Your roommate at college complains of a sore throat, fatigue, fever, cough, and chest pain. She thinks she has a cold, although she has not had a runny nose or any sneezing, and she has been feeling bad for more than a week. You persuade her to go to the urgent care, which she does. She comes home with a prescription for penicillin, telling you that she was told that she likely has pneumonia, caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. She takes the penicillin according to instruction but doesn't feel any better, so she goes back to the urgent care facility. This time, the physician's assistant on shift takes a sputum sample and sends it for analysis. He also prescribes tetracycline for your friend. This antibiotic targets protein synthesis. Your friend takes the medication and recovers fully.
-You explain to your roommate that penicillin is an antibiotic that interferes with the synthesis of peptidoglycan. Peptidoglycan
A) is composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides AND is unique to pathogens.
B) is composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides AND is unique to bacteria and archaea.
C) is composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides AND is unique to bacteria.
D) is composed of glycan chains and phospholipids AND is unique to bacteria.
E) contains 70S units rather than 80S units AND is unique to prokaryotes.

Question

Your roommate at college complains of a sore throat, fatigue, fever, cough, and chest pain. She thinks she has a cold, although she has not had a runny nose or any sneezing, and she has been feeling bad for more than a week. You persuade her to go to the urgent care, which she does. She comes home with a prescription for penicillin, telling you that she was told that she likely has pneumonia, caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. She takes the penicillin according to instruction but doesn't feel any better, so she goes back to the urgent care facility. This time, the physician's assistant on shift takes a sputum sample and sends it for analysis. He also prescribes tetracycline for your friend. This antibiotic targets protein synthesis. Your friend takes the medication and recovers fully.
-You explain to your roommate that penicillin is an antibiotic that interferes with the synthesis of peptidoglycan. Peptidoglycan
A) is composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides AND is unique to pathogens.
B) is composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides AND is unique to bacteria and archaea.
C) is composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides AND is unique to bacteria.
D) is composed of glycan chains and phospholipids AND is unique to bacteria.
E) contains 70S units rather than 80S units AND is unique to prokaryotes.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Peptidoglycan is a unique component of bacterial cell walls, composed of glycan chains linked by tetrapeptides. It is not found in archaea or eukaryotes. Therefore, option C is the correct choice.

Your Roommate at College Complains of a Sore Throat, Fatigue