Texts: How would you answer this mini essay style? I really have trouble on how to answer these - like how to use the diagrams and compare, etc. And also, what is the difference between the DNA, protein, and RNA components?
7.
The bacterial signal recognition particle (SRP) is composed of the Ffh protein and the SRP non-coding RNA. Below are sequence alignments of fragments of the ffh DNA, Ffh protein, and the SRP RNA from Escherichia coli and Neisseria meningitidis. Outline how the nearly neutral theory of evolution can be directly observed by comparing protein and non-coding RNA genes. You may illustrate your points by analyzing the variation between the sequences in these alignments.
ffh DNA alignment 1
4 710 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43
E. coli GGCCGTGGACGCCTCACTGAAGACAACGTAAAAGATACGCTGCGC
N. meningitidis GGGCAGGCCAAACTGACCGAAGACAATATTAAAGAAGCCTTGCGC
** * * ** ** ******** * ***** * *****
Ffh protein alignment
E. coli G R G
N. meningitidis G Q A
R L K L
T E D N v K D T L R T E D N I K E A L R * * * * * * *
SRP RNA component
E. coli GGUCAGGUCCGGAAGGAAGCAGCC
N. meningitidis GGUCAGGGGCGGAAGCCAGCAGCC
#=GC SS_cons
(........)))....)))
5 E.coli
N.meningitidis
*******
******
8.
Whole-genome sequencing has been carried out on thousands of Staphylococcus aureus isolates that have also been tested for beta-lactam antibiotic susceptibility. What steps would you take to identify if there are genetic variants associated with beta-lactam antibiotic resistance? Include a discussion of potential confounders and if there are genes or processes you expect to be associated with antibiotic resistance. END
