Reading Review Questions – Chapter 14
The Power of Bacteria

As a tool to reinforce your reading of Chapter 14, please answer the following questions (only even numbered questions to reduce load).

2. Why would having regulated virulence genes be an advantage to a bacterium?

4. What type of mutation(s) would cause genes regulated by a two-component regulatory to be expressed constitutively?

 

6. Briefly describe the mechanisms by which Rho-dependent termination occurs.

8. Describe how the regulatory mechanism of “quorum sensing” might play a role in the pathogenesis of a Vibrio infection and how it works using the example of Lux bacterial luminescence.

10. Bacteria adapt to changes in their environment and alter regulation of gene expression accordingly. One of the mechanisms of regulation in bacteria involves transduction of an environmental signal. Explain the function of bacterial sensors and transducers for gene regulation. How do two-component regulatory systems control gene expression in response to environmental changes? Give examples.