There are "promiscuous plasmids," plasmids that can be interchanged between very different bacteria.These often pick up transposons carrying antibiotic resistance.We are in a hospital that has an outbreak of a variety of bacteria carrying resistance to streptomycin,gentamicin,and penicillin.Which of these would not be helpful in determining how this was occurring?
A) Test all the resistant bacteria for a plasmid.
B) See if the same plasmid could be isolated from all resistant bacteria.
C) See if the plasmid isolated from the bacteria conferred resistance to a test bacterium.
D) With restriction mapping,see if the plasmid seemed to contain transposons known to carry resistance to these antibiotics.
E) Test whether the plasmids contained an origin of replication.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Testing for the origin of replication would not provide any information about how the antibiotic resistance is being transferred between different bacteria. The other options would all be helpful in determining the mechanism of transfer of antibiotic resistance between the bacteria in the outbreak.

There Are "Promiscuous Plasmids," Plasmids That Can Be Interchanged Between