6. Dr. McCoy is using a narrow spectrum antibiotic designed to kill a specific t

Question

6. Dr. McCoy is using a narrow spectrum antibiotic designed to kill a specific type of bacteria that lives in the guts of herbivorous mammals. She administers the antibiotic in feed to one group of animals for a week and administers regular feed with no antibiotic to a control group of animals for one week. At the end of the week, she takes note of any differences in general indicators of health between the two groups. What result should Dr. McCoy expect if the bacteria is: a. A mutualist of the mammal? Explain your answer.

b. A parasite of the mammal? Explain your answer.

c. A commensal of the mammal? Explain your answer.

(e.g. "a decline in health," "an improvement in health," or "no change in health")

How might you expect her results to differ if she used a broad-spectrum antibiotic on an otherwise healthy mammal (i.e. an antibiotic that targeted all of the bacteria living in the organism instead of just one type)? Explain your answer.

7. Dr. Bishop grew 10 plants, watering them with a 10% solution of a new brand of fertilizer every two days for one month. He grew another 10 plants of the same species in soil watered with only water every two days for one month. At the end of that month, he recorded the height of each plant. a. What is the independent variable in his experiment?

b. What is the dependent variable in his experiment?

c. Formulate a null hypothesis for his experiment.

d. Suppose Dr. Bishop runs a t-test comparing plant heights between the two groups of plants and obtains a p-value = 0.05. Clearly explain what this p-value means and what he can conclude.

e. Now suppose 19 other labs performed the same experiment and obtained p-values >0.05. If Dr. Bishop became aware of these experiments, how would it change the way he interprets his results?

Explanation / Answer

A. If bacteria happens to be a mutualist of mammal , it will cause decline in health of mammal because this bacteria will be useful for the mammal and killing it will be detrimental for the health of mammal.

B. If the bacteria happens to be parasite, its killing by antibiotic will improve health of mammal.

C. If bacteria came to be commensal for mammal, its killing wont bring any change in the health of mammal.

If broad spectrum antibiotuc is used, it will kill all pf the bacteria , harmful as well as useful for animal witjout any discrimination. Killing of useful.bacteria will cause serious negative effects on the health of animal.

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