Question

Why is being able to measure density precisely a useful tool in Biology?

- In your first paragraph describe how you could measure viral or bacterial density .

- In the following paragraph, describe why it is useful to measure bacterial or viral density accurately and precisely .

- Finally, how does measuring density precisely and accurately help your inference about the relation between density and diversity of the COVID-19 virus for example? . (In this case. Does it refer to virus strain diversity, or diversity of the possible hosts of the virus? I am asking you to consider how calculating density of a covid 19 strain in sample testing – by whatever means…, how it might be related to a person’s condition ( sick, asymptomatic etc. ) and to the diversity of different strains of virus sequenced in sampling - their occurrence be in a family, community, state and so on … Strain diversity through the scale of host associations - To start figuring out host genetic susceptiblility is a way more complicated question)

Answer 1

The virus or bacterial density is measured using a spectrophotometer. The light scattered by the bacteria or virus will not reach the photoelectric cell making the electric signal weaker based on which the density of these cells could be measured. The wavelength of OD 600 is preferred for this purpose so that the bacterial and viral cells are not killed or mutated.

It is crucial to know the bacterial or viral density accurately and precisely because the density helps determine the growth rate of these cells. In cases of bacterial or viral infection, the accurate growth rate of these pathogens will help determine the dosage of the antibiotics.

The measure of the density of COVID-19 in different populations helps to figure out the diversity of the host that the virus is capable of infecting. The increasing density of the COVID-19 virus is also increasing its diversity. The increasing infections refers to the diversity of the possible hosts of the virus.