theanonymous

If I have something with a loss of function in the Hec gene, then no I would not expect it to grow. If I have something with a loss of function in the Trp gene, then no I would not expect it to grow. I've already gotten that. But the question says: Indicate which colonies have a loss of function mutation And I'm asking, does this mean that it's asking - in otherwords - which colonies isn't growing when it should (but it can't because of a mutation on the Hec gene/Trp gene)?

That's exactly what I did! " If a colony has a mutation that requires it to be supplemented by a nutrient to survive, then it follows you can work backwards from what survives on what..." My reasoning was: 5 colonies grew/survived on both Hec and Trp. 4 are missing. My question was - would I just determine the colony numbers that aren't in each plate. I take it by the response I've gotten, no I wouldn't. But that brings me back to square 1. How exactly do I go about answering the problem by using the diagrams I'm given. I have somewhat of an understanding of the concept, but I'm still apprehensive about the math part. I've spent 3 hours looking up and down the slides my teacher posted online and nowhere did he put up an example problem similar to this. Neither does my Genetics book address a problem. The reason why I came here was for clarity but instead i'm getting even more ambiguity. Everytime I ask for help on a forum on 1, single problem, I'm told "why don't you do you're own homework, stop being lazy etc etc" I spend 3+ hours a day doing these long HW assignments that my teacher posts online and make an honest effort to do them efficiently on my own. My teacher refuses to give us "hints" every so often and he hasn't showed us how to go about answering certain problems. I could sit here all night defending my work ethic but I know for a fact that it's a waste of time.

So do I add numbers? This is due in 40 min and I still have no clue as to what numbers I should be putting in.

What do they mean by "loss function mutation" though? Are the numbers I have to put in representative of the number of colonies that survive? Would the answers be: Hec: 1,2,4,9 (colonies that lose function in this media) Trp: 2,4,5,8 Hec + Trp: 0 you still there?

I don't know where to start! Please help!