Cell Biology Interview Questions & Answers
Posted On:December 9, 2018, Posted By: Latest Interview Questions,
Views: 2745, Rating : 
Cell Biology Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers & Experienced
Dear Readers, Welcome to Cell Biology Interview Questions have been designed specially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your Job interview for the subject of Cell Biology. These Cell Biology Questions are very important for campus placement test and job interviews. As per my experience good interviewers hardly plan to ask any particular questions during your Job interview and these model questions are asked in the online technical test and interview of many Medical Industry.
1. What is the cell theory?
Cell theory is a theory that asserts that the cell is the constituent unit of the living beings.
Before the discovery of the cell, it was not recognized that the living beings were made of building blocks like cells.
The cell theory is one of the basic theories of Biology.
2. Are there living beings without cell?
The virus is considered the only alive beings that do not have cells. Virus are constituted by genetic material (DNA or RNA) enwrapped by a protein capsule. They do not have membrane and cell organelles neither self-metabolism.
3. What are the two big groups into which cells are classified?
Cells can be classified as eukaryotic or prokaryotic.
Prokaryotic cell is that without a delimited nucleus. Eukaryotic cells are those with nucleus delimited by membrane.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: eukaryotic cell prokaryotic cell
4. Do bacteria cells have nucleus?
In bacteria the genetic material is dispersed in the cytosol and there is no internal membrane that delimits a nucleus.
5. Is there any bacteria made of more than one cell?
There are no pluricellular bacteria. All bacteria are unicellular prokaryotic.
6. What is the plasma membrane of the cell? What are its main functions?
The plasma membrane is the outer membrane of the cell it delimits the cell itself and a cell interior with specific conditions for the cellular function. Since it is selectively permeable the plasma membrane has an important role for the passage of substances inwards or outwards.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: cell membrane
7. What are the chemical substances that compose the plasma membrane?
The main constituents of the plasma membrane are phospholipids, proteins and carbohydrates. The phospholipds, amphipathic molecules, are regularly organized in the membrane according to their polarity: two layers of phospholipids form the lipid bilayer with the polar part of the phospholipids pointing to the exterior of the layer and the non polar phospholipid chains in the interior. Proteins can be found embedded in the lipid bilayer and there are also some carbohydrates bound to proteins and to phospholipids in the outer face of the membrane.
8. What is the difference between plasma membrane and cell wall?
Plasma membrane and cell wall is not the same thing. Plasma membrane, also called cell membrane, is the outer membrane common to all living cells and it is made of a phospholipid bilayer, embedded proteins and some appended carbohydrates.
Because cell membranes are fragile, in some types of cells there are even outer structures that support and protect the membrane, like the cellulose wall of plant cells and the chitin wall of some fungi cells. Most bacteria also present an outer cell wall made of peptidoglycans and other organic substances.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: cell wall
9. What are the main respective constituents of cell walls in bacteria, protists, fungi and plants?
In bacteria cell wall is made of peptidoglycans; among protists algae have cell wall made of cellulose; in fungi, the cell wall is made of chitin (the same substance that makes the exoskeleton of arthropods); in plants, the cell wall is made of cellulose too.
10. Do membranes form only the outer wrapping of cells?
Lipid membranes do not form only the outer cover of cells. Cell organelles, such as the Golgi complex, mitochondria, chloroplasts, lysosomes, the endoplasmic reticula and the nucleus, are delimited by membranes too.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: cell nucleus11. Which type of cell came first in evolution the eukaryotic cell or the prokaryotic cell?
This is an interesting problem of biological evolution. The most accepted hypothesis asserts that the more simple cell, the prokaryotic cell, appeared early in evolution than the more complex eukaryotic cell. The endosymbiotic hypothesis, for example, affirms that aerobic eukaryotic cells appeared from the mutualist ecological interaction between aerobic prokaryotes and primitive anaerobic eukaryotes.
12. Concerning the presence of nucleus what is the difference between animal and bacterial cells?
Animal cells (cells of living beings of the kingdom Animalia) have an interior membrane that delimits a cell nucleus and thus they are eukaryotic cells; in these cells the genetic material is located within the nucleus. Bacterial cells (cells of living beings of the kingdom Monera) do not have organized cellular nucleus and so they are prokaryotic cells and their genetic material is found dispersed in the cytosol.
13. What are the three main parts of a eukaryotic cell?
The eukaryotic cell can be divided into two main portions: the cell membrane that separates the intracellular space from the outer space phisically delimiting the cell; the cytoplasm, the interior portion filled with cytosol (the aqueous fluid inside the cell); and the nucleus, the membrane-delimited internal region that contains the genetic material.
14. What are the main structures within the cell nucleus?
Within the cell nucleus the main structures are: the nucleolus, an optically dense region, spherical shaped, where there are concentrated ribosomal RNA (rRNA) associated to proteins (there may be more than one nucleolus in a nucleus); the chromatin, made of DNA molecules dispersed in the nuclear matrix during the cell interphase; the karyotecha, or nuclear membrane, the membrane that delimits the nucleus.
15. What are the substances that constitute the chromatin? What is the difference between chromatin and chromosome?
The chromatin, dispersed in the nucleus, is a set of filamentous DNA molecules associated to nuclear proteins called histones. Each DNA filament is a double helix of DNA and thus a chromosome.
16. How is the fluid that fills the nucleus called?
The aqueous fluid that fills the nuclear region is called karyolymph, or nucleoplasm. In the fluid there are proteins, enzymes and other important substances for the nuclear metabolism.
17. what substances is the nucleolus made? Is there a membrane around the nucleolus?
Nucleolus is a region within the nucleus made of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and proteins. It is not delimited by membrane.
18. What is the name of the membrane that delimits the nucleus? To which component of the cell structure that membrane is contiguous?
The nuclear membrane is also called karyotheca. The nuclear membrane is continuous to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.
19. What are the main cytoplasmic structures present in animal cells?
The main cytoplasmic structures of the cell are the centrioles, the cytoskeleton, lysosomes, mitochondria, peroxisomes, the Golgi apparatus, the endoplasmic reticula and ribosomes.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: cell organelles
20. What are cytoplasmic inclusions?
Cytoplasmic inclusions are cytoplasmic molecular aggregates, such as pigments, organic polymers and crystals. They are not considered cell organelles.
Fat drops and glycogen granules are examples of cytoplasmic inclusions.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: cytoplasmic inclusions
21. Where in the cell can ribosomes be found? What is the main biological function of ribosomes?
Ribosomes can be found free in the cytoplasm, adhered to the outer side of the nuclear membrane or associated to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane defining the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Ribosomes are the structures where protein synthesis takes place.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: ribosomes
22. What is the difference between smooth and rough endoplasmic reticulum?
The endoplasmic reticulum is a delicate membranous structure contiguous to the nuclear membrane and present in the cytoplasm. It forms an extense net of channels throughout the cell and it is divided in rough and smooth types.
The rough endoplasmic reticulum has great amount of ribosomes adhered to the external side of its membrane. The smooth endoplasmic reticulum does not have ribosomes attached to its membrane.
The main functions of the rough endoplasmic reticulum are synthesis and storage of proteins made in the ribosomes. The smooth endoplasmic reticulum plays a role in the lipid synthesis and, in muscle cells it is importante in the conduction of the contraction stimulus.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: endoplasmic reticulum
23. A netlike membranous complex of superposed flat saccules with vesicles detaching from the extremities seen in electronic microscopy. What is the observed structure? What is its biological function?
What is being observed is the Golgi complex, or Golgi apparatus. This cytoplasmic organelle is associated with chemical processing and modification of proteins made by the cell and with storage and branding of these proteins for posterior use or secretion. Vesicles seen in the electronic microscope contain material already processed, ready to be exported (secreted) by the cell. The vesicles detach from the Golgi apparatus, travel across the cytoplasm and fuse with the plasma membrane then secreting their substances to the exterior.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: Golgi apparatus
24. On which organelle of the cell structure does intracellular digestion depends? What is the chemical content of those organelles?
Intracellular digestion occurs by the action of lysosomes. Lysosomes have digestive enzymes (hydrolases) that are made in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and stored in the Golgi apparatus. Lysosomes are hydrolase-containing vesicles that detach from the Golgi apparatus.
25. Why lysosomes are know as “the cleaners” of the cell waste?
Lysosomes make autophagic and heterophagic digestion: autophagic digestion by digesting residual substances from the cellular metabolism; heterophagic digestion by digesting substances that enter the cell. Lysosomes enfold the substances to be degraded forming digestive vacuoles, or residual vacuoles, that later migrate toward the plasma membrane fusing with it and liberating (exocytosis) the digested material to the exterior.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: lysosomes
26. Which are the cell organelles that participate in the cell division and in the formation of cillia and flagella of some eukaryotic cells?
The organelles that participate in the cell division and in the formation of cilia and flagella of some eukaryotic cells are the centrioles. Some cells have cillia (paramecium, the bronchial ciliated epithelium, etc.) or flagella (flagellate protists, sperm cells, etc.); these cell structures are composed by microtubules originated from the centrioles. Centrioles also make the aster microtubules that are very important for cell division.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: centrioles
27. What are the morphological, chemical and functional similarities and differences between lysosomes and peroxisomes?
Similarities: lysosomes and peroxisomes are small membranous vesicles that contain enzymes and enclose residual substances from internal or external origin degrading them. Differences: lysosomes have digestive enzymes (hydrolases) that break substances to be digested into small molecules; peroxisomes contain enzymes that degrade mainly long-chained fatty acids and amino acids and that inactivate toxic agents including ethanol; within peroxisomes there is the enzyme catalase, responsible for the oxidation of organic compounds by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and, when this substance is in excess, by the degradation of the peroxide into water and molecular oxygen.
28. What are mitochondria? What is the basic morphology of these organelles and in which cells can they be found?
Mitochondria are the organelles in which the most important part of the cellular respiration occurs: the ATP production.
Mitochondria are organelles delimited by two lipid membranes. The inner membrane invaginates to the interior of the organelle forming cristae that delimitate the internal space known as mitochondrial matrix and where mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), mitochondrial RNA (mt RNA), mitochondrial ribosomes and respiratory enzymes can be found. Mitochondria are numerous in eukaryotic cells and they are even more abundant in those cells that use more energy, like muscle cells. Because they have their own DNA, RNA and ribosomes, mitochondria can self-replicate.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: mitochondria
29. Why can mitochondria be considered the power plants of the aerobic cells?
Mitochondria are the “power plants” of aerobic cells because within them the final stages of the cellular respiration process occurs. Cellular respiration is the process of using organic molecule (mainly glucose) and oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and energy. The energy is stored in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecules and later used in other cellular metabolic reactions. In mitochondria the two last steps of the cellular respiration take place: the Krebs cycle and the respiratory chain.
30. What is the endosymbiotic hypothesis about the origin of mitochondria? What are the molecular facts that support the hypothesis? To which other cellular organelles the hypothesis can also be applied?
It is presumed that mitochondria were primitive aerobic prokaryotes that were engulfed in mutualism by primitive anaerobic eukaryotes, receiving protection from these beings and offering energy to them. This hypothesis is called the endosymbiotic hypothesis on the origin of mitochondria.
The hypothesis is strengthened by some molecular evidences as the facts that mitochondria have own and independent DNA and protein synthesis machinery, with own RNA and ribosomes, and that they can self-replicate.
The endosymbiotic theory can be applied for chloroplasts too. It is supposed that these organelles were primitive photosynthetic prokaryotes because they have own DNA, RNA and ribosomes and they can self-replicate too.
31. What are the main components of the cytoskeleton?
The cytoskeleton is a network of very small tubules and filaments distributed throughout the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. It is made of microtubules, microfilaments and intermediate filaments.
Microtubules are formed by molecules of a protein called tubulin. Microfilaments are made of actin, the same protein that participates in the contraction of muscle cells. Intermediate filaments are made of protein too.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: cytoskeleton
32. What are the functions of the cytoskeleton?
As the name indicates, the cytoskeleton is responsible for the supporting of the normal shape of the cell; it also acts as a facilitator for substance transport across the cell and for the movement of cellular organelles. For example, the sliding between actin-containing filaments and the protein myosin creates pseudopods. In cells of the phagocytic defense system, like macrophages, cytoskeleton is responsible for the plasma membrane projections that engulf the external material to be interiorized and attacked by the cell.
33. What are chloroplasts? What is the main function of chloroplasts?
Chloroplasts are organelles present in the cytoplasm of plant and algae cells. Likewise mitochondria, chloroplasts have two boundary membranes and many internal membranous sacs. Within the organelle there are own DNA, RNA and ribosomes and also the pigment chlorophyll, responsible for absorption of photic energy that is used in photosynthesis.
The main function of chloroplasts is photosynthesis: the production of highly energetic organic molecules (glucose) from carbon dioxide, water and light.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: chloroplasts
34. What is the molecule responsible for the absorption of photic energy for photosynthesis? Where is that molecule located in photosynthetic cells?
The chlorophyll molecules are the responsible for the absorption of the light energy for photosynthesis. These molecules are found on the internal membranes of chloroplasts.
35. What are the colors (of the electromagnetic spectrum) absorbed by plants? What would happen to photosynthesis if the green light waves that reach a vegetable were blocked?
Chlorophyll absorbs all other colors of the electromagnetic spectrum but it practically does not absorb the green. The green color is reflected and such reflection provides the characteristic color of plants. If the green light that reaches a plant is blocked and the exposition of the plant to other colours is maintained there would be no harm for photosynthesis. Apparent paradox: the green light is not important for photosynthesis.
There is difference between the optimun color frequency for the two main types of chlorophyll, the chlorophyll A and the chlorophyll B. Chlorophyll A has an absorption peak in approximately 420 nm wavelenght (anil) and chlorophyll B has its major absorption in 450 nm wavelenght (blue).
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: electromagnetic spectrum
36. What is the way followed by the energy absorbed by plants to be used in photosynthesis?
The energy source of photosynthesis is the sun, the unique and central star of our planetary system. In photosynthesis the solar energy is transformed into chemical energy, the energy of the chemical bonds of the produced glucose molecules (and of the released molecular oxygen). The energy of glucose then is stored as starch (a glucose polymer) or it is used in the cellular respiration process and transfered to ATP molecules. ATP is consumed in metabolic processes that spend energy (for example, in active transport across membranes).
37. what substance the plant cell wall is made? Is that substance a polymer made of which monomer?
The plant cell wall is made of cellulose. Cellulose is a polymer whose monomer is glucose. There are other polymers of glucose, like glycogen and starch.
Cell Structure Review - Image Diversity: plant cell wall
38. What is the function of the plant cell wall?
The plant cell wall has structural and protective functions. It plays important role in the constraint of the cell size, preventing the cell to break when it absorbs much water.
39. What are plant cell vacuoles? What are their functions? How is the covering membrane of the vacuoles called?
Plant cell vacuoles are cell structures delimited by membranes within which there is an aqueous solution made of several substances like carbohydrates and proteins. In young plant cells many small vacuoles can be seen; within adult cells the most part of the internal area of the cell is occupied by a central vacuole.
The main function of the vacuoles is the osmotic balance of the intracellular space. They act as “an external space” inside the cell. Vacuoles absorb or release water in response to the cellular metabolic necessities by increasing or lowering the concentration of osmotic particles dissolved in the cytosol. Vacuoles also serve as storage place for some substances.
The membrane that delimits the vacuoles is called tonoplast, named after the osmotic function of the structure.
40. What is a membrane?
Membrane is any delicate sheet that separates one region from other blocking or permitting (selectively or completely) the passage of substances. The skin, for example, can be considered a membrane that separates the exterior from the interior of the body; cellophane, used in chemical laboratories to separate solutions, acts as membrane too.
41. Concerning their permeability how are membranes classified?
Membranes can be classified as impermeable, permeable, semipermeable or selectively permeable.
An impermeable membrane is that through which no substance can pass. Semipermeable membranes are those that let only solvent, like water, to pass through it. Permeable membranes are those that let solvent and solutes, like ions and molecules, to pass across it. There are still selectively permeable membranes, i.e., membranes that besides allowing the passage of solvent let only some specific solutes to pass blocking others.
42. What is diffusion?
Diffusion is the spreading of substance molecules from a region where the substance is more concentrated to other region where it is less concentrated. For example, during the boiling of water in a kitchen gaseous water particles tend to uniformly spread in the air by diffusion.
43. What is meant by concentration gradient? Is it correct to refer to “concentration gradient of water”?
Concentration gradient is the difference of concentration of a substance between two regions.
Concentration is a term used to designate the quantity of a solute divided by the total quantity of the solution. Since water in general is the solvent in this situation it is not correct to refer to “concentration of water” in a given solution.
44. What is the difference between osmosis and diffusion?
Osmosis is the phenomenon of movement of solvent particles, in general water, from a region of lower solute concentration to a region of higher solute concentration. Diffusion, in the other hand, is the movement of solutes from a region of higher solute concentration to a region of lower solute concentration.
One can consider osmosis as movement of water (solvent) and diffusion as movement of solutes, both concentration gradient-driven.
45. What is osmotic pressure?
Osmotic pressure is the pressure created in a aqueous solution by a region of lower solute concentration upon a region of higher solute concentration forcing the passage of water from that to this more concentrated region. The intensity of the osmotic pressure (in units of pressure) is equal to the pressure that is necessary to apply in the solution to prevent its dilution by the entering of water by osmosis.
It is possible to apply in the solution another pressure in the contrary way to the osmotic pressure, like the hydrostatic pressure of the liquid or the atmospheric pressure. In plant cells, for example, the rigid cell wall makes opposite pressure against the tendency of water to enter when the cell is put under a hypotonic environment. Microscopically, the pressure contrary to the osmotic pressure does not forbid water to pass through a semipermeable membrane but it creates a compensatory flux of water in the opposite way.
46. Can solutions with same concentration of different solutes have different osmotic pressures?
The osmotic pressure of a solution does not depend on the nature of the solute, it depends only on the quantity of molecules (particles) in relation to the total solution volume. Solutions with same concentration of particles even containing different solutes exert same osmotic pressure.
Even when the solution contains a mixture of different solutes its osmotic pressure depends only on its total particle concentration regardless the nature of the solutes.
47. How are solutions classified according to their comparative tonicity?
Comparatively to other a solution can be hypotonic (or hyposmotic), isotonic (or isosmotic) or hypertonic (or hyperosmotic).
When a solution is less concentrated than other the adjective hypotonic is given and the more concentrated is called hypertonic. When two compared solutions have same concentration both receives the adjective isotonic. So this classification makes sense only for comparison of solutions.
48. Concerning permeability what type of membrane is the cell membrane?
The cell membrane is a selectively permeable membrane, i.e., it allows the passage of water and some selected solutes.
Cell Membrane Review - Image Diversity: cell membrane
49. What are the basic constituents of the cell membrane?
The cell membrane is formed of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates.
The membrane lipids are phospholipids, a special type of lipid to which one extremity a phosphate group is bound thus assigning electric charge to this region of the molecule. Since phospholipids have one electric charged extremity and a long neutral organic chain they can organize themselves in two layers of associated molecules: the hydrophilic portion (polar) of each layer faces outwards in contact with water (a polar molecule too) of the extracellular and the intracellular space and the hydrophobic chains (non polar) faces inwards isolated from the water. Because this type of membrane is made of two phospolipid layers it is also called bilipid membrane.
Membrane proteins are embedded and dispersed in the compact bilipid structure. Carbohydrates appear in the outer surface of the membrane associated to some of those proteins under the form of glycoproteins or bound to phospholipids forming glycolipidis. The membrane carbohydrates form the glycocalix of the membrane.
This description (with further explanations) is kown as the fluid mosaic model about the structure of the cell membrane.
Cell Membrane Review - Image Diversity: phospholipid bilayer membrane proteins glycocalyx
50. What are the respective functions of phospholipids, proteins and carbohydrates of the cell membrane?
Membrane phospholipids have structural function they form the bilipid membrane that constitutes the cell membrane itself.
Membrane proteins have several specialized functions. Some of them are channels for substances to pass through the membrane, others are receptors and signalers of information, others are enzymes, others are cell identifiers (cellular labels) and there are still those that participate in the adhesion complexes between cells or between the internal surface of the membrane and the cytosketeleton.
Membrane carbohydrates, associated to proteins or to lipids, are found in the outer surface of the cell membrane and they have in general labeling functions for recognition of the cell by other cells and substances (for example, they differentiate red blood cells in relation to the ABO blood group system), immune modulation functions, pathogen sensitization functions, etc.