Free Biodiversity and Variety of Life MCQs with Answers

3,130 Biodiversity and Variety of Life MCQs from Biology, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

Biological classification uses taxonomic ranks, binomial nomenclature and shared characteristics to organize life into kingdoms. The major groups include prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants and animals, with comparisons based on cell type, cell wall, nutrition, body organization, reproduction and evolutionary relationships; prokaryotes lack a membrane-bound nucleus.

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3,130 questions · page 31 of 157

  • A. Reverse transcriptase
  • B. Integrase
  • C. Protease
  • D. Lysozyme

Explanation: HIV contains reverse transcriptase, integrase, and protease because these enzymes are essential for its replication cycle: reverse…

Correct answer: Lysozyme
  • A. In dead tissue
  • B. On the surface of the skin
  • C. In nutrient-rich culture media
  • D. Inside a living host cell

Explanation: Viruses can replicate only inside living host cells, as they depend on the host's metabolic and genetic machinery to make copies of…

Correct answer: Inside a living host cell
  • A. HIV
  • B. Poxviruses
  • C. COVID-19
  • D. HBV

Explanation: HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) measures about 100-120 nm in diameter.

Correct answer: Poxviruses
  • A. Fossil record
  • B. Traces in history
  • C. Reproductive ability
  • D. Nucleic acid

Explanation: Viruses do not have a fossil record because they lack hard structures such as bones, shells, or cell walls that can be preserved over…

Correct answer: Fossil record
  • A. Bacteria
  • B. Virus
  • C. Prions
  • D. Viroid

Explanation: Among bacteria, viruses, prions, and viroids, the only entity that does not contain nucleic acid is the prion.

Correct answer: Prions
  • A. Biotic factors
  • B. Chemical factors
  • C. Physical factors
  • D. All of these

Explanation: Chemical, physical, and biotic factors all directly influence virus transmission.

Correct answer: All of these
  • A. Balanced
  • B. Transitional
  • C. Threshold
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Among the options, the most accurate term is "transitional," because viruses display features of both living and non-living entities: they…

Correct answer: Transitional
  • A. More virulent and dangerous
  • B. More mutated
  • C. More transmissible
  • D. All of these

Explanation: When a virus attacks an unfamiliar organism, it undergoes repeated mutations.

Correct answer: All of these
  • A. Nucleic acid
  • B. Capsid symmetry
  • C. Host cell infectivity
  • D. All of these

Explanation: Viruses are extremely diverse and do not fit into the typical classification systems used for cellular organisms.

Correct answer: All of these
  • A. Lysozyme
  • B. Lipases
  • C. Proteases
  • D. Nucleases

Explanation: Bacteriophages use lysozyme to destroy the bacterial cell wall because peptidoglycan is made of alternating NAG-NAM sugars linked by β-1,4…

Correct answer: Lysozyme
  • A. Plasma membrane
  • B. Endoplasmic Reticulum Lumen
  • C. Host cell ribosomes
  • D. Host cell mitochondria

Explanation: Among the given options, the correct site of viral assembly is the plasma membrane or the site of viral replication within the host cell.

Correct answer: Plasma membrane
  • A. Mitochondrial membrane
  • B. Ribosomes
  • C. Lysosomal membrane
  • D. Plasma Membrane

Explanation: Viruses acquire their envelopes by budding through host cell membranes, with the plasma membrane being the primary site for many enveloped…

Correct answer: Plasma Membrane
  • A. Assembly
  • B. Uncoating
  • C. Integration
  • D. Maturation

Explanation: Option A: Assembly-The stage where viral genomes and structural proteins come together inside the host cell to form new virions.Option B…

Correct answer: Uncoating
  • A. Plant virus
  • B. Bacteriophages
  • C. Animal virus
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Animal viruses can enter host cells as whole particles because animal cells lack rigid walls, using processes like membrane fusion or…

Correct answer: Animal virus
  • A. Entomology
  • B. Virology
  • C. Epidemiology
  • D. Mycology

Explanation: Virology is the scientific discipline concerned with the study of the biology of viruses and viral diseases, including the distribution…

Correct answer: Virology
  • A. Bacteria
  • B. Viruses
  • C. Fungi
  • D. Both A and B

Explanation: According to Dmitri Ivanovsky (1892), the discoverer of the first virus (tobacco mosaic virus), the infectious agent that passed through…

Correct answer: Viruses
  • A. 1918
  • B. 1917
  • C. 1920
  • D. 1990

Explanation: Félix d'Hérelle, a French-Canadian microbiologist, is credited with the discovery of bacteriophages and the recognition of the phenomenon…

Correct answer: 1917
  • A. Yellow fever
  • B. Tobacco mosaic
  • C. Bacteriophages
  • D. Corona

Explanation: The yellow fever virus originated in Africa and was brought to the Western Hemisphere during the slave trade era, with the first epidemic…

Correct answer: Yellow fever
  • A. Capsid
  • B. Virion
  • C. Bacteriophage
  • D. Nucleus

Explanation: The virion, that is, the complete infectious virus particle, includes a genome comprising one or a few molecules of either DNA or RNA…

Correct answer: Virion
  • A. Only proteins
  • B. Only nucleic acids
  • C. Nucleic acid and protein coat
  • D. Nucleic acid, protein coat, lipid envelope

Explanation: A virus is not made of proteins alone (a) or nucleic acids alone (b). Its basic structure always includes nucleic acid surrounded by a…

Correct answer: Nucleic acid and protein coat