Biology: How Life Works
Biology: How Life Works
3rd Edition
ISBN: 9781319017637
Author: James Morris, Daniel Hartl, Andrew Knoll, Melissa Michael, Robert Lue, Andrew Berry, Andrew Biewener, Brian Farrell, N. Michele Holbrook
Publisher: Macmillan Higher Education
Question
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Chapter 41.5, Problem 14SAQ
Summary Introduction

To describe:

Three mechanisms that allow pathogens to evade immune system.

Introduction:

Pathogens are infectious organisms that infect any of their host organisms, and they reside, grow and multiply in the host. They use the metabolic machinery of the host organism and cause disease in its host. Pathogens can be internal or external. They can be any microorganism such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The function of immune system of humans is to detect these pathogens and eliminate them from the body.

Expert Solution & Answer
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Explanation of Solution

There are some ways in which a microorganism can evades from the attack of host’s immune system. They are as follows:

1. Some microorganisms evade the immune system of the host by antigenic drift. The process of genetic drift refers to the change that occurs in the genome of the organism due to mutation. This is more common in viruses.

2. Some microorganisms change the surface molecules by the process of antigenic variations. For example, malarial parasite. It is the process in which an antigenic variation expresses only one gene and then it changes it.

3. Some microorganisms grow slowly and thus remain unrecognized by the host immune system. Thus, they evade the attack of cells from the host immune system.

Conclusion

The three ways in which microorganisms evade the attack of immune system of host are: antigenic variation, antigenic drift and slow growth.

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