation used to protect reproductive cells?

Answer 11

Multicellular gametangia that produce gametes. The benefit of this is to protects gamers from drying and from physical damage in gametophyte.

Question 12

What is archegonia and antheridia?

Answer 12

The sperm producing structure is antheridium.
The egg producing structure is archegonium.

Question 13

What are the adaptations to protect the embryo?

Answer 13

Multicellular embryo that develops within the mother plants. This is beneficial because the embryo is protected and nourished by the mother through the initial stages of life.

Question 14

What is a sporophyte? What is a gametophyte?

Answer 14

A sporophyte is a diploid multicellular adult which produces spores by meiosis.
A gametophyte is a haploid multicellular adult which produces gametes by mitosis.

Question 15

Explain/draw the alternation of generations.

Answer 15

1. Sporophyte is a diploid multicellular adult that produces haploid spores by meiosis.
2. Spores don’t fertilize but grow by mitosis into multicellular gametophytes.
3. Gametophyte is a haploid multicellular adult that produces gametes by mitosis.
4. Gametes must fertilize to create diploid zygote, which grows by mitosis into multicellular sporophyte.
5. Cycle continues.

Question 16

What is the benefit of alternation of generations?

Answer 16

1. Diploid, multicellular sporophytes can make many more spores via meiosis than a single diploid zygote would.
2. Spores produced on land are easily dispersed through wind and can travel long distances.
3. In early lineages (mosses and ferns) sperm still requires water in order to swim to the egg. Later lineages, however (most seed plants) transfer their sperm in pollen grains.

Question 17

What is the adaptation to successful reproduction on land? What is the benefit of this?

Answer 17

The transition from gametophyte-dominant to sporophyte-dominant life cycles (within land plants).

This is beneficial because diploid sporophyte cells can respond more effectively to changes in the environment than gametophyte haploid cells can (hence the advantage of sporophyte-dominant life cycles).

Question 18

What is heterospory? What is homospory? What is the befit of heterospory?

Answer 18

Heterospory: The production of two different spores by different structures. This made possible 2 of the most important adaptation for life in dry environments: pollen and seeds.

Homospory: The production of a singly type of spore.

Question 19

What are microspores and megaspores?

Answer 19

Microspores: male gametophyte; sperm by mitosis

Megaspores: female gametophyte; eggs by mitosis

Question 20

How are pollen grains formed?

Answer 20

In heterosporous seed plants, the microspore germinates to form a tiny male gametophyte that is surrounded by a tough coat of sporopollenin.

Question 21

What are the benefits to pollen?

Answer 21

1. Pollen grain can be exposed to air for long periods of time without drying out.
2. They are tiny enough to be easily carried away by wind or animals.
3. Once it evolved, heterosporous plants lost their dependence on water to accomplish fertilization.

Question 22

What is the downside of retaining embryo’s? What is the function of a seed plant?

Answer 22

In ferns and horsetails, sporophytes have to live in the same place as the parent gametophyte. Seed plants overcome this limitation via well-packed embryos that can be dispersed to new locations.

Question 23

What are the benefits of the seed?

Answer 23

1. Seeds encase the embryo to protect in from drying out.
2. Seeds contain food supply for the early embryo survival.
3. They can be dispersed.

Question 24

What are The 3 misconceptions?

Answer 24

1) Misconception 1: Algae are embryophytes.
CORRECTION: Algae are not embryophytes, and this feature distinguishes plants from algal protists.

2) Misconception 2: Charophyceans are plants.
CORRECTION: Charophyceans are larger algae resembling plants but are not plants.

3) Misconception 3: Charophyceans are ancestral to plants.
CORRECTION: Charophyceans are not ancestral to plants nor identical to the last common ancestor shared with the plants.

Question 25

What characteristics are shared amongst land plants and some algae?

Answer 25

1. Brown and green algae have cellulose. 2. Green algae has chloroplasts with chlorophyll 3. They are multicellular, eukaryotic and photosynthetic

Question 26

Which of The following is correct? A. Charophytes are The ancestors of land plants. B. Charophyte-like algae are the ancestors of land plants. C. Chlorophytes are the ancestors of land plants.

Answer 26

B

Question 27

Which of The following is correct? A. The ancestors of land plants lived exactly 475 mya B. The ancestors of land plants lived longer than 475 mya C. The ancestors of land plants lived less than 475 mya

Answer 27

B

Question 28

Which of The following statements is correct? A. A sporophyte is diploid because it has 2 copies of each chromosome in each cell. B. A gametophyte is diploid because it has 2 copies of each chromosome in each Cell. C. A sporophyte is diploid because it is multicellular. D. A gametophyte is diploid because it is multicellular.

Answer 28

A

Question 29

Which of The following statements is correct? A. Female gametes are produced in The antheridia of The sporophyte. B. Female gametes are produced in The archegonia of The sporophyte. C. Female gametes are produced in The antheridia of the gametophyte. D. Female gametes are produced in the archegonia of The gametophyte.

Answer 29

D

Question 30

Which feature (not present in seedless plants) has contributed to The enormous success of seed plants on land? A. The sperm of The seed plants do not require water, as The sperm of seedless plants do B. The sperm of seedless plants do not require water, as the sperm of seed plants do. C. The fact that seed plants are much taller than seedless plants. D. The facts that seedless plants are much taller than seed plants.

Answer 30

A

Question 31

Which of The following statements is correct? A. Fungi propagate themselves by producing vast numbers of spores produced assexually. B. Molds reproduce by producing very few small spores. C. Penicillin was derived from a common mold. D. Fungi propagate themselves by producing vast Numbers of spores produced Only sexually.

Answer 31

C