PLE Category: Microbiology

PLE-3788

If a series of drug resistance genes are transferred together routinely, what is the most likely method of transfer?

PLE-3789

If one were to create a single antigen vaccine to have prevented the outbreak and for use as a vaccine in women during their reproductive years, what viral molecule would be most likely to lead to the production of successful neutralizing antibodies?

PLE-3782

Following a 13-year-old girl’s birthday party, which took place in her backyard and involved summer sport games and swimming, several parents complained that their children developed red, watery, and slightly itchy eyes; a sore throat; and a slight fever. The children’s eyes were examined and no petechial hemorrhages were observed, but preauricular adenopathy was present. What is the most likely causative agent?

PLE-3783

How are toxins of enterotoxic Gram-negative bacteria transferred outside of the cell?

PLE-3785

How do β-lactamases provide antibiotic resistance?

PLE-3779

Both a 54-year-old farmer and his 22-year-old son present in August with fever, myalgia, and malaise, which they came down with within a few hours of each other. The son had been home in southern Minnesota for only 3 weeks to help field train two new hunting dogs. You ask about potential tick bites, and the son did have one on him, which was quite engorged. Platelets and granulocytes are low in each man’s blood. You ask one of your experienced techs to do a Giemsa stain on a thick blood smear. He calls, reporting clusters of cells resembling raspberries in granulocytes, even though nothing grows in any of the blood cultures. You realize that the blood cultures you set up will not grow and that you have two patients who have infections with a tick-borne obligate intracellular parasite of granulocytes. What genus does the organism belong to?

PLE-3780

During which phase of growth is a Gram-positive bacterium most vulnerable to the effects of penicillin?