ScienceFreePrintable

Cellular Control Systems Test

A free science worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Cellular Control Systems Test

Analyze the evidence and apply your knowledge of homeostasis, feedback, gene expression, and cell-cycle control. For written responses, explain the biological reasoning. Select all correct answers where directed.

Control and communication

Use the questions to investigate how organisms maintain stable internal conditions.

1.A runner’s core temperature rises above its usual range. Which response most directly helps lower it?

Sweat production decreases and skin blood vessels constrict.
Sweat production increases and skin blood vessels dilate.
Shivering begins and skin blood vessels dilate.
Insulin release increases and liver cells store glucose.

2.Explain why thermoregulation is an example of negative feedback. Refer to the temperature change and the effect of the response.

3.During childbirth, stretching of the cervix stimulates oxytocin release, which strengthens uterine contractions and causes more cervical stretching. Identify the feedback type and explain how the loop ends.

4.A homeostatic control pathway detects a change, compares conditions with a target range, and activates a body part to act. Name the sensor, the decision-making control center, and the responding body part in this pathway.

Information flow and cell-cycle checkpoints

Connect molecular information processing to the control of cell division.

5.Put the usual pathway for gene expression in order by selecting the correct sequence.

Protein → RNA → DNA
DNA → RNA → protein
RNA → protein → DNA
DNA → protein → RNA

6.Select all processes that are part of the central dogma pathway from DNA to protein.

Transcription: DNA → RNA
Translation: RNA → protein
DNA replication: DNA → DNA
Glycolysis: glucose → pyruvate
Reverse transcription: RNA → DNA

7.A cell has completed DNA replication. Name the cell-cycle phase in which replication occurred and state one important condition checked before the cell enters mitosis.

8.A mutation disables a checkpoint that normally prevents a cell with damaged DNA from continuing through the cell cycle. Explain one possible consequence for the cell and one possible consequence for the organism.

Apply the systems

Use evidence and cause-and-effect reasoning to interpret a glucose-regulation scenario.

9.After a meal, blood glucose rises. The pancreas releases insulin; body cells take up more glucose, and the liver stores some as glycogen. Explain how this sequence restores homeostasis and identify the feedback type.

10.A researcher finds that a protein needed to pause the cell cycle is made in much smaller amounts after a gene mutation. Predict how this could affect cell-cycle control, and describe one piece of evidence that would support your prediction.