Bio173 Quiz 2

GSI: ____________________

Name: ________________________

1) What is wrong with the following statements? (one point each)

a) competition is an ecological interaction where one organism benefits and one is harmed.
Bothorganismsareharmed.
b) competition is over the resource present at lowest concentration.
Atlowestconcentrationrelativetoneed.Forexample,[selenium]mightbelowestbut
[iron]isratelimitingbecausemoreofitisneeded.
c) the 25R vs. 25R/25T comparison tells you about intraspecific competition, while
the 50R vs. 25R/25T comparison tells you about interspecific competition.
Bothofthesetellyouaboutinterspecificcompetition.25Rvs.50Rtellsyouabout
intraspecificcompetition.
d) looking at two comparisons, the one with the greatest difference in means (averages) will
be the most significant.
Notnecessarily.Samplesizeandvariancealsocomeintoplay.
e) The strongest result has a low T-score and a low p-value.
Tscorewillbehigh.
2) How would you explain the following (hypothetical) results? (two points each)
a) 25R grow significantly better in the 25R/25A pot than in the 25R pot.
Thealfalfaare(mutualistically?)providinganutrientthatenrichesthesoilandhelps
ryegrow.
b) 25T grow significantly taller but weigh significantly less in 25T/25R pot than in 25T pot.
Thetomatoplantshavegrowntallandsicklyfromcompetition.Inthiscaseheightis
aninaccurateproxyforhealthoftheplant.
c) Rye outcompetes Tomato in unfertilized soil but the reverse is true when fertilizer added.
Fertilizerhassuppliedenoughoftheoriginallimitingnutrientsothatsomethingelseis
inshortsupply.Tomatoisthesuperiorcompetitorforthesecondnutrient.

3)

What makes a good target of action for an antibiotic? Give three examples. (five points)
Thetargetofactionmustbesomethingthepathogenhasthathostcellsdonot.

Examplescellwallenzymes,DNAgyrase,ribosomalproteins,folicacidpathway,etc.

4a) When transferring bacteria from the EMB plate to the antibiotic plates, we used one
toothpick (per colony) to inoculate four plates. How do we know antibiotics werent carrying
over from one plate to the next? (two points)
Becausethelastplateintheserieswasaplainplatewithnoantibiotic.Solongas
organismsgrowonthatplate,wecanbesurenoantibioticiscarryingover.

4b) When diluting samples in the plasmid loss experiment, two groups may start with the same
sample and dilute it by different amounts. What is it about the design of the experiment that
still permits us to compare their numbers to determine the proportion of bacteria that are still
antibiotic resistant? (two points)
Becauseeachgroupisplatingequalvolumesoftheirdilutiononplatewithand
withoutantibiotic.Theproportionofresistantbacteriaiscomparableevenifthe
absolutenumbersarenot.

5) Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an increasingly common and

troublesome pathogenic bacterium. A paper by Fraise et al. examined which risk factors
correlated with testing positive for MRSA among nursing home residents. Their data are
reproduced below. For example, they found that 36% of people who harbored MRSA had
been treated in the hospital in the previous year, whereas only 18% of MRSA-negative
people had been in the hospital.
Risk factor

pvalue
0.04

significance

Hospital admission in last year

among MRSA among MRSA

positive
negative
12 of 33 (36%) 29 of 158 (18%)

Surgery in last year

6 of 33 (18%)

4 of 158 (2.5%)

0.002

significant

Recent antibiotic use

5 of 33 (15%)

9 of 158 (6%)

0.07

suggestive

Wound present

10 of 33 (30%) 36 of 158 (23%)

0.50

notsignificant

Shared room

12 of 70 (17%)

0.50

notsignificant

21 of 88 (24%)

significant

Table2from:MethicillinResistantStaphylococcusaureus(MRSA)inNursingHomesinaMajorUKCity:An
AnonymizedPointPrevalenceSurvey;A.P.Fraise,K.Mitchell,S.J.O'Brien,K.Oldfield,R.Wise;Epidemiologyand
Infection,Vol.118,No.1(Feb.,1997),pp.15

a. Fill in the last column of the table with one of these three terms- SIGNIFICANT,
SUGGESTIVE, or NOT SIGNIFICANT. (one point)
b. Which risk factor is the best differentiator between MRSA-positive and MRSA negative
nursing home residents? What are you basing this on? (two points)
Surgeryshowsthehighestratio(~7fold)betweenpositivesandnegativesandthelowest
pvalue.Surgeryistheclosesttoauniqueidentifierforpositives.
c. Two additional facts were reported in the paper:
1. Environmental sampling showed that only nursing homes with MRSA-positive residents
had MRSA contamination of communal lounges, sitting rooms and bedrooms.
2. Characterization of the MRSA strains recovered from the MRSA-positive nursing home
residents showed greater similarity to hospital strains than to strains circulating in the
general populace.
Putting everything together (table plus facts above), what do you think is the best model for
the epidemiology (initial infection and spread) of MRSA among nursing home residents?
(two points)
MRSAisnotbeingpickedupfromtheenvironmentorfromthegeneralpopulace.
Residentswhohavesurgerypickitupinthehospitalandspreaditinthehome.