Protease inhibitors kill virus particles and not the human cells they infect because viral genes are translated into polyproteins requiring cleavage into smaller single proteins, while each strand of human mRNA contains the information to produce only a single protein. Narrow spectrum antimicrobial drugs are good choices in an emergency when there is no time to identify the microbe that is causing the infection. Tetracycline is a 1 st line antimicrobial drug because it is has been around for a long time and is cheap, broad spectrum, and low in toxicity for most adults. The nucleoside analog, AZT, causes a retrovirus to convert its RNA genome into faulty DNA that can not be accurately transcribed or replicated. Ionizing forms of radiation such as gamma ray or X rays cause permanent, unfixable breaks in DNA, while nonionizing radiation such as UV light causes DNA mutations that can be repaired by the cell.
Cancer can result from a transposon jumping into a regulatory gene controlling apoptosis.
Griffith's experiment with pneumococcus was the first demonstration of conjugation. Write the appropriate term in the blank next to its definition. A type of point mutation in DNA that changes an RNA codon to a stop codon in the middle of a gene. This type of DNA sequence is always the origin of bacterial replication, and it also surrounds a transposon. A substance produced by a microorganism that kills or inhibits the growth of other microorganisms.