Question

a few days after returning home from a spring break trip, a group of students each becomes ill. they have fever, cough, headaches, and shortness of breath. after reporting to the doctor that they used the hot tub at their hotel, she suspects legionnaires disease. this disease is caused by breathing water droplets that contain legionella bacteria.
to confirm which antibiotic would be the best treatment, which test would you suggest the doctor perform?
disk diffusion assay
blast
elisa
dna sequencing

Explanation:

• Disk Diffusion Assay: This test is used to determine the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics. It involves placing antibiotic - impregnated disks on an agar plate inoculated with the bacteria (in this case, Legionella). The size of the zone of inhibition (where bacteria do not grow around the disk) indicates the effectiveness of the antibiotic against the bacteria.
• BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool): This is a bioinformatics tool used for comparing nucleotide or protein sequences. It is not used for determining antibiotic susceptibility.
• ELISA (Enzyme - Linked Immunosorbent Assay): This is an immunological assay used for detecting and quantifying antibodies or antigens. It is not relevant for determining antibiotic treatment.
• DNA sequencing: This is used for determining the order of nucleotides in a DNA molecule. While it can be used for identifying the bacteria (if the sequence is unique), it does not directly determine antibiotic susceptibility.

Answer:

Disk Diffusion Assay