Chapter 8, Problem 3CS

There is currently a H5N1 cattle outbreak in North America. According to the CDC on Feb 26*: "A multistate outbreak of HPAI A(H5N1) bird flu in dairy cows was first reported on March 25, 2024. This is the first time that these bird flu viruses had been found in cows. In the United States, since 2022, USDA has reported HPAI A(H5N1) virus detections in more than 200 mammals." List and describe two mechanisms that could lead to this H5N1 influenza strain evolving to spread in human:  Mechanisms 1: Mechanisms 2: For the mutations to results in a human epidered they would need to change how the virus interacts with the human host. In the case of mutations that may promote an epidemic, provide an example for: a protein that might incur a mutation: how the mutation would change interactions with cells in the respiratory tract (name the receptor on human cells) List two phenotypic consequence from this mutation that would increase human risk

You have a bacterial strain with the CMU operon: a) As shown in the image below, the cmu operon encodes a peptide (Pep1), as well as a kinase and regulator corresponding to a two-component system. The cmu operon is activated when Pep 1 is added to the growth media. Pep1 is a peptide that when added extracellularly leads to activation of the Cmu operon. Pep1 cmu-kinase cmu-regulator You also have these genetic components in other strains: b) An alternative sigma factor, with a promoter activated by the cmu-regulator, that control a series of multiple operons that together encode a transformasome (cellular machinery for transformation). c) the gene cl (a repressor). d) the promoter X, which includes a cl binding site (and in the absence of cl is active). e) the gene gp (encoding a green fluorescence protein). Using the cmu operon as a starting point, and assuming you can perform cloning to rearrange any of these genomic features, how would you use one or more of these to modify the…

You have identified a new species of a Gram-positive bacteria. You would like to screen their genome for all proteins that are covalently linked to the cell wall.   You have annotated the genome, so that you identified all the promoters, operons, and genes sequences within the operons.   Using these features, what would you screen for to identify a set of candidates for proteins covalently linked to the bacterial cell wall.