I am taking Microbiology 220 at ASU and I have a question for anyone out
there who cares to reply. The class was asked a question for a take home
test and this is it: Supposing that you have a bacterium that is capable of
utilizing a compound, called compound X, as a carbon and energy source,
what types of evidence would show that the bacterium is actually growing on
the compound X. What types of positive and negative control experiments
would be needed?
I had a few thoughts on this, maybe you could use radiolabels on the
coumpound x and then measure the amount of compound X which is utilized by
the bacterium, but what could be used as a negative control experiment,
could you use a different compound, or would you want to use a different
bacterium that also utilizes the compound X. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks!
