Alexander Fleming kept finding mold contamination that was killing his bacterial cultures. This observation eventually lead to the development of the antibiotic penicillin. Why would a fungus produce a compound that is selectively toxic to bacteria?
A. Fungi eat bacteria.
B. Fungi are killed by bacterial toxins.
C. Fungi compete with bacteria for resources.
D. Killing bacteria is an accident.
Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?
Gather Content
What do you already know about fungi and bacteria? What other information is related to the question?
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
C. Fungi compete with bacteria for resources.
Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
· This question is asking about the necessity of toxin production by fungi.
What type of thinking is required?
· Evaluate level:
o This question is asking you to weigh and judge, or evaluate, the reason that fungi produce antibacterial compounds.
Gather Content
What do you already know about fungi and bacteria? What other information is related to the question?
· Fungi feed by releasing chemicals into their environment and then absorbing the available nutrients.
· Heterotrophic bacteria obtain nutrients by absorbing them from the environment.
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
· It is not logical to conclude that fungi would expend energy and resources to produce an antibiotic compound by accident.
· If fungi are killed by bacterial toxins, the production of antibiotic compounds would be a defense that would be too late to be useful.
· If fungi consume bacteria it would not be necessary to kill them first.
· Since fungi and heterotrophic bacteria may be feeding on the same resources, they are competitors for those resources. The production of antibacterial compounds by fungi would lessen that competition and would give an advantage to the fungi.
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
· Evaluate level:
o Answering this question correctly depended on your ability to weigh and judge, or evaluate, bacteria and fungi. If you got an incorrect answer, did you remember that heterotrophic bacteria and fungi feed on the same materials, or that the elimination of bacteria would make more resources available to the fungi? Did you have trouble weighing the merits of bacteria and fungi to determine the correct answer?
You might also like to view...
A nutrient is a substance that an organism uses for
A. growth. B. metabolism. C. maintenance. D. repair of tissues. E. All of the answer choices are correct.
The all-or-none reaction means that:a
if a stimulus is strong enough, all axons in a nerve bundle will fire simultaneously. b. a neuron will only produce an action potential if it has been depolarized to its threshold level. c. all neurons discharge impulses at the same frequency. d. a neuron can create an action potential of varying intensities. e. either all or none of the neurons will fire impulses when stimulat
Recessive
What will be an ideal response?
What are all the enzymes involved in the digestion of proteins?
A) pepsin B) lipase C) peptidase D) maltase E) trypsin