Immunity, forensics and infection Flashcards
what is a pathogen?
a microorganism that can cause disease
name 3 ways to determine how old a corpse is?
- rigamortis stage
- presence of species
- body temperature
what is in the core of a virus?
nucleic acid
what is a virion?
virus before it enters the host cell
what is a capsid?
protien coat of a virus
what surrounds a capsid on a large virus?
an envelope
which type of nucleic acid in a virus is more dangerous and why?
RNA, as it mutates much more
what do spike protiens do?
help the virus to attach to specific receptors on the host cell
how many ways of viral entry are there?
2
describe both methods of viral entry?
- virus injects nucleic acid into cell
- plasma membrane of host cell surrounds virus and produces a virus filled vacuole in cytoplasm, the virus bursts out, releasing nucleic acid
what are introns?
non-coding regions of DNA, used in DNA profiling
what is satellite DNA?
large arrays of repeating, non-coding DNA
what does PCR do?
amplifies DNA sample
what 5 things does PCR require?
- target DNA
- primers
- DNA polymerase
- free nucleotides
- buffer solution
what are the 3 stages of PCR?
- denaturation
- annealing
- elongation/extension
describe the PCR stage denaturation?
DNA is heated to 95C to break hydrogen bonds
describe the PCR stage annealing?
temperature decreased to 50-60C so primers can anneal to the ends of single stranded DNA
describe the PCR stage elongation/extension?
temperature increased to 72C for 1 minute, this is the optimum temperature for taq polymerase to build complementary DNA strands
name 4 features of bacteria?
- no membrane bound organelles
- no nucleus
- genetic material in cytoplasm
- cell wall + membrane
- ribosomes
what do primary defences do?
stop pathogens entering the body
are primary defences specific?
no
name 4 primary defences?
- stomach acid
- gut flora
- inflamation
- mucus