Key term
AQA GCSE Combined Science Biology 8464
Bioenergetics
Cell Biology
Topic overviewEukaryotes and prokaryotesAnimal and plant cellsCell specialisation and differentiationMicroscopyChromosomes, mitosis and the cell cycleStem cells in embryos, adults and meristemsTherapeutic cloning, its risks, and cloning plantsDiffusion and the factors affecting its rateSurface area to volume ratio and exchange surfacesOsmosisActive transport
Ecology
Topic overviewLevels of organisation in an ecosystem, and what organisms needCompetition, interdependence and stable communitiesAbiotic factorsBiotic factorsAdaptationsProducers, food chains and sampling with quadrats and transectsPredators, prey and measuring population sizeHow materials are cycledWaste management and biodiversityLand use, deforestation and global warmingMaintaining biodiversity
Homeostasis and Response
Infection and Response
Inheritance, Variation and Evolution
Topic overviewSexual and asexual reproductionMeiosisDNA and the genomeGenetic terms, dominant and recessive allelesPunnett squares, probability and genetic crossesInherited disorders and sex determinationVariationEvolutionSelective breedingWhat genetic engineering is, and what it is used forGM crops, their risks, and the steps of the processEvidence for evolution, and extinctionFossilsResistant bacteriaClassification of living organisms
Organisation
Topic overviewLevels of organisation, and how enzymes workAmylase, proteases and lipasesBile, food tests and the effect of pH on amylaseThe heart, the lungs and double circulationThe pacemaker, the blood vessels and the bloodCoronary heart disease: a non-communicable diseaseHealth issuesRisk factors and causal mechanisms in diseaseSampling, correlation and interpreting risk dataCancerPlant tissues, and transpiration and its rateRoot hair cells, xylem, phloem and stomata
Infection and Response
- 8 subtopics
- 24 things to know
- Biology Paper 1
What Infection and Response covers
Infection and Response is examined in Biology Paper 1. It covers communicable diseases and how pathogens spread; viral, bacterial, fungal and protist diseases; human defence systems and vaccination; and antibiotics, painkillers and the discovery and development of drugs.
Where it is assessed
Biology Paper 1
Combined Science: Trilogy, Biology Paper 1: 1 hour 15 minutes, 70 marks, 16.7% of the qualification.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 8 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Communicable (infectious) diseasesPathogens and the four types of microorganism, spread by direct contact, water and air, reducing spread through hygiene, isolation and vaccination, and how bacteria and their toxins, and viruses inside cells, make people ill.Open →
- Viral diseasesMeasles symptoms, spread and vaccination, HIV from its first flu-like illness to late stage damage to the immune system, antiretroviral drugs and spread through sexual contact and shared needles, and tobacco mosaic virus in plants.Open →
- Bacterial diseasesSalmonella food poisoning, its symptoms and toxins, and control by vaccinating poultry and cooking thoroughly, and gonorrhoea, its symptoms, sexual transmission, resistance to penicillin and control with antibiotics and condoms.Open →
- Fungal and protist diseasesRose black spot, its symptoms, spread and treatment with fungicides, and malaria, caused by a protist carried by mosquito vectors, with its fever symptoms and control through mosquito nets and stopping mosquitoes breeding.Open →
- Human defence systemsNon-specific defences of the skin, nose, trachea, bronchi and stomach, why damaged cilia cause chest infections, the specific immune response and immunity, and phagocytosis, antibodies and antitoxins produced by white blood cells.Open →
- VaccinationWhat a vaccine contains and how it stimulates antibody production, why vaccinated people respond faster to a pathogen, protection when most of a population is immunised, and the timing of vaccines, second doses and vaccinating babies.Open →
- Antibiotics and painkillersHow antibiotics such as penicillin kill specific bacteria, resistant strains and why they are a concern, why antibiotics do not work on viruses, what painkillers do, why drugs that kill viruses are hard to develop, and refusing antibiotics for viral illness.Open →
- Discovery and development of drugsTraditional drugs from plants and microorganisms such as digitalis, aspirin and penicillin, drugs synthesised by chemists, testing for toxicity, efficacy and dose, preclinical testing, clinical trials starting with very low doses, peer review and caution over media claims, and placebos, double blind trials, random allocation and the ethics of placebos.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
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Key term
What is a non-specific defence, how does the nose keep pathogens out, and why do damaged cilia lead to chest infections?
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What is a pathogen?
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State two symptoms of measles.
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State three symptoms of Salmonella food poisoning.
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Describe the symptoms of rose black spot.
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What does a vaccine contain?
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What is an antibiotic?
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Who discovered penicillin, and what was it discovered in?
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Which four types of microorganism can act as pathogens?
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Why are most young children vaccinated against measles?
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What produces the symptoms of Salmonella food poisoning?
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Explain why rose black spot slows the growth of the plant.
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What does a vaccine stimulate the white blood cells to do?
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Explain why a doctor must choose the right antibiotic for an infection.
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Even when a drug is synthesised in a laboratory, what may its starting point be?
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Describe how a pathogen carried in the air passes from one person to another.
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What symptoms does HIV cause when a person is first infected?
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How is the spread of Salmonella controlled in poultry in the UK?
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What is meant by a vector?
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What is meant by a non-specific defence?
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Explain why being vaccinated does not usually make a person ill.
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What is meant by a resistant strain of bacteria?
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Why must a new medical drug be tested and trialled before it is used to treat people?
Take Infection and Response further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Bacteria vs Viruses
Bacteria: small living cells that reproduce rapidly and produce toxins that damage tissues. Viruses: very small pathogens that live and reproduce inside cells, damaging them.
Antibiotic vs Painkiller
Antibiotic: a medicine that kills bacteria inside the body without harming body tissues. Painkiller: a medicine that treats the symptoms of a disease but does not kill the pathogen.
Antibody vs Antitoxin
Antibody: a protein made by white blood cells that binds to one particular pathogen. Antitoxin: a substance made by white blood cells that neutralises the toxins released by bacteria.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is a pathogen?
Model answer
A microorganism that causes an infectious disease.
- 2
Which four types of microorganism can act as pathogens?
Model answer
Viruses, bacteria, protists and fungi.
- 3
Name the three routes by which pathogens are commonly spread.
Model answer
By direct contact, by water and by air.
- 4
Do pathogens infect only animals?
Model answer
No, pathogens infect plants as well as animals.
- 5
Describe how a pathogen carried in the air passes from one person to another.
Model answer
An infected person coughs or sneezes out droplets containing the pathogen, and another person inhales them.
- 6
Explain how a pathogen can be spread by water.
Model answer
Water becomes contaminated with the pathogen and is then drunk or comes into contact with a new host, carrying the pathogen into it.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Infection and Response revision questions
- What does Infection and Response cover in AQA GCSE Combined Science Biology?
- 8 subtopics: communicable (infectious) diseases, viral diseases, bacterial diseases, fungal and protist diseases, human defence systems, vaccination, antibiotics and painkillers and discovery and development of drugs. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Infection and Response organised?
- By the AQA 8464 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Infection and Response, on a schedule.
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