Biology Homework Help

1) According to Zheng et al., increased central motion distance in the open-field test suggests

a. decreased anxiety-like behavior.b. increased anxiety-like behavior.c. decreased depressive-like behavior.d. increased depressive-like behavior.

2) In the Zheng et al. study, fecal microbiota transplantation took place froma. patients with major depressive disorder to SPF mice.b. patients with major depressive disorder to GF mice.c. healthy human controls to SPF mice.d. healthy human controls to GF mice.e. mice with major depressive disorder to SPF mice.f. mice with major depressive disorder to GF mice.

3) What does ‘normalization of gut microbiota’ mean at top of p. 788? Why were the authors concerned about this? And what did they do to prevent it?

4) What are the three types of tests conducted on the mice summarized in Fig. 1 c-f and how did the authors interpret their findings?

5) Why do authors make a point of ‘post-hoc’ testing 16S RNA testing of the fecal transplant samples? Define ‘post-hoc’, ‘a priori’, and ‘ad-hoc’.

6) Why did the authors conclude that the highly abundant bacterial OTUs (rather than rare OTUs) were likely most responsible for the observed depression-like behaviors in FMT mice?

7) What are the three types of tests conducted on the mice summarized in Fig. 5 a-d and how did the authors interpret their findings?