VCE Biology Questions Thread

chimichurri

Hey guys! just wondering if you could help me out with a few questions:

do all cells have antigens?
do all self cells in an organism have the same MHC marker?
why isn’t the microbiota barrier detected as non-self? do these bacterial cells have the same antigens as our cells?
do we need to know about allergy treatments like antihistamine meds, epipens and desensitation?
are mhc 2 makers empty when there is no pathogen engulfed within the apc?
are mhc 2 markers on activated t cells and b cells too?
do we need to know the types of protozoa like ciliated etc?
is the blood-brain barrier considered a physical or chemical barrier?
Are all WBCs attracted by cytokines?
how do we know which cell types will respond to certain scenarios and which will not e.g. how do we know when macrophages will act vs dendritic cells?
do NK cells only react to viral pathogens
do we need to know about basophils?
are all phagocytes APCs?
why are NK cells considered lymphocytes? I thought it was only B and T cells
- when non-self antigens enter the lymph node in the humoral response, are these on a pathogen, on an APC or just by themselves?
why do memory B-cells produce a faster reaction upon second infection than just naïve B-cells? don’t the have the same structure?
do memory B-cells stay in the lymph node?
are lymphocytes only B cells or T cells? I though all WBC could be called lymphocytes?
do both b and t cells undergo clonal expansion or just b cells?
the textbook I have says that inactivated and subunit vaccines require “booster vaccinations to maintain long-term immunity, by increasing the number of memory B and T cells”. So are B cells and T cells in these vaccines? Or are there pathogens / parts of pathogens in these vaccines? Is the adaptive immune response activated at all?
the textbook only uses the terms emerging and re-emerging diseases when talking about infectious diseases. can you have an emerging non-infectious disease?
when talking about monoclonal antibodies: is the myeloma tumour cell a cancer cell? can it be a malignant tumour cell? or must it be the target cancer?
why must the cancer cell that the mAbs come into contact with be a cancer B cell?
do the loads from the conjugated mAbs kill the cancer cells? or just stop their growth?
wouldn't the hybridoma produce normal antibodies? not bispecific or conjugated? how does this work?

thank you so so much - I know there are a lot so any help would be gratefully appreciated 🙂
thank youu

Taaaa76

I am going to attempt to answer as many as I can:

do all cells have antigens? Yes, but only nucleated cells (all except Red blood cells) have MHC markers
do we need to know about allergy treatments like antihistamine meds, epipens and desensitation? In our school, we didn't even touch on these. I don't think we need to know these. I noticed a trend with exam questions: you don't need to know many examples, because they usually explain it to you in the exam and they expect you to apply the principles you know to these unfamiliar examples.
are mhc 2 markers on activated t cells and b cells too? MHC 2 markers are found on B cells, dendritic cells, and macrophages. I don't think they are on T cells.
do NK cells only react to viral pathogens? NK cells kill virally infected cells
are all phagocytes APCs? neutrophils(type of phagocyte) are not APCs because they don't have MHC 2
do both b and t cells undergo clonal expansion or just b cells? both
the textbook I have says that inactivated and subunit vaccines require “booster vaccinations to maintain long-term immunity, by increasing the number of memory B and T cells”. So are B cells and T cells in these vaccines? Or are there pathogens / parts of pathogens in these vaccines? Is the adaptive immune response activated at all? They have pathogen/ pathogen parts and those trigger the adaptive immune response. The adaptive immune response will produce memory cells that give you long term active immunity.

Hope this helps 🙂

chimichurri

Taaaa76 thank you so so much!!!

Meep<3

Hi everyone, I was wondering if someone could please explain the difference between attenuation and repression.

Taaaa76

Both attenuation and repression are forms of gene regulation in the trp operon.
Repression involves supressing the trp operon when there is lots of free tryptophan in the bacteria cell.
Attenuation involves supressing the trp operon when there is lots of tryptophan attached to tRNA in the cell.
That's one of the main differences.

Meep<3

ohh ok thankss

Taaaa76

No problem 🙂

chimichurri

hey! do we need to know the exact chemical barriers in plants? - defensins, resins, oils, saponin etc? and in humans things like surfactants?

Taaaa76

i think you should just memorise a few examples just in case they ask you to name some in the exam.

bananabread

I was wondering if anyone would recommend skipping biology units 1 and 2 as my school does not offer unit 1 and 2 subjects in year 10 and we just go straight into 3 and 4 next year for one of our subjects. the year 12's are advising me to do biology 3 and 4 next year or to drop it completely as the workload will take time away from my other subjects, however my teachers insist that the jump from year 10 to unit 3 and 4 will completely overwhelm me which I am really afraid of. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you 😃DD

Taaaa76

Personally I wouldn't recommend it, the students in my class that haven't done units 1 and 2 are struggling right now. Also, a lot of the stuff from units 1 and 2 are revisited in more depth in units 3 and 4.
It's also important to know that on top of catching up on units 1 and 2, you have to be up to date with the content and the content is quite heavy.
However, if you absorb information like a literal sponge, it can be possible.
Ultimately, you are the only one who knows you're level, so only you can know, but that's my view on it.

bananabread

Taaaa76 Thank you so much 😃
Do you recommend anything that I could do from now on to get me up to date if I were to do biology 3/4 next year?
I have heard many comments that biology is about rote learning which I find quite easy and manageable. Is this true or this just a misconception?

_sophiestudies_

bananabread I just wanted to quickly jump in with my thoughts (I know others learn differently or have different opinions), but please don't assume that you'll get by fine just rote learning. I mean, maybe some people do, but biology is very conceptual and can be quite complex. There are things to memorise and rote learn, but you need to know how to apply the content to a range of scenarios. The VCAA exam is practically just application questions, with the odd theory base multiple choice or 1 marker. Focusing on understanding and learning how to craft answers and apply the content is crucial. Yes, memorising is helpful, but don't memorise if you don't understand in the first place. Biology 3/4 is a great subject (although I might be biased as a uni student that studies bio haha), but it's not an easy subject. You definitely sound capable and I would go for it, but remember, like any VCE subject, it takes a lot of hard work. Anyway, I hope that helps a little. Good luck for your studies!

Taaaa76

bananabread

At your own pace you could start going through AOS 1 Unit 1 (veryyyy important) and AOS 3 Unit 1 (mainly for the experiment at the end of the year).
You would also need to study genetics in unit 2, but I myself am doing units 3/4 bio so I haven't gone through unit 4 (which is the unit that requires genetics). So I can't really give advice on that.

bananabread

_sophiestudies_ I also just wanted to ask if bio can be learned visually like diagrams and pictures because I find that the most enjoyable way to learn and the use of diagrams and visual ways to describe processes drew me to biology in the first place.

bananabread

Omg thank you so much. I will definitely focus on learning to apply my knowledge now to practice for the real deal : ) Thank you again : D

_sophiestudies_

bananabread all good! Bio is super fun, so if you end up picking it, enjoy the ride!

_sophiestudies_

bananabread yes visuals are so important in bio! Visuals are so helpful in understanding process, since otherwise its just a jumble of confusing words on a page. I'd definitely use them when studying bio!

bananabread

Taaaa76 Thank you so much, I'll make sure to learn these ; D

bananabread

_sophiestudies_ Thank you so much : DD

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