Formative Microbiology A case Study

Questions: a. Name the likely microorganism that caused the infection giving reasons for your choice in this specific case?b. Describe the general characteristics of this microorganism and explain why is it different from other bacteria?c. Discuss the virulence factors produced by this organism that are responsible for the symptoms that it produces?d. Name the staining methods used for this microorganism and explain why is heat used to stain this microorganism?e. What antibiotics would be used to treat this condition? Answers: a. The potential causative agent is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The reason for identification of this bacteria is the positive result for the tuberculin test. b. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a non motile obligate aerobe that are acid fast. Their cell wall is very unique as it is made up of acidic waxes like mycolic acids. M. tuberculosis is resistant to drying and chemicals because of the ease with which it is transmitted. This organism is different from other bacteria as their genome is adapted to adopt the genetic make up of the human genome and easily infect the system of human leading to fatal outcomes. c. The virulence factors produced by M. tuberculosis are lipids and fatty acids, mycolic acid and their derivatives in the cell wall, PDIM, type II secretion systems as well as the systems of genes that encode for global regulators of transcription and post translational modifications (Prozorov et al. 2014; Forrelad et al. 2013). d. Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be stained using acid fast staining. This staining procedure is used to identify organisms that have wax like and nearly impermeable cell walls (due to large amounts of mycolic acid and fatty acid waxes). Heat is used during the staining procedure because it helps the primary stain to penetrate deeply as without it the waxy layer of the membrane would not allow any stain to enter. e. The antibiotics that can be used to function against mycobacterium tuberculosis are rifampin, ethambutol, isoniazid (The Crohnie 2014). Newer antibiotics, known as macrolide antibiotics, are more effective against intracellular mycobacteria than standard anti-tuberculosis drugs. References Forrellad, M. et al., 2013, Virulence factors of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, Virulence, vol. 4, no. 1, pp: 3-66. Prozorov, A., Fedorova, I., Bekker, O. and Danilenko, V., 2014, The virulence factors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Genetic control, new conceptions, Russian journal of Genetics, Vol. 50, no. 8, pp: 775-797. The Crohnie, 2014, Treating mycobacteria with antibiotics, viewed on 17th January 2015, https://archive.crohn.ie/primer/mycodrug.htm.