Refer to the treatments listed below to answer the following questions.
You isolate an infectious substance that is capable of causing disease in plants, but you do not know whether the infectious agent is a bacterium, virus, viroid, or prion. You have four methods at your disposal that you can use to analyze the substance in order to determine the nature of the infectious agent.
I. treating the substance with nucleases that destroy all nucleic acids
and then determining whether it is still infectious
II. filtering the substance to remove all elements smaller than what can
be easily seen under a light microscope
III. culturing the substance by itself on nutritive medium, away from
any plant cells
IV. treating the sample with proteases that digest all proteins and then
determining whether it is still infectious
-Which treatment would you use to determine if the agent is a prion?
A) I only
B) II only
C) III only
D) IV only
E) either I or IV

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Prions are infectious agents composed entirely of protein, so treating the sample with proteases (which digest proteins) and then determining whether it is still infectious would allow you to determine if the agent is a prion. If the infectiousness is lost after protease treatment, it suggests the agent was protein-based, consistent with prions.

Refer to the Treatments Listed Below to Answer the Following