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IB Biology- Unit 2 Assessment

1. Lactose can't be digested by humans without being broken down.
The lactose intolerance test involves looking at glucose levels for a difference of more than 30
mg/dL after two hours.

a) What type of sugar is lactose? (1 mark)

disaccharide
b) Which person/people have lactose intolerance? (1 mark)
Persons A, C, D, E
c) What does the treatment for lactose intolerance do? Use data from above to support
your answer. (2 marks)
The treatment for lactose intolerance appears to decrease lactose concentration after
treatment. The treatment likely increases the hydrolyzation of lactose into glucose. As
evident by the increased amounts of glucose after treatment.
 d) Why might there be no change in person B after intervention? (Include keywords) (2
marks)
This person was not lactose intolerant meaning that their body was breaking down
the lactose properly before intervention, therefore there would be no change in results.
e) Outline how lactose-free milk is produced. (3 marks)
In order to produce lactose-free milk, lactase is added which causes the lactose within
the milk to break down the lactose before ingested. Therefore, the body which is unable to digest
lactose properly will not have to deal with the lactose.

2. Use the image below to answer the following questions.

a. What properties of water are shown in the image? (2 marks)

Due to hydrogen bonding, the crystalline structure of water when frozen causes it to be
less dense when solid, rather than its liquid form. As a result, the ice is able to remain on
the surface of the lake.
b. Explain why these properties are important in biology. (2 marks)
The crystalline structure of water due to hydrogen bonding is important in biology as it allows
for marine ecosystems to survive under frozen lakes during the winter. If this property of water
ceased to exist, many ecosystems would die during the winter as ice would sink.
3. Under laboratory conditions, muscle cells were broken up and separated into fractions of
mitochondria and cytoplasm in an attempt to learn more about cellular respiration. Each
fraction was incubated with glucose or pyruvate. Tests were carried out during incubation for
the presence of either carbon dioxide or lactic acid. The results are shown below:
 a. What does the presence of lactic acid in a sample indicate about what process is
occurring in each cell fraction? [1 mark]
The presence of lactic acid indicates anaerobic respiration/fermentation
b. Explain why lactic acid was produced by the cytoplasm fraction incubated with
glucose, but not the mitochondrial fraction. [1 mark]
Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm and is anaerobic

c. Why was no carbon dioxide produced by either fraction incubated with glucose?
[2 marks]
Since glucose was converted to pyruvate, without the mitochondria, the krebs
cycle was unable to take place, therefore no carbon dioxide was produced.
d. Why did the cytoplasm fraction produce lactic acid in the presence of both
glucose and pyruvate? [2 marks]
The cytoplasm fraction produced lactic acid with both glucose and pyruvate
because Lactic acid is a product of fermentation. Where both glucose and
pyruvate eventually end up producing lactic acid.
e. Why did the mitochondria produce carbon dioxide in the presence of pyruvate
but not in the presence of glucose? [1 mark]
When incubated with the pyruvate, the mitochondria was a product of the Krebs cycle
the took place

4. Determine the amino acid chain that would be made by the following sense strand of DNA
Show every step. [5 marks]
5’ GCC ATG CTG GCC AAG TCC TAA GGC 3’

1. Rna synthesis is conducted in the 5’ to 3’ direction

2. CGG TAC GAC CGG TTC AGG ATT CCG
3. CGG UAC GAC CGG UUC AGG AUU CCG

4. Arg. tyr. Asp. arg. Phe. arg. lle. pro.

B. Outline how translation depends on complementary base pairing. [3 marks]

Translation depends on complementary base pairing. After a DNA forms 2 DNA polymerase, a
free-floating complementary base pair to nucleotides. And for 3 nucleotides of mRNA, codon, is
complementary to the anticodon of the tRNA strand.

5. Outline how the structure of chloroplasts is related to their function. [3 marks]

The function of a chloroplast is suited to the function it conducts. The internal membrane that they
contain makes the function of photosynthesis efficient. Also Thylakoids that are flattened have a high
amount of SA in comparison to volume, making them to optimise the amount of hydrogen. And
lamella connects the stacks of thylakoids further optimising photosynthesis.

6. Why do people not immediately starve when glucose is not available through food? [3 marks]
This is due to the fact that fats or lipids are stored within the body as a backup source of energy in
case there is not immediate access to food. Therefore, when glucose is not immediately available, the
lipid stored energy is used up, which can be experienced visually as humans lose weight as they are
starved, most noticeably by the stomach.