You are testing antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. You cause a single base pair substitution in the P. aeruginosa trpA gene, producing a nonsense mutation that elimin... You are testing antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. You cause a single base pair substitution in the P. aeruginosa trpA gene, producing a nonsense mutation that eliminates its ability to produce tryptophan. You grow the bacteria for one generation without selection and plate 1,000,000 P. aeruginosa onto media lacking tryptophan. You observe 20 colonies survived. Assuming all 1,000,000 would have survived had tryptophan been present, what is the mutation rate? a) 2x10-5/bp gamete b) 2x10-5/bp generation c) 2x10-5/gene replication d) 2x10-5/gene generation e) 2x10-5/genome replication
Understand the Problem
The question is asking to calculate the mutation rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa based on a single base pair substitution experiment. We are given the number of bacteria plated (1,000,000) and the number of colonies that survived on media lacking tryptophan (20). We need to determine the mutation rate based on the number of bacteria that reverted to the functional allele, effectively calculating the probability of a mutation per base pair.
Answer
b) 2x10-5/bp generation
The final answer is b) 2x10-5/bp generation
Answer for screen readers
The final answer is b) 2x10-5/bp generation
More Information
The mutation rate is calculated by dividing the number of observed mutations (20 colonies) by the total number of bacteria plated (1,000,000). This gives a mutation rate of 20/1,000,000 = 2x10-5 per base pair per generation.
Tips
Be careful to consider what the question is asking for, whether it is per base pair, per gene, or per genome, and whether it is per replication, per generation, or per gamete.
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