You know that (1) both

e. coli and salmonella have the gapa gene, (2) that all salmonella must have the apee and inva genes to make people sick, and (3)

e. coli do not have the apee or inva. given those facts, how would you interpret a pcr test that comes out positive for gapa, positive for apee, but negative for inva, using a bacteria that is making people sick?

Complete question

1. It can't be Salmonella, because it is negative for the invA marker but still makes people sick

2. It has to be E. coli because it is positive for gapA

Explanation:

Polymerase chain reactions, PCRs are a form of nucleic acid amplification testing NAAT that exploit the mechanism of transcription by using a thermostable DNA polymerase. These require a sample of genetic material such as RNA or DNA; specific regions of the gene sequence are targeted for replication by primers.  In the presence of these specific gene sequences, the primers make billions of copies of the sequences.

However, if these gene sequences are absent, the primers are not capable of identifying and amplifying the sequence. This reaction is highly specific. Positives obtained have a high chance of being true positives and negatives have a high chance of being true negatives .

Pathogens or infectious agents that are capable of causing disease i.e. making people sick. Both E. coli and Salmonella are genuses of enteric bacteria capable of causing disease via fecal contamination. Common symptoms include

This test would include primers for the detection of each sequence: gapa, apee, inva. Salmonella's inva was not detected, thus it is not present.

Further steps may include a 2 D gel  electrophoresis- here an electrical current is utilized to separate bands of DNA within the sample. This should correspond with an expected DNA  size in base pairs or bp  for E.coli- this should be determined by running the sample in the gel with a positive control, containing genetic material for E coli, and a negative control, of purified water to determine contamination.

more words for this could be abiotic and biotic

abiotic: living organisms within an ecosystem

biotic: non-living organisms within an ecosystem

whats the answer to your question?