You have discovered a new species of marine bacteria (E. favoritus) that produce

Question

You have discovered a new species of marine bacteria (E. favoritus) that produces an enzyme that you call petrolease (pronounced: peh-tro'-lee-aise). Petrolease breaks down hydrocarbons in crude oil; therefore, the bacteria may be useful in cleaning up crude oil spills in the ocean. The naturally occurring enzyme functions best at 25 degrees C. Below that temperature there is a continuous decline in activity until 0 degrees C when activity drops to zero. You have isolated and engineered the gene for petrolease to have greater activity at lower temperatures. You determined enzyme activity for both native and engineered petrolease over a range of temperatures from 0 to 35 degrees, repeating your tests several times. a) What is the independent variable for this study? b) What is the dependent variable for this study?

Explanation / Answer

Dependent variable: The variable that is being measured in the experiment.

Independent variable: The variable that is being intentionally changed so as to observe its effect on the dependent variable.

In the given case, the activity of the mutant protein is measured at different temperatures. So,

The dependent variable = Activity of the protein

The independent variable = Temperature

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