Answer one of the following questions and get a bounty of 20 points and 200 gp. Please only answer one so hopefully a bunch of people can get a chance at these. No additional points or gold will be awarded for answering two or more correctly.


1. Name three common methods of differentiating species, and give examples of the limits of each method (aka counter arguments for why each method is not sufficient in truly differentiating species).


2. Why is the current Linnaean taxonomy under fire by some modern biologist? What do they propose to take its place?


3. Specifically, why is it so important that our body gets oxygen? What specific cellular process does it enhance?


4. Below is the DNA sequence of a new species Blarb. Which other species is it's most likely closest relative.

ATACGAT - Blarb

TACGATA - Tamua
ACAGGGT - Vandu
TATGCTA - Raki


5. What is the corresponding mRNA sequence for this DNA subsequence ATACGAT? Also what is the function of mRNA?


6. How about the tRNA sequence for the DNA subsequence ATACGAT? What is the function of tRNA?

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY I CANNOT CHOOSE!!!!!!

*squeals gleefully*

Finally, something I KNOWWWWWWW!

Ok, hmm...let's see, which one shall I nail???? Haha. I'll go with numero tres.

3. Oxygen is essential for the mitochondria of a cell to undergo aerobic respiration and enter the Kreb's cycle to produce the maximum output of ATP. If the body enters a hypoxic state and the mitochondria are deprived of oxygen, it will convert to anaerobic respiration but the energy output for that cycle is much lower, and therefore we cannot survive on glycolysis alone because it does not produce enough ATP to run basic cell functions. :D

Well, I take issue with #4: Where is the 5' end and the 3' end? do we assume the same orientation? If so I'll say the Tamua, since the two share the TAC and GAT codons for Isoleucine and Aspartic Acid.

Am I wrong or am I wrong?

well shit man bill you're reading too much into this lol. You forget I'm not a biology major, so take it down to like bio 101 level. I'm just doing the crap they taught us there. Figured I did enough math questions and am trying to make some somewhat hard questions in other fields.

So in short, i guess i don't understand relative genetics correctly enough, i'm guessing they didn't told us the whole story in bio 101. So ignore that question. Assume for 5 and 6 that its the middle of a chain, and ignore special codons (i forgot about those ><).

ps Icara, you are correcto +20 points and +200 gp.

Yay! And Bill, my guess was Tamua as well. :P

Since no one's biting, I'm tackling another one. I know I'm not supposed to, but I can't help it. :P

#5: ATACGAT DNA subsequence

TATGCTA is the corresponding mRNA subsequence. mRNA is necessary to
transport a 'copy' of the DNA sequence out of the nucleus, where it then transports
the code to the ribosomes for translation into protein.

Question #2
Linnaean Taxonomy-
A term for rank-based classification of organisms, in general. That is, taxonomy in the traditional sense of the word: rank-based scientific classification. It does not have an exact present form, Linnaean taxonomy is a collective term for what actually are several separate fields, which use similar approaches.

Over time, the understanding of the relationships between living things has changed. Linnaeus could only base his scheme on the structural similarities of the different organisms. The greatest change was the widespread acceptance of evolution as the mechanism of biological diversity and species formation, following the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. It then became generally understood that classifications ought to reflect the phylogeny of organisms, the descent by evolution. Therefore, some systematists have proposed a PhyloCode to replace it.