Microbiology

Nghi Thach February 23, 2013

Problem 1

The prevalence of arthritis in United States is 1 in 100,000 children. However, 1 in 10 children in Lyme, Connecticut, developed arthritis between June and September in 1973. Allen Steere, a rheumatologist at Yale University, investigated the cases in Lyme and found that 25% of the patients remembered having a skin rash during their arthritic episode and that the disease was treatable with penicillin. Steere concluded that this was a new infectious disease and did not have an environmental, genetic, or immunologic cause. a. What was the factor that cause Steere to reach his conclusion? The main factor that allows Steere to reach his conclusion is called the emerging infectious disease. In fact, the prevalence of arthritic occurs one in every 100,00 children in the country. More dramatically, it happens to one in ten children in Lyme, Connecticut. It says that the disease does not disappear overtime but instead it comes back as an outbreak and becomes more seriously. b. What is the disease? The disease is called Lyme which is named after the city Lyme in Connecticut. c. Why was the disease more prevalent between June and September? The disease occurred between June and September which is the summer time of the year when children may come in contact with the bacteria that causes the disease.

Problem 2

A South San Francisco child enjoyed bath time at his home because of the colorful orange and red water. The water did not have this rusty color at its source, and the water department could not culture the Thiobacillus bacteria responsible for the rusty color from the source. How were the bacteria getting into the household water? What bacteria structures make this possible? Since Thiobacillus carries an ferrous (or iron (II))which is responsible for the reaction with oxygen and hydrogen to form ferric (iron (III)) and water. This can be seen in the reaction below Fe2+ + (1/2)O2 + 2H+ Fe3+ + H2 O

where Fe3+ posses the rust-like color that is coming with the household water through the chemical reaction above. This also makes possible since Thiobacillus is a rod-shaped bacteria

Problem 3

Live cultures of Bacillus thuringiensis (Dipel) and B.subtilis (Kodiak) are sold as pesticides. What bacterial structures make it possible to package and sell these bacteria? For what purpose is each product used? Bacillus thuringiensis (Dipel) is a diamond-shape bacteria while B.subtilis (Kodiak) posses rod-shaped structure. Both bacteria carry the ability to produce intracellular crystals when sporulating which make them easy to package and sell commercially. Bacillus thuringiensis, producing Bt-toxin, can be used actively not only to control leaf-eating insect larvae, execute certain moths, beetles, ies as well as mosquito larvae. On the other hand, B.subtilis (Kodiak) is widely used to spray on plants.